MACOCO

"After the ban, I bought a house with a swimming pool in Beverly Hills, the neighborhood of Los Angeles where all the film artists lived, it was a barbaric time, all the women were alone, the men had gone to the war. "

"(...) I was in Europe and I wanted to form a team to go to Indianapolis, Fiat dominated the races in Europe, but they could not give me the cars for the race, I was going to go with Riganti.

"I got in touch with Ettore Bugatti and bought the cars for him, because at the Grand Prix in Italy one of his cars had entered the second, two meters away from Bordino, driven by Pierre de Vizcaya. cars were two-liter, eight-cylinder models. " (N. de la R .: It was the type 30 designed especially for Indianapolis on the Strasbourg chassis of 1922. The monoposto bodies had been drawn by Béchereau, the same French designer who developed the famous Spad aircraft, star of the First War Of these special cars for the North American circuit, it is known positively that two of them were for Zborowski and the other for the Prince of Cystria.The three that they sold to Macoco were no more than replicas of these and, apparently, it was modified Strasbourg models from the previous year.)

"The old Bugatti was a mystifier, we were on the circuit with Riganti waiting for our cars to arrive, while we admired the wonder of American cars, perfect in every way, impeccable, with engines that were great. Miller, for example, when the boxes arrived with our Bugatti and they opened them there on the runway, we looked at Riganti and we wanted to "crack" the shame he gave us, the cars were finished with a hammer, all badly painted, with a It was a pity that Ettore Bugatti was a bad guy, a bad person. "

"In the practice sessions for Indianapolis in 1923, we broke six Bugatti engines, we were in the middle of the straight and suddenly: BOOOOMMMMM, the engine exploded, I was lucky, because the times that broke me, the cranks, the pieces came out from the bottom, if they go up or to the side, they cut my legs (the engine was almost in the middle of the legs) Riganti was very scared and made him put a kind of extensions to the pedalboard. He drove like he was squatting, but if the engine bursts, he had more chance of saving his legs ... "(N. de la R .: In 1917 the Duesenberg house, for whom Bugatti, along with Colonel King, had designed a 16-cylinder aviation engine, modified the Bugatti plans in the lubrication part, however, for the Indianapolis engines of 1923 and the successive types of Bugatti until 1929, Le Patron continued to maintain its failure in the system of pressure lubrication: oil ll He would hit the spikes bench by splashing instead of sending it under pressure.)

"I was only able to do six laps in the race, then my engine broke, all the time I felt underneath me during training, a noise like 'blu-blu-blu-blu', and do you know what happened? I had the oil tank under the seat, it got hot and started to boil, I had him put an asbestos iron between two aluminum sheets under the seat, so if the tank exploded, at least I would go undefeated ... "

In 1922, Macoco went to Monza with Harry Miller. I was going to run the extraordinary American car in the circuit. In practice the time of the circuit record went down. Days before the Grand Prix, he suffered an accident when he took him to his friend Alberto Rodríguez Larreta (Larry's father) as a companion. However, he started the race with the car repaired to the fired ones. Before starting, the Duce personally greeted Macoco and asked him to take a ride, before starting the race, at the Argentine's Miller. "Taking care not to screw up, I took him to Mussolini for a ride around the circuit, when we got back, they started the race and Miller did not start ..." Finished the 500 Mile test in fourth place after changing the oil pump, five minutes from the winner. Had he not stopped in the pits, he would surely have been the first Argentine to win a European Grand Prix.

"With a 4.5-liter Sunbeam, Donald Campbell set a speed record in 24 hours, it was an official car of the English house, with that same car I ran in Miramas, at the Grand Prix de Marseille in 1924 as I had been told that if I won the race they gave me the option to buy the car, they told me the day before and I accepted, I won the race, I paid for the car and I took it to run in San Sebastian: The car was a graft of Chassagne's 3-liter chassis with four-wheel brakes and the 4.5-liter engine used by Campbell to make the record, the other Sunbeams (with whom Lee Guinness killed himself and who also ran Seagrave) were different chassis and two liter engines with compressor, I brought the car to Buenos Aires afterwards, it was Eric Forrest Greene. "

"The San Sebastian race was very difficult, the vaulted road allowed to get under the curves and take advantage of the camber, but on the day of the race it rained a little and a treacherous bar formed, the car reached 220 kilometers. per hour on a straight, and at the bottom of this was a very tight curve.

"I brought the car to the handle, which would be, with the slippery floor, about 180 kilometers per hour, when I reached the curve, I touched the brake and felt it strange: I looked to the side, next to me, and saw that one of those little roldanitas that have the cable brakes on the side of the chassis clicked and went out I was without brakes! I put the car as I could in the curve, but it was on my side. I went to the other side and hit as it came against a road sign We flew through the air: my companion landed entangled in a wire fence and had to operate after the stomach and belly, he lost some intestines. car on top and the tank lid of naphtha that was in the tail made me this scar that I have behind the ear ... "

"Now I am sending old cars to many of the friends I have in the US I do not charge anything to do that favor, of course they almost always send me a gift. "I'm surprised to see, now that I'm behind the old cars, the number of cars that were Gardel's, when, in fact, the only car that I know was Gardel was a little Chrysler 75 closed case. In 1928, shortly after, Gardel went to North America and sold it, I had two Chrysler agencies: one on Mayo Avenue and one on Cerrito and Arenales, I also had a representation of Pierce-Arrow on Florida Street and another of Auburn- Cord-Duesenberg on Santa Fe Street. We brought some Duesenberg, but we barely had them in the store for a day, we sold them right away. "

The myths are mixed with the stories "sometimes more fantastic" that he actually had to live. They say, for example, that when he lived in the Alvear, he had a Miller engine inside the bathtub and that from time to time he started it up. Until the pedestrians who occupied neighboring rooms put the cry in the sky and had to end their experiences in the cabinet. Or that one day, in Paris, he passed the Amilcar agency in the Champs Elysées, where two impeccable Grand Prix models, fresh from the factory, were exhibited in the lounge. He went in to ask how much they cost and they told him something like 100,000 francs, which cost a Rolls. He looked at them and said: "Very well, I'm taking both ...".

"I bought two race Amilcar, one in Paris in 1925. It was the same car that had won the Voiturettes Grand Prix a few weeks before, the other was a replica with the seven flat benches and they sent it to Biarritz, where He lived.

"With the Amilcar I ran the climbing race in Behovia, a French Basque village in the Low Pyrenees, very close to St. Jean de Luz. I did a demonstration: the race was known as 'the race of 17 curves'. It was something like the famous Pikes Peak in the United States, the stroller was a cute, very light and with many revolutions.I did a display of skill in front of René Thomas, who ran with a heavy Delage of 12 cylinders, which should have about 20 In the end, he could only deduct me by 1/5 of a second, and I had run with a 1100 cm3 stroller. "

"I also ran in that race with a Hispano-Suiza.

"Did you have any other Hispanic?

"I had 30 Hispano-Suiza, I had the first Boulogne model (built in France), I bought it from Dubonnet, I also had a Monza, which I brought to Argentina and I sold it to Pereda, who got injured. on Alvear Avenue and lost a foot, it was a short 110/140 chassis.

In 1923 I had a Rolls 60 HP carved by Barker. I bought it because I was in England, but I never liked it. It was a very "pig" car, with brakes on the rear wheels only.

"I liked the Miller's, I had been offered one for $ 10,000 to run in Indianapolis and Los Angeles, and in the 500 miles I had to run with Bugatti, but I knew that the one he sent me was the car he sold me, In the Los Angeles race I could win 3000 dollars with the guarantee given by the organizers and with that I paid for the car, but I went to see the track and said: "Here it is not going!" It was very dangerous; quarter of a mile (400 meters) there were 16 or 18 cars running at more than 120 miles per hour (almost 200 km / hour) on a closed wooden track. I tried the Miller there and I felt underneath me how the boards squeaked and you thought that Any time the parquet was going to be raised ... Those were, for me, the most dangerous careers in the world. "

"In 1923 I brought a 3-liter ballot to Buenos Aires, which the factory gave me, it was very nice and very light, with very short front elastic bands, it was impossible to ride with that car here, so I sent it back and I brought a two-liter model much more adaptable to the Argentine roads of that time, that car was also left to me by the factory and it was the same one that Jules Goux ran the Targa Florio with. He was walking about 165/170. "

"I also drove the race Fiat that Pietro Bordino brought to do demonstrations in our country, I handled it before him because the Italian did not dare to walk in Morón because the floor was undone ... "For me, the best of all was Jimmy Murphy, he was very complete, he handled very well and he was an excellent mechanic, Vizcaya was also very good, and Ascari (father), although it was not very tedious. with Rodríguez Larreta, one trip before the accident, I told him: 'He's going to stick the cake.' He did not cut in a very teasing little jump on a curve, the car ran out and he could not control it; it fell on him. "

"With Lautenslager (the winner of the Grand Prix de France with the extraordinary Mercedes of 1914) I raced in Indianapolis, I ran with Mercedes too and their team had a serious accident, because they got desperate to see how we were passing them with the Bugatti. What happened was that the Americans "who had made me a great friend" told me how to put the front suspension, I'll explain: All the race cars have the wheels tucked in at the bottom; front views, the wheels are in 'V', so they grip better, bend hard and you do not need to take them in. But when leaving the curve, the car can go anywhere: inside or outside, you can not This is why it is necessary to straighten the wheels, even close them a little bit upwards (negative stroke), so the car has to be carried around the corners with some work, but when it comes out it is totally controlled. angio and we agreed, when he was going to run in Indianapolis. And for this reason Riganti also collided with the Maserati there. "

"Another very dangerous thing about race cars is the direction, as it is very direct, suddenly the wheels get in and anything can happen, when you start to turn, you can move the steering wheel quietly because the There is still a long way to go, but as the wheels close, each time there is less steering wheel, until in the end ... That happened to poor Eduardo Luro with a Packard that I brought to run in 1924/25. his brother Jorge and then it happened to Eduardo, I told him to take the race direction to run and put anybody, Hudson or any other car, it was new, and in the middle of a straight Audax race in Córdoba his wheels got stuck and he died. "

"Here I ran with that Packard and with two Hudsons, I also had an official Stutz representative in Buenos Aires, Luis Ángel Firpo gave it to me to run it in. Actually I was listed as Stutz but it was all Duesenberg."

"Before, it was much more dangerous to run than now, the tires were much worse, the crossarms could not hold, there were no brakes ..."

"Or in the last instance, it was as dangerous as it is now, the number of deaths in races every year proves it."

"Did you drive a race Porsche of the fifties? Do you know why it was so difficult to double with one of those cars? Because the steering was not a zipper and the same thing happened to race cars That's why that kid James Dean, the actor, was killed, now it's different, they've improved the systems and they're wearing a zipper. "

"I also had an SSK and a Panhard 20 CV Sport, which when accelerating" was common to the model "was set on fire, with one then continuing to accelerate to consume the carburetor and pipes, while one hand closed the tap of naphtha passage, of every 20 accelerated, one caught fire ... "

"I also brought a Mercedes 1908, 120/140 HP, the same one that the Gordon-Bennett Cup had run in. In fact, that car was brought by Ramos Otero and I bought it in 1917 or 18 for 1500 pesos. I broke it in a pineapple that I found on Alvear and Ocampo avenue that was all muddy.

"I lost track of that car because the next day I went to Europe."

"The famous Blitzen Benz, that one of the huge escape pipes and the pointed horn was on display at a Viamonte street business, it was a few days, and then it was taken back to Germany.

"There were many cars that disappeared, where is, for example, the Renault Grand Prix brought by Fortabat, or the Dietrich by Hileret, or the Brassier by Jorge Newbery, or the Mercedes that ran Rolo Pirovano" my cousin "against a Panhard from Belgrano to Olivos in one of the first challenges that were made in Argentina?

"Where will the Chiribiri 1500 that I brought to Buenos Aires be? A very nice car made by the Maserati brothers that had a motor equal to the Alfa Romeo but very small, or the Ballot two liters? I wanted to adapt those two engines to Running in Midgets (in 1937 I brought the midgets to run in Argentina.) We had to modify the piston race to take them to 2.4 liters like the Ford 60 HP.I left the Chiribiri and the Ballot in a workshop and went to Three years later I went back to look for them and they were gone, like the engine of a Mercedes, I sold it to smugglers to put it in a boat and it disappeared, I had a Delage 11 CV in passing and a Bugatti Brescia that ran in the Targa-Florio.

"Where are so many things?"

ARTICLES OF VOLUME I