Halcón Automotive Industries pulls up to Donington Park with a full array of four of their race cars from over the years. The team is careful while unpacking them.
Competition Sports Car: 1957 Halcón Especial
The Especial was constructed over a period of two years from 1955 to the start 1957 by the two founders of Halcón Automotive Industries before the company was officially established. Their goal was to create a car that could compete in the local World Sports Car rounds in Spain, as well as the regional Mille Miglia. Focusing on the space frame construction of the vehicle, the two brothers purchased engines from various manufacturers, often engines that had already been used in a few different rallies or races that the team no longer trusted to stay in one piece. Most notably, this included using a three litre engine made by an Italian motorsports team, which the two brothers rebuilt and modified to fit their car better. This car represents the first generation of a limited number of Halcón built machinery. It's far from the most successful car in classic sports car racing, but it represented the two brothers' intent to create a recognizable sports car brand.
Group 5: 1982 Halcón Salvaje Azure
The Halcón Salvaje Azure comes from the base model Halcón Salvaje produced from 1980 to 1986. Its V6 in the front was replaced with a larger racing block V6 with twin turbos allowing the car to safely push to 640 HP. The miniature wheelbase of the Salvaje Azure made the car aerodynamically unstable at high speeds, but various iterations up to the 1982 Season helped to improve the situation for the drivers with a full floor and rear overhang to better harness the air moving around the car. The car continued to race in the IMSA GTO category for a few years after the fall of Group 5, with limited success.
Group C: 1987 Halcón HR87-GC
The Halcón Racing prototype of 1987 marked twenty years of the company having the Spanish based petroleum company, Gasól, as their main sponsor. Thanks to the racing development team of Halcón taking on various new aerodynamic designers during this period, the HR87 proved to be a formidable chassis in the right hands, powered by a bespoke small block V8 with twin turbochargers. The chassis found success at circuits such as Paul Ricard and Jerez. However, with the evolution of Group C moving quickly into the new decade, the HR87 chassis couldn’t keep up, and wound up being replaced by another prototype chassis before it ever saw its first win.
Group A: 1989 Halcón Petricor
Petrichor is usually used to describe the smell of rain on dry soil after a long drought, and for many Halcón consumers, that is what this new super saloon represented. Built at the tail end of the 80’s, the sedan was designed to be the company’s first journey into high performance saloons, a market segment they had often neglected, using smaller sensible sedans as their primary revenue stream to fund their motorsports endeavors. Putting an updated, naturally aspirated small block V8 into the car with information they learned from the HR87, they quickly found a potent and handsome package that enthusiasts ate up. The main drawback was that the complex valvetrain led to more frequent service intervals, even leading to a recall of over 20,000 Petricors for oil pump failure. Despite the drama with the road car, the Halcón Petricor found itself in the Group A touring car category against the very best, still sponsored by Gasól.
