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A 1954 Chrysler New Yorker that has been raced in Mexico's La Carrera Panamericana is live at no reserve on Hagerty Marketplace, and its story is worth more attention than its bid. The auction ends Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 2:10 p.m. ET. When we looked on Nov. 11, one bid had been placed, at $2,222.
This is a real 1954 Chrysler that has been built, and used, as a competition car. According to the listing, it was prepared by racing driver Lem Tolliver, debuted at the 2001 La Carrera Panamericana, and reportedly won the Historic Pan-Am class that year. The seller says it later earned podium finishes in the 2011, 2012 and 2013 races and entered the 2012 Chihuahua Express. Those are seller claims, and the listing doesn't include results sheets, so anyone considering a bid should ask for documentation first.
A Road Race That Chrysler Knew Well
The original Carrera Panamericana ran for just five years, from 1950 to 1954, over roughly 2,000 miles of Mexico's Pan-American Highway. The final edition ran Nov. 19–23, 1954, from Tuxtla Gutiérrez to Ciudad Juárez. The event's death toll put Mexico in a bad light, and the race ended after 1954. It came back in 1988 as a seven-day vintage rally of more than 2,000 miles over open Mexican roads, and that's the event this Chrysler was built for.
Chrysler's V8s were part of the original race's story. In 1951, Bill Sterling finished third overall in a Chrysler Saratoga entered by outboard-motor magnate Carl Kiekhaefer. That car used the same early hemispherical-head V8 family that powers this New Yorker. If you want the engine background, we covered the first-generation FirePower Hemi earlier this year.
What's Been Done to It
Power comes from a first-generation 331-cubic-inch Hemi V8 that the listing says was rebuilt in 2013 by The Pit Stop in Brisbane, California. The parts list includes an Isky 280-degree cam, Speedway Hot Rod aluminum cylinder heads, JE pistons, an Edelbrock intake, a 750 Quick Fuel carburetor and MSD ignition. A Tremec TKO five-speed with custom gear ratios and a Hurst shifter replaces the original automatic, sending power to a Ford 9-inch rear end with floating axles.
The chassis is reinforced, with AFCO shocks, Coleman control arms, sway bars, a Panhard rod and Wilwood four-wheel disc brakes. The safety gear is what you'd expect on a car meant for Mexico: a weld-in roll cage the seller says meets FIA and La Carrera standards, Sparco Pro 2000 seats, OMP harnesses, a FireMaster fire suppression system and a 25-gallon FuelSafe fuel cell. A Terratrip rally computer sits on the dash.
The odometer reads 20,100 miles, shown as true mileage unknown. The body and paint are reported to be original apart from a replacement hood and a repainted left front fender. Reported service includes a flywheel and clutch in 2021, and a brake system overhaul with new lines and new clutch master and slave cylinders in 2023. The car is in Van Nuys, California, with a clean California title in the seller's name. A Broad Arrow Auctions specialist is handling the listing as the owner's agent.
The Provenance, and What Isn't Confirmed
In a comment on the listing, the seller's agent says the car was built and maintained with an "open checkbook" before the current owner bought it at auction during Monterey Car Week in 2024. An earlier public sale write-up for the car, published by a dealer, describes the same 2001 debut, the 2011–2013 podiums, and a 2022 appearance at the Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance. We weren't able to confirm the class win, the podium finishes or the Concours appearance in published event records, so treat them as seller claims for now.
One more loose end: a Gooding & Company Pebble Beach lot in 2008 also credited a 1954 New Yorker to Tolliver's build work. The Hagerty listing doesn't say whether that is this car, and we haven't confirmed a connection.
That's why this one is interesting. Whether or not every result holds up, a 1954 Chrysler with a Hemi, a rally cage and a documented trail through Mexico's most famous road race is a different kind of project than most no-reserve cars. It isn't the only Carrera veteran at auction, either; we recently looked at a 1963 Ford Falcon Sprint with multiple Carrera finishes.
Before bidding, ask for results records, build and service receipts, and anything that backs up the race history. The full listing, with 125 photos, is on Hagerty Marketplace.
