Torino Cherokee

Torino Cherokee

Category	ACTC stock car
Constructor	Industrias Kaiser Argentina
Technical specifications
Engine	front engine, rear-wheel drive
Competition history

The Torino Cherokee is a racing car manufactured and developed in Argentina for its participation in the Turismo Carretera. It is a sports development carried out under the regulations of the Asociación Corredores de Turismo Carretera, using the IKA Torino production model, manufactured in Argentina between the 1960s and 1980s, as its basis.

This prototype was developed and presented in the mid-1990s, under production standards imposed by ACTC, in order to grant users of the IKA brand (vulgar and directly identified by the name of the Torino model), a new tool to compete under equal conditions in the category, taking into account the sporting situation they lived after, after their debut at the end of the 1960s (in which they would exercise a very notorious dominance between 1966 and 1971), various technical restrictions were imposed that would lead to a drop in performance and their almost subsequent disappearance from the considerations of the riders in the category.

The development of this prototype consisted in the replacement of the original IKA Torino powertrain, being implemented in its place an impeller developed by the American Motors Corporation and produced first by it and later by Chrysler, to equip its Jeep Cherokee product (hence, the name is borrowed to baptize the prototype), which in turn receives a modification in its original nominal measurements to comply with the regulatory fee imposed by the ACTC, all this, added to continuous aerodynamic reforms developed by the entity rector of the category, according to the technical regulations presented in the different seasons.

Thanks to this driver, the prototype would not only be able to return the IKA Torino model to the top of the category, but would also obtain approval from ACTC for participation in its lower divisions, where it would also reap great results while exhibiting great performance.

The presentation of this prototype came in conjunction with the previous development of the impeller for use in the Dodge GTX model, on which the performance of the AMC XJ impeller was tested for subsequent homologation. However, contrary to expectations, the engine was first released and homologated in the Torino model, the driver Luis Rubén Di Palma being the first to release it in 1995.

History

IKA-Renault Torino, the model used as the basis for the prototype Torino Cherokee.

Unlike the other brands that currently participate in the Argentine Turismo Carretera category, the history of Torino as a "brand" began from the moment of its presentation in the 1966 championship, when Industrias Kaiser Argentina decided to present itself to compete with an official team, taking on the challenge of putting on track a new model offered in the Argentine automotive market: The IKA Torino. It was thus that with three units of the aforementioned model, IKA made its presentation in the Road Tourism at the end of the 1960s, causing surprises and controversies among the other competitors. At that time, between the late '60s and the early' 70s, the Torino won 5 titles between 1967 and 1971, being the target of questioning due, among other things, to its revolutionary 230 cubic inch Tornado engine (3800 cc), which presented advanced technical solutions for its time, such as the location of the camshaft in the cylinder head and the development of its combustion chambers in a hemispherical shape.