Clemar Bucci

Clemar Bucci was one of the group of Argentine drivers, alongside Juan Manuel Fangio, who travelled to compete in Europe in 1948 with the support of the government of Juan Domingo Peron. He would go on to contest five World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 17 July 1954, and several non-Championship F1 races. After retiring from racing he set up Scuderia Bucci and in 1970 revealed a concept car, the Dogo, which would prove to be an inspiration for a young, future car designer, from Argentina named Horacio Pagani.

Clemar was born in Zenon Pereyra, Argentina, on the 4th September 1920 and was the son of aviator and racing driver Domingo Bucci. As a child, Domingo showed a knack for repairing and assembling and in 1907 travelled to Italy where he took a pilot’s course. Returning to Argentina in 1913, he brought back a disassembled Bleriot engine and the plans to build an airplane and with the help of a carpenter he completed it and started to fly, taking passengers across the state in adventure flights. In 1920 he began to build and race sports cars and also prepared other drivers’ cars and went on to win 58 of the 64 races in which he participated though was killed during a race in Arrecifes, Buenos Aires, in 1933. His sons Rholand and Clemar had helped him in the workshop and inherited his passion for racing.

Rholand did some racing while Clemar began competing in 1939 with a Midget he had built himself and finished second at the Huma circuit in Buenos Aires. He continued with the car for two years and took several victories then ran some races with ‘Fuerza Limitada’ (limited power) cars in Argentina, winning at Pergamino, Alto and twice in Capitan Sarmiento.

Over the next years, the Second World War meant there was a lack of spare parts and fuel and due to the shortage of supplies, automobile races were interrupted from mid-1942 in the Argentine Republic and did not resume until 1946.

In 1947 he raced in ‘Fuerza Libre’ with a 16-cylinder Cadillac and though he retired from the Argentine GP, he won five races and went on to become that year’s Argentine Champion. In February and March, ‘Free Force’ competitions were run with European and American drivers and cars in Buenos Aires and Rosario. Juan Fangio and Clemar were in Cadillacs and though drivers were beginning to wear helmets Fangio simply wore goggles and a black beret. The Grand National Harvest Prize, was a test run in a series of Free and Limited Force categories, each comprising 5 laps and a final 20 with all the participants. In the second series Clemar’s Cadillac took the lead while the rest could do nothing to catch him and he finished the series first, at an average of 113,489 km/h., and led Fangio by 21 points. Clemar won the final, at an even higher average of 113.987 km/h. with Fangio coming home third. March saw the Grand Prix of Rosario and though the main battle took place between Achille Varzi and Luigi Villoresi, the spectators began enthusiastically supporting a spirited battle at the back of the pack between Clemar and Fangio. Fangio’s Chevrolet’s set-up meant it could turn faster in the bends while the Cadillac was better on the small straights and semi-curves and though they were overtaken several times by the leaders the fans cheered them as if they were fighting for the victory. At the finish, Varzi and Villoresi were first and second but when Clemar and Fangio got out of their cars they were carried on a platform and received a big ovation.

After becoming the Argentine Free Force champion in 1947 he and Fangio were part of the group of Argentine drivers who travelled to compete in Europe with the support of the government of Juan Domingo Peron. He told how “One day I received a telegram signed by Carlos Aloe-Peron’s right hand man-telling me that my dream had come true, that I should travel to Rome to meet Oscar Galvez, Juan Manuel Fangio, Ricardo Nasi and Pascual Puopolo. We formed a nice group. After San Remo, we went to the circuit of Berne, Switzerland and from that moment, I keep a picture taken by Galvez, in which I am crowning Fangio jokingly with snow on my head.” There was a good team spirit and “after each race we would applaud each other, we would eat together and celebrate each other’s triumph.” He and Fangio had raced against each other the year before in Fuerza Libre in Necochea, and “Fangio won one heat and I won the other, but just before starting the final, Fangio broke a gear in the gearbox and I stopped the start of the race so that he could participate. There was a very special friendship between us, as well as with Oscar Galvez.” The group toured not only Europe, but also the United States, attending the Indianapolis 500 prior to sailing for France. During 1947, a V12 engined Alfa Romeo 316 was raced by Achille Varzi and was reportedly assembled specifically for the Temporada series by Alfa Romeo. It was then sent back to Europe and after Varzi was killed at the Bremgarten circuit in Switzerland in 1948, the car became the property of his father. Clemar travelled to Italy to buy the Alfa hybrid and raced it until 1956, when he turned it into a sports race car, using all of the mechanicals of the 12C/316. The car would be owned by Clemar well into the 1980s.

His first race in Europe in 1948 came at the Grand Prix des Nations in Geneva, where he finished sixth with a Scuderia Milano Maserati 4CL and following this came a privately entered 4CLT at Monaco though he did not finish. He then took an impressive third place finish in a non-Championship race at the Autodromo di Ospedaletti, in San Remo, Italy and at the end of the 85 lap race he took a podium place behind Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi’s Maserati 4CLT/48s. At the Prix de Berne in July, a voiturette race that took place on the same weekend as the Swiss GP, he drove a Milano entered Maserati but his race ended eight laps into the 20 lap event when the gearbox failed. Among the field, the race saw eleven Cisitalia D46s entered and ended with a 1-2-3 finish for cars driven by Pierro Taruffi, Hans Stuck and Felice Bonetto. Unfortunately he did not start the Swiss GP after suffering an accident during practice while in October he came home seventh at Monza. Later in October he drove a Scuderia Ambrosiana entered 4CL at Pedralbes though retired with engine problems.

The next few seasons saw him back in Argentina contesting Temporada races where he gained a strong reputation. His first outing in 1949 with the Alfa Romeo 12C-37 came in February at the Copa Action de San Lorenzo though he retired due to an accident. In the following month he took second place at the Belle Ville circuit, behind Oscar Galvez’s Alfa Romeo 308 and then came a long break before he contested October’s Gran Premio del General Juan Peron race at Parque Palermo though he did not finish.

He started the following year with an impressive third place in January’s Gran Premio de Eva Duarte Peron race at Palermo, behind Luigi Villoresi and Consalovo Sanesi’s Ferraris and ahead of fourth placed Juan Manuel Fangio and drivers including Bonetto, Farina, Rosier, Parnell, Bira and Gonzalez. He did not start in the following week’s race at El Torreon but at the end of that month was fifth in the Copa Action de San Lorenzo at Parque Indepencia. He retired in one outing in early 1951 at Costanera Norte.

The racing scene was strong at this time with Temporada races held on closed public roads though President Juan Peron agreed to building a permanent road course near Buenos Aires. The track, which had ten possible layout variations, was finished in 1952 and a large white arch was built near the entrance which was named in honour of the ‘father of the Argentine Navy’, Almirante William Brown. Peron also named the circuit Autodromo Municipal 17 de Octubre, after the day his supporters had rallied to demand his release from jail eight years earlier though it was later renamed after Argentinian drivers, Juan Galvez and Oscar Alfredo Galvez. The circuit’s inaugural race meeting took place on the 9th March 1952 and Clemar contested the Gran Premio del General Juan Peron with his 12C-37 though did not finish. In the following week he was at the Gran Premio de Eva Duarte Peron at the Costanera Circuit though retired his Alfa.

The Argentine GP in January 1953 was the opening race of that season’s World Championship and was the first official Formula One race in South America. Although there were six Argentine drivers amongst the 16 starters, Clemar was not one of them but considering the carnage that occurred during the race it was perhaps just as well. President Juan Peron had allowed free access to the circuit and by the time the start came up to 400,000 were believed to be inside the circuit and in many places the security fences were broken and spectators were sitting and standing by the dusty edge of the track. Attempts to control them proved fruitless and a decision was made to start but as the race progressed the crowd began encroaching onto the track itself. Drivers told of them standing in their path and waving their shirts like matadors in front of the oncoming cars. On lap thirty-two, a spectator wandered onto the track in front of Nino Farina’s Ferrari but in swerving to avoid them he ran onto the dusty edge of the track and skidded into the crowd. It was said ten spectators were killed, though other estimates stated it was as high as thirty, plus many more were injured. Farina escaped with leg injuries and the race continued but in the mayhem Alan Brown was unable to avoid a young spectator running into the path of his Cooper. Despite the GP’s tragic events, two weeks later a non-championship Formula Libre race, the Grand Prix of the City of Buenos Aires, took place, at Parco Almirante Brown. Clemar entered this event and was thirteenth in his Alfa 12C-37 in a race that saw a Ferrari 1-2-3 finish for Farina, Villoresi and Hawthorn. On June 18th, an event was set up where he would race a Cisitalia Type 360 ​​Porsche, the ‘Autoar Special’, on the Ricchieri Highway to attempt a new South American speed record. Autoar’s calculations indicated that their car should reach a respectable 187mph but they chose to make their attempt during the Argentinian winter. The car had also been left in the corner of the Autoar factory for three years before being brought out and the mechanics struggled to coax it back to life. After they managed to prepare it to a reasonable degree, he found the engine running cold and sooting its plugs on the bitter morning plus there was a very heavy crosswind. He managed one misfiring run at 146.6mph and then prepared for a second, more serious attempt. The engine cleared and was pulling well until the engine cut abruptly after an oil pipe ruptured, though he coasted past the timekeepers to record 142.2mph, his two-way average of these curtailed runs was still enough to take the record.

The Cisitalia was again stored away and it would be another year before it re-appeared, painted in the blue and yellow national racing colours and entered in the Formula Libre Buenos Aires GP in January 1954. The car only came out at the close of practice with Felice Bonetto at the wheel but after one lap he was at the pits with the car in a dense cloud of blue smoke after an oil pipe had parted. Once repaired, Clemar took over but found himself consistently fighting to keep the car on the track as the gearbox kept selecting neutral and as a result the car only completed a few practice laps. He eventually entered the race with the Alfa Romeo but retired from it. The Buenos Aires GP was first held at the Costanera circuit from the early 1930s until 1936 and Clemar’s father Domingo won the 1932 event with a De Soto Chrysler. Although he would contest Grands Prix and non championship events in 1954 with Gordini his year started with the Alfa Romeo 12C-37 in a non championship Gran Premio Ciudad Buenos Aires race though he did not finish. Returning to Europe, he had a sports car outing in late June in a Ferrari 625 TF alongside Roberto Bonomi in the Supercortemaggiore at Monza though they retired after ten laps with engine problems. Sponsored by the Italian petrol company Supercortemaggiore, the race was held over 160 laps of the circuit and scheduled to cover 1000 kilometres and offered big prize money. Ferraris dominated the entry list and the cars lined up for the start in rows of three, with Bonomi lining up the black and yellow painted two-seater on row three alongside L.Musso and C.Biondetti. A rolling start was organised, with a Jaguar XK120 Jaguar of 20th Century-Fox Films running alongside getting images for their upcoming movie ‘The Racers.’ After 30 minutes the conditions deteriorated with heavy rain, thunder and lightning plus hail and strong winds. The drivers of open cars were drenched in seconds, but though those in coupes were dry they struggled to see as wipers were useless against the amount of rain and the cockpit glass was steamed up. The spray greatly reduced the speeds but though the deluge was continuous for ten minutes the track soon dried once the rain stopped. Unfortunately, despite managing to drive through the conditions, after an hour of racing Bonomi retired the Ferrari with engine problems so Clemar did not get a chance to drive. The following month saw his first outing for Gordini at a non championship Grand Prix de Rouen. Gordini fielded T16s for him, Jean Behra, Andre Pilette and Georges Berger but Pilette’s car broke early on so he shared the second car with Jacques Pollet for the rest of practice. On Saturday morning, Clemar would try Pollet’s car, with the quicker of the two being given the drive for the race. The circuit suited the Gordinis and it looked as though they might provide serious opposition for the Ferrari team. Clemar proved quicker than J.Pollet and the starting grid saw Behra on the front row (alongside Trintignant and Hawthorn) heading the field of 14 starters, with Clemar on the second row with A.Pilette and F.Gonzalez. Unfortunately, when the flag dropped he stalled his engine and had to wait until everyone had gone by before he could be push-started. However, by the end of lap one he had caught Whiteaway and as the race progressed he made up for his bad start, passing Daponte, Berger and Rosier. He then became involved in a battle with Manzon for almost 15 laps, eventually getting past and hunting down Schell and after getting past him, his handling of the car was attracting praise. Eventually, he was running fourth, but then third placed Bira’s engine deposited its engine oil, with Behra spinning on it and finishing up on the grass verge with the engine stalled. On lap 85, Clemar was third but came to a halt with gearbox problems and at the end of the 95 lap race, with Behra and Hawthorn having been disqualified, there were only five finishers. His debut GP at Silverstone came a week later, alongside Jean Behra and Andre Pilette but after qualifying thirteenth he retired from the race on lap eighteen due to an accident. There were four Gordinis entered in the German GP at the Nurburgring, driven by Clemar, Jean Behra, Paul Frere and Andre Pilette. He qualified sixteenth with P.Frere the highest qualifier in sixth place though, sadly, popular and likeable fellow Argentinian Onofre Marimon was killed during practice which emotionally affected a number of the drivers. Clemar dropped out after completing eight of the twenty two laps after losing a wheel, with Frere and Pilette also retiring and Behra was the only Gordini to finish, in tenth. During this period there were two non-championship races, with the first the Grand Prix de Caen though he retired from it on lap 28. At Pescara he qualified on the front row in third (ahead of team mate Behra in fourth) and was running second, but though he unfortunately hit a wall he managed to get the car back to the pits and was eventually classified sixth. He was the highest of the Gordini qualifiers with tenth place at the Swiss GP in Bremgarten but when the flag dropped he stopped shortly after half a lap as his fuel pump failed; his team mates would also soon retire, with Behra stopping on lap eight and Fred Wacker on lap ten. September saw him at Monza for the Italian GP, in a three car team alongside Behra and Wacker, and he qualified seventeenth. During the race he lost a tyre tread and had to pit to change the wheel though eventually retired on lap thirteen when his transmission broke.

He was one of a number of Maserati 250F drivers in 1955’s Argenine GP though the extreme heat caused problems for drivers and cars. It led to a scoring nightmare of 16 driver substitutions with Juan Manuel Fangio and Roberto Mieres the only two drivers able to complete the race without handing their car to another driver. Clemar shared a drive with Harry Schell and Carlos Menditeguy but the car retired on lap 54 due to fuel pressure problems, with Clemar completing 30 laps, Harry Schell 14 and Carlos Menditeguy 10. This would prove to be his final Championship race. He then finished ninth in a Ferrari 625 sports car in the Formula Libre GP of Buenos Aires with this event attracting more interest than the Championship race and drawing a crowd estimated at 400,000. He was also invited to share a works Ferrari 750 Monza with Umberto Maglioli in the Buenos Aires 1000 Km but the pair were disqualified after receiving a push start.

In 1956 Clemar’s Alfa 12C 37 was entered for the Buenos Aires 1000km, in a shared drive with Pedro Suarez though they never competed. He was entered for the following year’s race with Oscar de Petris in an Argentina Racing Ferrari 375 MM but they did not start due to an accident.

After retiring from racing he formed Scuderia Bucci and became known as a car designer plus owned a large antique car collection, which he spent time restoring. He also worked as an automobile parts dealer plus continued being involved in racing by attending historic events. In 1970, he presented the Dogo SS 2000 sport and road concept car, which had been constructed in his workshop with assistance from his brother Rolando and a group of collaborators. The car was intended for a monthly production run of three units and they also planned to present a Sport Prototype version. The car would feature a central engine, 5 speed Porsche gearbox, disc brake on all four wheels, gull wing doors and specially designed wheels but it never went into production. Despite this, the design would be cited as an inspiration for a young man from Casilda, Santa Fe province, named Horacio Pagani, who would go on to create the Zonda supercar. A friendship would later develop, with visits between them to the factory in Italy and Clemar’s’s home in Buenos Aires.

In 2006, he and his wife were trapped for four days in an apartment in Miami due to a hurricane and he told how “the elevators broke down but we didn’t care. We had enough food and we knew we would be fine there..I spent those days drawing. I’m not very good with a pencil but an idea had been going through my head for a long time and I found the necessary time to put it on paper. Four days later, when my son came to look for us, I showed him the drawings and he said: ‘Man, you have to build this’”. They were the first sketches of the Bucci Special.” Unfortunately, in 2010 his son Clemar Bucci Jr. died suddenly and Clemar’s health deteriorated rapidly after this shock.

At the 2013 Buenos Aires Auto Show, after several years in the making, his Bucci Special concept car was showcased and it was hoped it would go into production though sadly Clemar never saw the car completed as he passed away on the 12th January, 2011 and his nephew Paul took over the project. Clemar is also known to have built a small number of high quality recreations, including a 300 SLR, built in aluminium over a tubular chassis and using all Mercedes components. The company granted him full access to copy the original in the Stuttgart museum and it is believed Mercedes acquired the first car, while the third car is in the Bucci Museum (the Bucci museum website is at http://museobucci.com)