45 years after gathering at which Chilean couple said they were abducted by a UFO

Motorsport is an inexhaustible source of stories, anecdotes and unforgettable moments. Just like football is much more than 22 guys chasing a ball, something similar happens with cars and they are more than a means of transport that moves from one place to point B.

We find fantastic stories from the very origin of the automobile, to the meaning of manufacturers’ emblems, to the evolution of certain models or even what happens during a competition. And one of the most unusual stories linked to our country occurred 45 years ago during one of the longest races ever held, which featured not only a car and its driver, but also a UFO.

Before turning the page thinking that this is a joke, we tell you that we relaunched the story following a memory that the Argentinian site Infobae made of this situation, a site that has published a few days ago the story of one of the strangest situations we can remember in a competition.

This is not a science fiction story. It’s not a fantasy story either. This is the story of driver Carlos Acevedo and his navigator Miguel Ángel Moya, who were allegedly abducted by a UFO while participating in the Vuelta a la América del Sur rally.

The Vuelta a la América del Sur rally was born in 1978 as an idea of ​​the great champion Juan Manuel Fangio and Juan Manuel Bordeu. This was done with the idea of ​​celebrating the 30th anniversary of the South American Road Tourism Grand Prix, an event remembered as the Buenos Aires-Caracas event and which included almost 10,000 kilometers.

The 1978 race far exceeded this distance, reaching almost 30,000 kilometers. The organization was in charge of the Argentine Automobile Club (ACA). It started on August 17, crossing ten countries and with 57 cars participating, of which only 22 would finish.

The marathon competition had as great entertainers the cars of the Mercedes-Benz team, which joined thanks to the efforts of Fangio. It was the British duo Andrew Cowan and Colin Malkin who won on September 24 at the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC.

But there weren’t just official teams. Despite the harshness of the test, where pilots and navigators were guided by a handwritten roadmap and aided only by a compass, other amateur pilots also registered, including the protagonist of our story, Carlos Acevedo.

The Chilean driver experienced several problems from the first days with his Citroën GS, to the point that he was disqualified from the official competition, but was allowed to continue the course without adding up his race times. Added to the car’s problems were altercations with navigator Hugo Prambs, whom he replaced with his mechanic Miguel Ángel Moya during the passage through Osorno.

After 36 days of travel, on September 23, only the last stage remained. Long hours of suffering and problems remained behind, including the political question, because at that time Chile and Argentina were ruled by military dictatorships, faced by the Beagle Channel, which generated a strong presence in the border crossings. This had also been overcome and there were still a thousand kilometers to go for the Chilean duo with the 102 to complete this grueling test.

They started the connection at night. They had to cover a section between Viedma and Pedro Luro. According to the Infobae account, “after ten kilometers, they both claimed to have seen a strong light coming from behind. They thought they were the official Mercedes-Benzes, they ran to the right to let them pass, but they were not the German machines. The light grew stronger and stronger and dazzled them. Then his car rose about two meters and the engine stopped. They spent a moment without understanding what was happening. Then the fire disappeared, the Citroën GS got back on the road and according to their testimony, they arrived at a service station before the rest of the peloton, something striking because they started from the back. The odometer indicated that they had traveled 52 kilometers, but the distance between Viedma and Pedro Luro is 159 kilometers. They had only passed one of the four checkpoints, which is typical of rally races. Surprised by what they experienced, they recounted what had happened to them.

To find out the details of this unusual story which had as protagonists two Chileans establishing a kind of contact of the third type, the TVN program “Lost Highway” hosted by Patricio Bañados broadcast an episode in 2000 with an investigation on the subject.

Carlos Acevedo had died years ago, in 1987, in a car accident. In any case, the report included, alongside her daughter’s statements, an audiovisual testimony where she said that “we crossed this horizon, this line, and we found ourselves facing a completely different world, where everything is spiritual. We find that we see everything, as if a person has a circular eye, he sees backwards, forwards, to the sides. There are no walls or walls. You know it’s there and you own absolutely everything.

Navigator Miguel Ángel Moya was also interviewed in the report, where Patricio Bañados recounts how complex it was to convince him to speak. They spent more than a year managing the maintenance, until it was granted in Coyhaique, in the Aysén region.

Of that night, Moya said that “we had advanced about ten kilometers. It was around one thirty or two in the morning. At one point the car lit up really brightly from the inside. Then I told Carlos “get out of the way, the Germans are coming”, because there were four Mercedes-Benzes. They had very large lights and we often stood behind them to enjoy their light. Carlos runs towards the shore, but that light was still behind him. At one point he asked himself “what is happening that they don’t happen to us?” » The car shook like a plane taking off. I looked out the window, held on to the roll bar and saw that we were two meters above the ground. The engine accelerated to full throttle and everything stopped. The light was so strong that I couldn’t see the road map in my hands. I’m not going to say it scared me, it terrified me. I didn’t know what was happening. It was a strange mix of desperation and not knowing what to do. Carlos was screaming and saying, “What’s happening? “He insulted me and I insulted him.”

Regarding what he saw, Moya said: “I was on a boat. I’m sure because it was a place I didn’t know. I saw images I had never seen in my life. Then I saw lights crossing, almost all synchronized because when the one on the left crossed, the other passed. I knew it was there, but I didn’t feel cold or hot or anything. Carlos asked me “what’s wrong?” And I told him ‘looks like the Martians got us, you bastard.’ It was just to say something, and that whole scene that we saw made a special noise and disappeared and we were back in the car, on the side of the road, with the ignition on and the engine off. We didn’t say anything, it was the feeling of wanting to get out of there. So Carlos started the car, we walked ten meters and the car started to break down. I assumed from my inex that it was a lack of gasoline, so I pulled the backrest, connected the electric pump we had, opened the auxiliary tank and the ignition we had to inside the car and he recovered and we cracked.

After that, Moya commented: “I told Carlos: ‘We are about to arrive.’ He tells me “that’s not possible” and stops. I say ‘look’ (showing him the road map). We were arriving at 2:10am and should have arrived at 4-5am. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you, we’re here.”

Faced with the unusual situation experienced, Moya remembered that they had arrived at a gas station. “I tell the boy at the station to fill the pond, but Carlos says ‘but it’s full’. And the boy tells us the pond is empty.

According to Infobae, Eduardo Forchezatto was among those working at the gas station and remembers the Chilean duo. “I knew there was an international gathering and the first ones we saw passing were these people, the guys from Chile. They came away very scared. One of them told me that when they left Viedma they saw a very big light and they didn’t remember anything. When they realized they were crossing a river. The one who spoke was the driver, the passenger didn’t speak at all and was shaking. I was very scared. “I called the police,” he recalls.

José Bordenave, police officer at the Pedro Luro police station, also recalled that “according to what they said, they arrived around one in the morning. That a flying saucer picked them up and brought them here. They loaded up on gas and talked to the noncommissioned officer assigned to accompany them to Bahía Blanca because they were afraid to go there alone. What I’m left with is that the mate said to the pilot “maybe this will classify us”. “The only way was this. »

When the organizers arrived, Moya assured that “they asked us how we managed to arrive before the others since we started from the bottom. They took out a radio, called the checkpoints and told them we didn’t get through the first three checkpoints. We had 70 kilometers left. Later, other competitors started arriving and accused us of cutting the roads. “We showed them that there was no alternative. »

Despite what they experienced, Acevedo and Moya arrived in Buenos Aires and completed the journey. Of course, in the capital Buenos Aires, they encountered Argentine police officers.

“We finished the rally and arrived in Buenos Aires. That’s where the problems started because there were a lot of people who insisted that nothing be said. Let’s keep silent. They were three officials from the Argentine Air Force. Then three individuals appeared who appeared to belong to NASA. They took us to a pizzeria and we chatted with four other people. They told us they needed our clothes, our belongings and the vehicle. They kept the car for two days in an ACA parking lot. The clothes were taken. They paid us absolutely nothing. I put things off out of fear of what I was experiencing,” Moya said.

It was the end of a raucous performance by a duo at a resistance rally, part of the collection of memorabilia that brings the national motorsport to life. From now on, the decision to believe or not is up to each person.

To find out more on the subject, we are sharing two reports produced on the Chilean pair: