Wednesday 9th October 2013

Fangio's daily driver goes to auction

UPDATE! New info and pics on a very special 70s saloon

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Have you ever heard of an IKA Torino? No, neither had we until this morning, but it turns out one particular Torino is actually quite an important car.

Buy it for the significance, not the style!

The rather innocuous saloon see you here was the daily driver of Juan Manuel Fangio, and it will be auctioned next month. And why would Fangio drive around in a 1970 Torino 380S rather than the plethora of supercars that he could have also owned?

Well IKA was an Argentinean manufacturer, and Fangio lent a hand in the development of the Torino along with his old chum Battista 'Pinin' Farina. The company was formed in 1966 through an agreement with Industrias Kaiser Argentina and American Motors Corporation. Fangio was given this Torino as thanks for his contribution to the Torino project.

Just 1,558 were made between 1968 and 1970. Fangio used his Torino until 1974, when he was appointed President of Mercedes-Benz Argentina and so wasn't able to drive his IKA any longer.

Fangio's race licence is still inside

The car hasn't been touched since Fangio's death in 1995. It could therefore do with a cosmetic refresh but it's described by Silverstone Auctions as 'mechanically sound, albeit we would recommend having the car professionally inspected should you fancy your hand at emulating some of the impressive driving displayed in the career of its famous past-owner.' 

Placing a value an obscure saloon owned by such a legendary racer is near impossible, especially with the car will be offered without reserve. It will be sold at the Lancaster Insurance NEC Classic Motor Show on 15th/16th November. We'll hedge our bets and say it will probably make less than the £19.6m his Mercedes W196 made at the Festival of Speed!

[Source:Autoevolution, Silverstone Auctions]

[nagsheadwarrior]

Never heard of them,nice enough looking car but surely not worth loads even with the Fangio connection?

Anyone remember Sinatras awful 80s fake Woody station wagon that was being touted at huge money a few years back?

[yes i'm mad]

looks exactly like the Renault Torino, which is one of my favourite cars

[aarondbs]

On first view I thought Torino might have been a predecessor to the Ford Torino made famous by a certain detective duo..

[Johnners]

Good Wiki here in the IKA and Renault tie-up

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKA-Renault_Torino

[Behemoth]

nagsheadwarrior said:

Never heard of them,nice enough looking car but surely not worth loads even with the Fangio connection?

Anyone remember Sinatras awful 80s fake Woody station wagon that was being touted at huge money a few years back?

Fair point but Sinatra is not Fangio. What would Senna's DD bog standard saloon be worth (if he had one)?

[Turbobanana]

Anything's possible: Pope John Paul II's 1975 Ford Escort made £340,000 in 2005...

[muckyman]

a bit of a non story here, with virtually nothing in the way of facts on the car in question.
You could have done a bit of research on the make/model from the web and put it up, or simply shortened the story to read 'Fangios old car for sale, heres a pic. Don't think it'll make £19m'
Come on guys, a bit more effort please.
ta

[muckyman]

muckyman said:

a bit of a non story here, with virtually nothing in the way of facts on the car in question.
You could have done a bit of research on the make/model from the web and put it up, or simply shortened the story to read 'Fangios old car for sale, heres a pic. Don't think it'll make £19m'
Come on guys, a bit more effort please.
ta

fleshed it out a bit now I see.
Many thanks chaps.

[muckyman]

edited - oops double post

[sorrel]

Seems it was liked by despotic world leaders also..

Quote:
"Between 1970 and 1976, the Torino was sold as a "luxury vehicle". Famous owners included Fidel Castro, Leonid Brezhnev, and Muammar al-Gaddafi."

[jimfoz]

Re Frank Sinatra's woody wagon - someone has been trying to sell it on for some time. I think he was given loads of Chryslers by Lee Iaccoca because he he was a friend and regularly endorsed their cars

http://www.oldtimermanchester.com/details.asp?Auto...

[lifebegins@400]

Looks quite pleasant, kind of chunky mk1 cortina from the front, note wiki references a 380w model with triple carbs, under bonnet pic of this one suggests otherwise which is surprising as u'd think he'd have had the one with a bit of grunt - interesting find though, will be curious to see what it fetches at auction

[HereBeMonsters]

muckyman said:

muckyman said:

a bit of a non story here, with virtually nothing in the way of facts on the car in question.
You could have done a bit of research on the make/model from the web and put it up, or simply shortened the story to read 'Fangios old car for sale, heres a pic. Don't think it'll make £19m'
Come on guys, a bit more effort please.
ta

fleshed it out a bit now I see.
Many thanks chaps.

Still no proof reading happening though: "especially with the car will be offered without reserve."

Just sloppy. Amateur.

[405dogvan]

jimfoz said:

Re Frank Sinatra's woody wagon - someone has been trying to sell it on for some time. I think he was given loads of Chryslers by Lee Iaccoca because he he was a friend and regularly endorsed their cars

http://www.oldtimermanchester.com/details.asp?Auto...

Not hard to see why no-one would want that travesty, Sinatra-related or not, is it?

[airbrakes]

Classic and Sports Car did a feature on the Torino recently with Mick Walsh going out to South America to drive one. Looks a nice enough musclecar barge, and certainly a lot different from the usual fare thats well known over here

[bobberz]

Interesting story on these cars. Kaiser were a successful American car company through the 1940's. Their cars were different to the usual fare offered by Ford/Chevy/Chrysler. Unfortunately, they never had the cash for R&D that the Big Three benefited from. Their downfall was the introduction of the overhead valve V8s introduced by the Detroit companies (Oldsmobile and Cadillac in 1949, Buick in 1953, Ford in 1954, and Pontiac and Chevy in 1955). These cheap, high tech, high performance V8s simply blew the doors off Kaiser's old flathead straight six.

Kaiser stopped production for the American market in 1954, but continued building cars, trucks, and Jeeps via Industria Kaiser Argentina through the 1970's.

The IKA Kaisers were often a mish-mash of several different companies' cars, often with variations on the styling of the last American Kaisers.