Opening a new stretch of road might be marked with a genteel ribbon-cutting ceremony in many countries. However, in 1950 the Mexican government chose a more interesting way to celebrate becoming the first in Latin America to complete its section of the 19,000-mile (30,000km) Pan-American Highway: it would organise a no-holds-barred race along the road, with the only eligible vehicles being five-seat sedans.
The inaugural grid for La Carrera Panamericana comprised a mix of professional competition drivers, wannabe racers, cabbies and countless other amateurs, with the race run in nine stages across five days, starting close to El Paso, Texas, and heading south to the finish line at what was then called El Ocotal, Chiapas (now known as Ciudad Cuauhtémoc), on the Mexico-Guatemala border.
The race attracted 132 entrants, with…
