MEXICO: Grand Opening

Mexico opened its new 2,178-mile Texas-to-Guatemala highway last week with a thrill-packed six-day auto race for passenger stock models. Mexicans by the millions took the curves and cliffs vicariously, via press and radio. In the capital, people carried portable radios in buses and streetcars to get the blowout-by-blowout reports.

Competing for the 300,000-peso ($34,000) top prizes were 132 two-man teams including such hot drivers as Indianapolis Speedway veteran Johnny Mantz, Italy's Piero Taruffi, winner of the 1948 Grand Prix de Berne auto race, and President Miguel Aleman's chauffeur, whose handsome new Cadillac, fresh from the palace garage, bore the name...

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