1964 - 1970 The beginings
Back in 1965, a brazilian engineer named Affonso Calavera worked as a chassis engineer for Meliora Automotores. At that time, the company offered a small car, the '64 Perenne packed with a small engine, while offering a big muscle car with a V8, so Affonso decided it will better to put the big engine in the light car, so, in he spare time, he took one of the rejected Perennes prototypes (he got it for free since it was rejected) and put a Mastiff V8 that was lying around that wouldn’t be used, and put to work in the suspension.
Later, he got his friend, Pedro Cazares, which was a touring racing driver (it was also the driver of the Andron for the '69 lemans) to test the car, and give him feedback on how to improve it. The results were amazing, it was quicker than the big muscle car '65 Leopardo
So, Affonso and Pedro started to having dreams of building their own cars, and in 1969, after the development of the Andron was finished, Affonso resigned his work at Meliora and founded Calavera Engineering. After the '69 Le mans race, Pedro Cazares joined in the new founded company. By 1970 They managed to put together a brand new car, referred only as Calavera 1.
Tho it had the same engine as the previous prototype car, it was only a showroom car, made only to caugh the eye of future investors.
It had a spaceframe chassis, with everything hand built. The panels were made of fibeglass, made in the same small artisanal workshop as the Meliora Andron.
And when the owner of Fiberglass tooling and manufacturing in Dallas Texas (the very own company that produced the rest of the 27 fiberglass Andron bodies) found out about the project, it was very interested, and decided to invest in the new company, with the condition that it should be relocated in Dallas, in the US.