The spectacular backdrop of the Andes lost on Regazoni, Rees, Pescarolo, and Courage…San Juan Circuit Argentina (Andrew Marriott)
Argentinian Temporada F2 Series : San Juan 1968…
Sensational panorama of the San Juan circuit with the Andes as a backdrop.
This race was won by the De Adamich Ferrari Dino 166. The cars in shot, all Ford Cosworth powered are Clay Regazzoni Tecno 68, Allan Rees Brabham BT23C, Henry Pescarolo Matra MS7 and Piers Courage Brabham BT23C.
The Ferrari Dino 166 F2 struggled in Europe against the Ford FVA powered hordes but the 1.6 litre V6 engined cars driven by DeAdamich and fellow Italian Tino Brambilla were competitive in Argentina, Andrea winning in front of ‘F2 King’ Jochen Rindt’s Brabham (Andrew Marriott)
F2 was a 1.6 litre formula at the time using production blocks, the Ford FVA 4 cylinder engine, the dominant engine, producing around 225 BHP at 9000 rpm. It was based on the Ford Cortina ‘116E’ block, Cosworth’s Keith Duckworth famously applying the design concepts intended for the Ford Cosworth DFV engine, Grand Prix racing’s most succssful engine. The FVA and DFV were part of the same Ford contract the FVA being built first…
The Ferrari engine was based on a block Fiat used in its Fiat Dino Coupe, and of course later in the Ferrari Dino 246, one of my favourite road cars. The engines evolved from 3 to 4 valve heads between 1967 and ’68 finally finding form in the ’68 European season ending round at Vallelunga, Brambilla winning the day from DeAdamich. A 2.4 litre 285BHP variant of the engine was developed for the Tasman series in Australasia, that car designated the 246T. Amon won the title in 1969 and Graeme Lawrence in 1970…but that is another story to tell in detail.
The Temporada series was held late in the year attracting the best of Europes cars and talent, the Championship in ’68 won by De Adamich, victorious in 2 rounds, from Jochen Rindt and Piers Courage.
DeAdamich # 14 and Tino Brambilla on the Buenos Aires grid 1968. The Ferrari’s are powered by a 1596cc, 4 valve per cylinder, fuel injected, V6 producing 210BHP @ 10500 rpm…they clearly enjoyed the altitudes of the Andes better than the Cosworths and took their end of European Season form to South America winning 3 of the 4 rounds (Pinterest)
Ferrari Dino 166 F2 Drawing
Photo Credits…
Andrew Marriott, Pinterest unattributed
Finito…
primotipo... 
The San Juan track reminds me of Suzuka and the former Oran Park with the “crossover” bridge. The photo of de Ademich and Brambilla is interesting – note the differences in the body panels and the positioning of the rear-vision mirrors.
I’ve not seen a 246 driven in anger, but those who saw Amon or Derek Bell drive the cars in the Tasman speak of them in reverential terms! , M
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Hi Mark, are you sure the photo depicting De Adamich and Brambilla is at San Juan ? If I believe motorsportmagazine.com, De Adamich (2nd) and Brambilla (4th) were not on the same row of the grid and there is grass on the side of the track wich is not really the case at San Juan. Still according to motorsportmagazine.com, De Adamich and Brambilla were side by side on the grid of both Buenos Aires races.
Cheers Stephane,
Thanks for getting in touch – had forgotten about that article. It appears the image was from Pinterest where captions can be ropey- have changed the caption to reflect your research.
Many thanks,
Mark
[…] He returned to racing, winning the Argentine Temporada series the following winter with the powerful F2, works Ferrari Dino 166. de Adamich’ Ferrari 166 F2 Season was covered in this article on that car; https://primotipo.com/2014/07/09/temporada-f2-series-argentina-san-juan-1968/ […]