The Fast Chevrolet, nicknamed the Trueno Naranja, is a racing prototype, designed to run in the Turismo Carretera category, during the 60s. It is a car mounted on a handmade reticulated chassis and powered by a 250 cubic inches inline 6 Chevrolet engine. Although the reticulation that forms its chassis was designed by Pedro Campos, which was based on a Lotus Seven, it is recorded in the automotive records with the Chevrolet brand. It had been originally created by the Baufer bodybuilder as the Baufer Ford F-100 Prototype and its preparer was Horacio Steven. your pilot Carlos Pairetti was the one who obtained the 1968 Road Tourism championship with this machine. His name is a connotation of the fastback type design that the car has, while the nickname Thunder Orange, alluded to the color and the speed with which the car performed. From the 1968 championship, two Fast-Chevrolet units took part, the first being the car driven by Pairetti, while the second unit was a gold-painted Fast Chevrolet, which was driven by Oscar Espinosa Fangio. This second car was known by the pseudonym Trueno Dorado.
History
In the 1960s, the Turismo Carretera car fleet began to fill up with cars developed from compact cars, or handcrafted prototypes with standard car mechanics. Ford's idea of preparing a prototype was manifested in a vehicle manufactured entirely by Baufer, mounted on a handmade chassis with reticulated pipes and for whose attention the services of Horacio Steven were required. At first, this car was going to be the weapon of the official Ford team, to face these championships. In fact, they came equipped with V8 engines from the Ford F-100. However, this prototype had very bad results. So much so that they came to claim the lives of Oscar Cabalén and his occasional companion, Guillermo Arnaiz, at the San Nicolás circuit. After these tragic accidents, Ford decided to withdraw official support from Horacio Steven, to give it to another great trainer: José Miguel Herceg, "the Pole".
This situation, however, was taken advantage of by the driver Carlos Pairetti, who saw in the prototype an ideal car to defeat the Torinos prepared by Oreste Berta. To do this, he asked Steven about the possibility of preparing a car with Chevrolet mechanics, to achieve his mission: A Thunder.
The Orange Thunder was nothing more than the evolution of that prototype created by Baufer for the Ford Official Team and which was cared for by Steven. But due to the tragic accidents involving Oscar Cabalén and Atilio Viale del Carril (his companion died and he was seriously injured), this model was discarded and replaced by the Falcon F-100.
Regarding the " Baufer Ford ", the Orange Thunder underwent several modifications. Regarding the exterior, its trunk was completely modified. First, the housing swishes on the Weber carburettors on Ford engines were removed . Second, the side intakes for cooling the brakes were eliminated, managing to widen the body by 7 cm, preventing the wheels from protruding. In the internal part, one of the most important modifications that was carried out was the change of position of the naphtha tanks. The " Steven Ford "" It had them on both sides of the door, which made it a time bomb on wheels. These were relocated behind the seats. And returning to the outside, as a novelty, a spoiler was added to the tail of the car on "duck tail" shape. It was the first car to have it. This spoiler gave excellent downforce, generating good rear-end adhesion. Its passenger compartment was made of sheet metal and its nose and tail were made of plastic, unlike the old model, it was made of a highly flammable material.
As a curiosity, it came with the steering wheel located on the right side of the torpedo, something that had ceased to be used after the use of the right lane as a passable road was adopted in Argentina . This regulation forced automakers to manufacture cars with the steering wheel located on the left.
The origin of the legend
After Eduardo Copello won the Road Tourism championship in 1967 aboard an unbeatable Torino, prepared by Oreste Berta, in 1968 a prototype was presented, designed by Heriberto Pronello and prepared by Oreste Berta: La Liebre MkII Torino. Carlos Pairetti, who had fought for the championship aboard a Barracuda-Chevrolet prototype, considered that he was no longer up to the new car.