by avasports » Fri Feb 10, 2006 10:16 pm
Gentlemen of this forum,
My name is Fernando Avallone, and I am Mr. Carlos Avallone's son. I live in the USA and manage race drivers in North America, including National Champions here in the last few years, in open-wheel and tin-tops. My other two brothers live in Brazil.
We are amazed by Mr. Sacoman's audacity in regards to what he has been posting here. Let me clear some of it:
First of all, Mr. Sacoman does not own any cars or parts or other documents of my father, such as the car in the picture, nor even the copyright for the photo.
My brother, almost immediately after my dad passed on a few years ago, handed documents, welding equipment, an original early 70's SuperNova chassis and bodywork, and other material to Mr. Sacoman for restoration purposes only; about a year ago Mr. Sacoman went MIA and stopped answering his phone or returning messages to us.
We are actively trying to contact him in Brazil to arrange for the return of my father's equipment, and he is running away with it. We would like him to surface, return this material and pay for another (street) vehicle, my dad's old Mercedes SL500 he basically took to have sold and never paid us...
Furthermore, please note that one of my dad's T140's was destroyed in his 1970 fiery crash at Oulton. I have the newspaper photo of its' burned chassis. This was the reason he decided to go back to Brazil, with badly burnt legs. To my brothers recollection, he did not bring any frame from Lola UK, only the drawings for it. He did bring the T70, which ended up burnt in Brazil a few years later; and the T212 which won the Copa Brasil, but did not keep it.
WE DO NOT BELIEVE ANOTHER 140 or 142 CHASSIS WAS IMPORTED BY MY DAD, and my older brother does remember using only the drawings from Lola to build the first Avallone Chrysler, the A11 which had a body of a T163 (only longer) and the A-11 chassis made in Brazil, BASED on a T142 and elongated about 4 inches, as per Mr. Eric Broadley's plans, a custom mod designed by him at my dad's request. I also have a "test" of this vehicle by a Brazilian magazine, with pictures of the chassis, etc. This car was used in an early 70's movie called "Roberto Carlos a 300 km/h", RC being a very popular singer/figure in Brazil, starring in this race-themed movie, with scened from my dad's organized Copa Brazil, his T70 and Emerson's T212, and, of course, the A-11. This car would develop shortly into the Avallone Chrysler/Chevrolet with the body like the T222 which we see on most of the photos and was very succesfull in Prototype Racing in South America, in the B Class (over 2000cc) of a category called Divisao 4 in Brazil. The car also received a Chrysler 550hp powerplant for a FIA sanctioned event in Brazil where it raced against Ferrari and Porsche Prototipes, but this car was called Divisao 5 because of the power. I have beatiful pictures of it coming down the old straight in Interlagos...with a Ferrari on its' tail.
In regards to the multiple chassis Mr. Sacoman claims my dad imported, I am not sure of his intentions, but there is no Lola Avallone car to be sold...nor the few chassis he claimed to own, in this site a few weeks ago, have come from my dad' s importation...I am not sure they actually exist.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions in re: the issues above. I will gladly keep inquiring about the true history about these chassis with people close to us, please let me know any particular questions. I also have an extensive photo collection of my dad's days in Europe (F5000 and F-Ford), as well as his following years racing in Brazil, with the Avallone Chrysler, F-Ford and Super V, which I am open to suggestion about how to make available to other "aficcionados". There are pics of our factory at Lola's Heritage site, under Avallone, and I have some more - all showing the chassis being made/prepared. I have a lot more photos and a lot of information about it...the Avallone-Chrysler (other versions had Ford or Chevy engines) was a classic, and fortunately we still have this car (which was never a Lola, sorry) and some more equipment from my dad, who also raced open wheel and stock cars to the eighties in Brazil, while building a succesful MG TF 53 replica with GM powertrain for street use in Brazil, which sold well and won a few Veteran's Car Club awards.
Again, please feel free to contact me.
best regards,
Fernando Avallone