The Original 'Rally Mexico' First Held in 1950 Anthony Peacock - MAXRALLY
go to original March 3, 2013

The original ‘Rally Mexico’ was the Carrera Panamericana, first held in 1950 to promote the fact that the Mexican section of the Panamerican Highway (a road that runs through the entirety of Central and South America) had been completed.

To bring people’s attention to that fact, Mexico’s government came up with a nine-stage, five-day rally that covered 3300 arduous kilometres.

As an advertising concept it was an interesting one: probably similar to a brewery deciding to host a week-long nationwide drinking contest to celebrate the arrival of a newly-launched beer, if you think about it.

The original entry list consisted of 132 competitors made up of amateurs as well as professionals. A handful of them were even local taxi drivers, aiming to supplement their meagre incomes with the winner’s prize of $17,000: an unthinkable amount in the 1950s.

Back then, the Carrera Panamericana was also considered to be one of the most dangerous races in the world. Seat belts and roll cages were optional while a death wish was to some extent mandatory.

Read the whole story at MAXRALLY

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