Formula Cars Are Also Present

Surrrounded by hundreds of car racing anecdotes, Tulio Crespi opens the gates of Crespi Competición, the only factory in South America where racing cars for several categories are designed.

No sooner had we entered the venue located on Route 226, Tulio expressed his phylosophy of life with the frase “anything is possible” and made a reflection about his creative origins. He told us that invention began when he was but a child and he assembled his first bearing cart, which “everyone would copy”.

Tulio's invention applied to car racing transcended the threshold of childhood. Thus, between 1962 and 1963, Crespi built his first racing car, which he called Tulia I. It was the first monocoque chassis ever built in the world. Afterwards, the Tulietas were created in 1972, whose innovating design keeps amazing viewers even today, especially when compared with the models being produced in the rest of the world in those days. Not in vain did Tulio Crespi's cars succeed in having a section in specialized magazines, next to the Ferraris, Porsches and Maserattis. Later on, they were displayed at the Paris Auto Salon in 1975.

Crespi and Fangio, Brothers in the Same Passion

“Fangio was a fan of mine”, Crespi said humbly when we asked him about his relationship with the most famous son of Balcarce. He told us an anecdote in which Juan Manuel Fangio, while being at the Paris Auto Salon, walked towards Crespi's stand along a long red carpet surrounded by thousands of people eager to see the idol of national car racing.

However, his relationship with Fangio had began much before that event: it was in Buenos Aires when Juan Manuel visited Tulio's repair shop in the neighborhood of Palermo in order to meet him and afterwards, according to Crespi, “he even sent him customers”. By suggestion of the famous pilot, Tulio would then move his company to Balcarce in the early 1980s.

At present, Crespi Competición exports its prototypes to Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico and Chile and it has a vast local background in car racing. The monocoque chassis created by Crespi gave origin to the Formula Renault, the most important category in formula cars in Latin America.

The company is also present in the Road Racing, TC 2000 and Turismo Nacional categories. As regards the pilots, the Crespi motor-racing team created cars that were later driven by Juan Manuel Fangio II, Oscar Aventín, Guillermo Ortelli, Omar Martínez, Fabián Acuña, Juan María Traverso, Daniel Cingolani, Miguel Etchegaray, Juan Manuel Silva and Tito Bessone, to mention some outstanding racers.

Even if this is not a museum, the factory is open for all those who wish to visit the repair shop, where there are plenty of bodywork pieces that will give origin to racing cars, photos and trophies of the most famous racers that were part of the Crespi motor-racing team. The ground floor hall displays one of the Tulietas, along with other cars. Nevertheless, Tulio Crespi points out: “my biggest trophy was to attend the Paris Auto Salon and my dream is to make the modern Tulieta again”.