On my business trip to Mexico, I took the opportunity to visit my friend Matthias in his car repair shop. I was particularly looking forward to this meeting because Matthias has a very special passion: he prepares vintage cars for the La Carrera Panamericana, the toughest road race in the world. An extremely exciting job!
The La Carrera Panamericana is considered the toughest road race in the world for man and machine and takes place every October. Each participating team has to join forces to cover the distance of around 3,500 km from the southern to the northern border of Mexico in seven stages within a week.
Vintage cars become racing cars
In San Miguel de Allende, Matthias Heyer runs a car repair shop called Euro-Latino Racing-Services. This is not just any workshop. Matthias and his team of 12 build and maintain vehicles that take part in La Carrera Panamericana. True to the motto “Some people collect art, we race it,” he converts vintage cars so that they can provide the performance for this challenging road race. Matthias’ father is racing driver and touring car legend Hans Heyer, his brother Kenneth also races. The love of racing is in his blood.
Racing cars have the most modern racing technology
The racing cars that Matthias upgrades in his workshop especially for the rally have an output of up to 600 hp. Converting a vehicle to make it suitable for the La Carrera Panamericana is extremely complex. As part of the restoration, the vehicle and its engine are dismantled into its individual parts. The technology, chassis and engines have to be completely modified because the race requires a lot of performance from the vehicles: on country roads and up to 3,800 meters in altitude with top speeds of 250 km/h.
The wiring harnesses in the racing cars have to be kept simple and logical so that you can make repairs yourself during the race. With the wire strippers and micro-precision wire strippers from JOKARI the team have high quality tools which are an indispensable part of the tool equipment in Matthias’ car workshop. On Matthias’ recommendation, fellow mechanics and companies also use JOKARI wire stripping tools. “Word has gotten around that our vehicles have virtually no electrical defects. The high quality of the JOKARI tools really make our work easier,” says Matthias Heyer.
Special service: Rent racing cars to take part in the La Carrera Panamericana
Interested people can even rent Mattias Heyer’s vehicles to take part in the race. Many racing enthusiasts have the dream of taking part in La Carrera Panamericana and Matthias Heyer helps them make the dream come true.
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