4/9/1932 - 8/7/2011
Record updated 23-Jan-22
Ênio Lourenço Garcia, was born in Pelotas, Brasil.
He started racing in 1957 when he was 25, in the Circuito da Pedra Redonda, in the Rio Grande do Sul finishing 4th inan Austin 1200cc A40 Sport.
He moved to Brasilia late in 1960 and swapped the Austin A40 for a Renault. Beside racing he was also an advertising executive, head of sales, PR manager and motoring journalist.
In the south he wrote race reports and in Brasilia he wrote road tests for local papers.
After winning the Prova General Sílvio Santa Rosa, he was invited to drive one of the works Renault Dauphine in the 1000 Kilometers of Brasilia on the 29th of April of 1962. It was a frustrating race as in the first stage, Jose Ramos crashed the car.
He did come second in a race at Brasilia that year, beaten only by a more powerful DKW Vemag.
He competed in the 6 Horas da Guanabara at the Barra da Tijuca no Rio de Janeiro circuit. It was in this race that he drove a Toninho with Antonio Martins.
In 1963, he started racing a Renault Gordini. In the 12 Hours of Brasilia in 1964 he won his class driving with Aladino Borges beating the works cars. The works team protested and Garcia was disqualified. This caused great resentment.
He only raced a few times in 1965, but in 1966 he and Martins ran a Simca in the 1000K of Brasilia.
The car was very good and at dawn he was third behind the Alpha of Piero Gancia/Marivaldo Fernandes and Mário Olivetti/Brave Carlos. Unfortunately the car started to faulter. They discovered a problem with the fuel supply. Once the problem was cured they made there way back through the field but didn't have enough time to do any better than 7th overall.
Ênio had made some sketches for a new car called an Elgar, (E for Ênio, L for Lourenço and GAR for Garcia), classified as the 101, the project featured Volkswagen mechanics. This was unsuccessful as was the 102 and the 103 with Simca mechanics. The project was then abandoned.
in 1967, he decided to return to the tracks with a 1500cc VW Sedan.
For 1968, the engine was increased to 1600 cc and pair of Solex carburettas were added. He had a year of great results. In the 500 Miles of Guanabara at Jacarepaguá, Garcia and Toninho Martins finished second behind the BMW 2000 of Jan Balder/Peter Victor Delamare, and in the 300 Miles of Goiânia, they won beating the BMW of team CBE. After more good results they became the 1968 Brasilian champions.
For 1969, Ênio wanted to build another Elgar (the 104). The car looked like a cross between a Ferrari Dino and a Porsche 904. Powered by an air cooled VW engine, two cars were made for the 1000K of Brasilia.
In 1970 he racedin the 1000k of Brasilia again but failed to finish. There was some confusion in therace which led to the banning of future street racing in the city. Enio deceided that it was time to hang up his helmet and he retired from racing.
He had been one of the best Brasilian drivers and in 2000 Nelson Piquet invited him to drive in the re-running of the 1000k of Brasilia. However Ênio, now 68 years old, felt that he was too old and declined