This slimmed-down Packard coupe with straight-eight power raced twice in the Carrera Panamericana, the famed Mexican road race.
Jean Trévoux (1905-1981) was an engineer and test driver for French luxury carmaker Hotchkiss who settled in Mexico City after the Second World War. A successful race and rally driver as well, Trévoux had driven a Blower Bentley at Le Mans in 1932 and won the Monte Carlo Rally four times (’34, ’39, ’49, ’51). In the 1952 Carrera Panamericana, the famed Mexican road race run on the newly constructed Pan-American Highway, Trévoux entered a Packard 200 coupe, and impressed with its speed and ruggedness, he decided a Packard could even more competitive with a lightweight racing body.
Trévoux arranged for a Packard 200 to be shipped to Carrozzeria Rocco Motto in Turin, Italy, where a new body shell was constructed, reportedly in aluminum panels over steel tubing similar to Touring Superleggera style. Considerably lower and slimmer than the Detroit product, the Motto was easily many hundreds of pounds lighter than the production Packard Club Sedan, which tipped the scales at 3650 lbs.
The 327 cubic-inch Packard Thunderbolt straight eight (above) was upfitted with a reground camshaft and four Stromberg carburetors with a sheet-metal fresh-air box. (See our feature on the mighty Packard straight eight here.) The ignition system appears to be a twin-coil setup, but upon closer inspection the second coil is a spare. No power figures appear to be available, but we note for reference that the stock production version for 1953 was rated at 180 hp at 4000 rpm.
In the 1953 group photo above, the Motto Packard is shown with Ak Miller’s El Caballo de Hierro hot rod special and a row of now-priceless Ferraris. In its 1953 livery, the Packard was sponsored by Restaurant Bar La Cucaracha, the Mexico City bistro Trévoux operated with his Mexican wife, and for the 1954 race (lead photo at the top of this page) the car carried signage for XHTV Channel 4, the first television station in Mexico.
Completing five of the eight stages in 1953, the Motto was among more than 100 cars classified as a DNF in the 1,912-mile race. In 1954, Trévoux and co-driver Armando González did considerably better, finishing 13th overall with the more-than-respectable time of 20 hours and 48 minutes. It is said that the Packard Motto still exists today in its original race condition in a private collection in Mexico City.
