Museo del Automovilismo Juan Manuel Fangio

Fortunately, the impressive Fangio Automotive Museum (Dardo Rocha and Mitre, tel. 02266/430758, www.museofangio.com, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. daily, US$2 adults, US$1 children), named for Formula One racing legend Juan Manuel Fangio and located in his Balcarce birthplace near Mar del Plata, is not just for fossil-fuel fanatics. While it focuses on the exploits of the five-time world champion, it also gives credit to his competition and, more importantly, places racing in a broader context of the 20th century’s evolving transportation technology and related events.

Fangio (1911–1995) won a world title in 1951, and then annually from 1954 through 1957. His life has been the subject of three films: exploitation producer Armando Bó’s Fangio, the Devil of the Racetrack; the documentary Fangio (1976) by Academy Award–winning director Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire); and director Alberto Lecchi’s Operación: Fangio (1999), about the racer’s kidnapping by Cuban guerrillas in Havana in 1958. Fangio played himself in John Frankenheimer’s classic racing film Grand Prix (1966), and is also the topic of the biographical tribute Fangio: A Pirelli Album (Motorbooks International, 1991), by Fangio’s rival Sterling Moss and Doug Nye.

The building that houses the museum is a handsome century-old structure whose recycled interior features a spiral ramp through eight levels of exhibits in 5,000 square meters, dealing with everything from Fangio’s childhood through his championships and retirement (though it ignores incidents like his kidnapping). At the same time, it integrates his biography with world events through photographs and a time line. There’s an extraordinarily valuable collection of classic automobiles—not just Fangio’s racing cars—along with a souvenir shop and a café.

One conspicuously absent topic is highway safety, a critical matter in Argentina, a culture that seemingly idolizes high-speed driving. Fangio himself, for instance, killed his navigator Daniel Urrutia when he rolled his Chevrolet during a road race in Peru in 1948, yet national authorities have named the Buenos Aires–Mar del Plata freeway in his honor. The YPF oil company’s highest-octane fuel also bears his name.

On retirement in 1958, Fangio himself spoke of being a role model: “If my efforts have had any value, if racing automobiles has been useful to my homeland, time will tell. I have only one wish, which is that if my conduct in the world can be useful to youth; for that, I will also await the answer of time.” Argentina’s elevated highway death tolls may be part of that answer.

Balcarce is 60 kilometers northwest of Mar del Plata via RN 226. From the Mar del Plata terminal, frequent El Rápido buses to Balcarce charge about US$1.70.