It may be a rather long story but I find it very interesting.
Italian born Antonio Caliri built this car in Chile it had a Hudson chassis and a Curtiss D12 engine. A Chilean driver was needed to qualify for the record, Oscar Andrade was chosen, and in 1935 he set a new South American Flying Kilometer Record and also became the first in the region to exceed 200 kph.
In the late 20’s Chile reached an agreement with Curtiss and began building Curtiss Falcon airplanes that were known as Chilean Falcon, fitted with the 435 hp (324 kW) Curtiss V-1150 (D-12) engine.
In 1931 during the economic crisis the Chilean Government reduced armed forces salaries 30%, which led to an uprising of the naval non-commissioned officers. All the Navy ships were taken and concentrated at the Bay of Coquimbo; officers were locked in their cabins. The Government then sent all available planes of the Army Air Force, 14 Curtiss Falcon light bombers, 2 Junkers heavy bombers, 2 Vickers Wibault and a few other transport plane improvised as bombers, to the city of Ovale, close to Coquimbo.
After some days of futile negotiation and an ultimatum, on September 6th 1931 the planes attacked the fleet, the orders were to concentrate the attack on the Navy flag ship “Almirante Latorre”. The attack ended with a few dead and many wounded amongst the mutineers, submarine “Quidora” and two battleship seriously damaged but only one plane was hit by machinegun fire and was destroyed when landing. The rebels surrendered, were tried and condemned.
Later Caliri was able to buy the engine of the downed Curtiss and place in the Hudson chassis, the back axle was from a larger Hudson and the body was made by Caliri. The fate of the car is unknown.
