‘La Carrera Panamericana’: A classic car-race film with a Pink Floyd soundtrack

Photo: Creative Commons

It’s October 1991 and a white, restored 1952 C-Type Jaguar barrels down Mexico’s Highway 85 outside San Luis Potosi. At the wheel, driving nearly 100 miles per hour, is Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. In the passenger seat is the band’s manager, Steve O'Rourke, studying the race map and calling out instructions based on detailed pace notes. Somewhere ahead in a matching Jaguar is drummer Nick Mason and English auto racer Valentine Lindsay.

Approaching a corner going way too fast, Gilmour brakes too hard and too late, the car skidding over a small cliff and then flipping, only to land upside down on a dirt road below. By sheer luck, Gilmour walks away with a few scrapes, and O’Rourke a broken leg. The car’s roll bar saved their lives. The Carrera Panamericana — or the Pan-American Road Race — is no joke.

Like Italy’s Mille Miglia or Targa Florio, Mexico’s Carrera Panamericana was too good to last. The race ran its course and left behind a shining, if deadly, legacy.

Mexican President Miguel Aleman Valdes created the race in 1950 to celebrate and promote the opening of the Pan-American Highway. It was now possible, for the first time (with a few exceptions), to travel from Alaska to Argentina by road.

In Mexico, the Pan-American Highway begins in Nuevo Laredo, in the state of Tamaulipas, just across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas. From there, it runs south to Mexico City along Highway 85. From Mexico City, it follows Highway 190 to Ciudad Cuauhtemoc at the Guatemalan border.

The original Carrera Panamericana

The original Carrera Panamericana drew thousands of international racers and fans to Mexico. From 1950 to 1954, hundreds of the world’s top auto racers gathered at the starting line on the border at Nuevo Laredo to try their luck in a five-day, nine-stage road race, traveling 2,178 miles (3,507 kilometers) through the heart of Mexico. 

From the start, the Carrera Panamericana attracted world-class drivers — Juan Manuel Fangio, Dan Gurney, Bill France and Carroll Shelby — as well as cars from top manufacturers, like Lancia, Jaguar, Mercedes, Ferrari and Porsche, alongside North American brands Chevy, Ford and Studebaker.

Driving a car at high speeds across a country, through villages and towns lined with curious onlookers was a dangerous endeavor, not least because technical advances in the years following World War II led to the manufacture of cars that were fast but not especially safe. This meant that the race got progressively dangerous each year. Drivers went all out to win, and crashes and accidents were common.

Two out of three drivers in the race crashed or broke down. A lack of communication technology combined with isolated stretches of highway meant that crashes and breakdowns could go undiscovered for hours.

A series of tragic accidents killed nearly 30 people throughout the Carrera Panamericana. Then, in 1955, following a disastrous crash in Le Mans, France, that killed 83 spectators and injured nearly 200, the Mexican government canceled the event entirely.

The race was relaunched in 1988 as a tribute road rally race. It ran until 2016, though it was a shadow of the original in terms of racing. But the new Carrera Panamericana had plenty to offer, and captured a glimpse of its past glory, along with plenty of impressive cars.

Pink Floyd’s ‘La Carrera Panamericana’

By the time Gilmour and Mason hit the road, the revived Carrera Panamericana featured 120 rare, pre-1954 cars and 240 international drivers. Along with their Jaguars, the pair also brought a film crew to document the race. Mason and Gilmour were avid amateur racers and classic car buffs, and at least one of them didn’t fare too horribly in the race. Mason finished eighth overall that year.

“La Carrera Panamericana” is more than a video chronicle of the time Pink Floyd, or what was left of it, showed up at what was left of the Carrera Panamericana with a bunch of vintage cars. It’s also a compelling look at the racers and the race itself, and of the country and people, as the action takes us from the countryside to Mexico City and back. Not to mention the killer soundtrack, with six tracks composed by Pink Floyd just for the film, featuring their first studio recordings with Richard Wright since he rejoined the band in 1990.

Originally broadcast on the BBC, the film is a historical journey into a classic road race. For anyone who loves Pink Floyd, classic cars or Mexico, “La Carrera Panamericana” is a trip worth taking.