Join us Andrés Vilariño
1985 - 1996
Andrés Vilariño
A mountain racing legend
In the 80s and 90s, the Basque rider became one of the best in hill climb races.
With his recognizable single-seater racing car and “R” for Repsol, he triumphed numerous times and delighted thousands of fans of this type of motor racing.
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4 European Championship
FIA European Mountain Champion in 1989-1992
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+ 40 Wins
with Repsol
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+ 90 Podiums
with Repsol
The mountain roads
On winding roads (...), you need great reflexes and to drive with plenty of self-respect, aggressiveness, but at the same time with great control as racing cars are vehicles with huge acceleration and a very high passing speed on bends
Andrés Vilariño
He first took part in a Europa championship in 1986
It was extremely cold in Austria and it even snowed overnight. In those days we didn't use electric blankets to heat the wheels before the start, and my mechanic Antxon Muñoz connected some sacking we had to the exhaust pipe of the truck, and he placed it up against the tyres of the race car to warm them up. The invention worked really well, and in the first leg of the race we managed to get an advantage that would turn out to be decisive
Andrés Vilariño
At the gates of the 1988 Europa Championships
I have always believed that I perform better on the fast stretches; I do not know exactly why. Even my son, Ander, seems to have inherited this characteristic and he performs best on the faster circuits
Andrés Vilariño
The King of the mountain
His career began to take off in 1979 when he won the Spanish Hill Climb Championship in the car category.
In 1980, he won the National title for the second time, and in the following years he would continue combining the mountain with some regional level rallies, becoming Basque-Navarre rally champion in 1983. In 1984, he became the Spanish Mountain Champion with his single-seater racing car, the vehicle that would mark his sporting career.
In 1985, Repsol began sponsoring Vilariño, premiering the white colours of the Lola T298 racing car with a BMW engine, in which he came national runner-up. In 1986, Repsol decided to take the next step to the European championship, coming in third place in 1986 and 1987, second in 1988, and finally winning in 1989. In the following four years he was unbeatable, picking up titles with the Repsol team, until 1992. Vilariño also participated twice in the Le Mans 24 hour.
Throughout his career with Repsol, Vilariño drove the Lola racing car with three different colours, firstly in white from 1985, in 1988 he wore red, and from 1989 he became known for wearing blue when he swept through Europe over the next four years. That year he also had the BMW 2.5-litre engine propelling his fast single-seater through the winding mountain roads.
In the Box with the team in 1992
Spanish Mountain Championship in 1985
A taste for speed, a family thing
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Pedro Martínez de la Rosa