Welcome to the Amigos de Fangio website

Many will wonder why found a club called Amigos de Fangio in Cuba, country with no motor racing history and quiet far from Argentina.

The reason for it is that Juan Manuel Fangio made his debut on the tracks of Malecon Havana in 1957. However, in February 1958 he finally marked its entry into our history when a group of youths belonging to the 26th July Movement kidnapped him to divert the world’s attention to the Cuba’s revolutionary movement. Ever since Fangio called these men as "friendly kidnappers" our sympathy towards him had grown.

49 years later, a group of enthusiastic auto racing and classic motorcycle, inspired by the human values of one of the biggest racing stars of all time and led by the Cuban Lorenzo Verdecia, started this association on 1st of July 2007.

From now on, you are welcome to join this group of enthusiasts

Sports Cars Club of Cuba

On Saturday, the 21st of November there was founded in our Peña the Sports Cars Club of Cuba . The Board of directors will be presided by Mr Otto Alvarez and Rogelio Pascual, Vice-president. This club, which for the present time brings together 14 cars of the marks MG, Austin, Jaguar, Ford, Chevrolet, Zimka, etc, will have his sedate in the Lounge of Parties of the Marina Hemingway that will be re-inaugurated at the end of next January.

Who was Fangio?

Juan Manuel Fangio is generally considered as one of the best drivers in Formula 1 history, and by many international experts like the best sport pilot for all time.

He was world champion on five occasions, including winning four consecutive championships from 1954-1957. Fangio is the only driver in the history of F1 champion who won with 4 different teams: Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz. He won 24 Formula 1 races of the 51 which were disputed today as Official Racing, taking even today’s highest average of wins in the history of F1. In 1957 he won the race in Nürburgring, after being 48 seconds behind the race leader.

His record of 5 world remained unscathed until 2003 when he was overtaken by the German driver Michael Schumacher. However, his percentage of wins (47%) has remained unmatched so far...

Perhaps Juan Manuel Fangio is more appreciated by his adversaries that by his followers, as many of them, like Stirling Moss, have referred to him as the best driver of all time, not only for his sportmanship, but for his chivalry on the track and the pits. Fangio always gave great importance to team work, he praised his mechanics, worked on an equal footing with his team, and always said that without the mechanics he would have achieved little . His straighforwardness, coupled with cold determination on the tracks, made him a gentleman while carrying the aura of invincibility. Moss used to refer to him as "... a cold fury, glacial ..."

His remains rest in the cemetery of his hometown, Balcarce, in the province of Buenos Aires.