In 1940, he competed with Chevrolet, winning the Grand Prix International Championship and devoted his time to the Turismo Carretera becoming its champion, a title he successfully defended a year later.

Giuseppe managed to buy his own farm near Balcarce, a small town near Mar del Plata in southern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, within three years by making charcoal from tree branches.

Giuseppe brought his family, with his 7-year son Loreto, later the racing driver's father, to Argentina from the small central Italian town of Castiglione Messer Marino in the Chieti province of the Abruzzo region.

Their teammates at Balcarce suggested the two work on Fangio's hobby of building his own car, and his parents gave him space to do so in a rudimentary shed at the family home.

These mountainous routes in Bolivia and Peru sometimes involved going up to altitudes of 14,000 feet (4,300 m) above sea level—a 40 percent reduction of air thickness, making breathing incredibly difficult and the engine being severely down on power.

At the end of a GP, drivers often suffered blistered hands caused by heavy steering and gear changing, and their faces were sometimes covered in soot from the inboard brakes.

In 1950s non-championship races Fangio took a further four wins at San Remo, Pau and the fearsome Coppa Acerbo at the 16-mile Pescara public road circuit, and two seconds from eight starts.

Fangio also finished second at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone after his horrendously fuel-inefficient Alfa had to make two lengthy pit stops to refill the car.

Having returned to Europe and back to full racing fitness in 1953, Fangio rejoined Maserati for the championship season, and against the dominant Ferraris led by Ascari he took a lucky win at Monza.

At the Mille Miglia, the Alfa team was expected to win, and after Farina, Karl Kling and Consalvo Sanesi all crashed, Fangio was leading when he reached Rome, pushing very hard from when he started in Brescia.

The race was marred by multiple spectator fatalities, and the death of 50-year-old Felice Bonetto, like Fangio driving a works Lancia, on the third day of the competition in the town of Silao.

In 1960 he carried out an exhibition at the Sarmiento Park in Córdoba city, with a Maserati 2500 of Ettore Chimeri, with which he suffered a run off the track, brushed a curb and accidentally lifted into the air without consequences.

He was appointed president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina in April 1974 and the following year, he was part of an exhibition test in Dijon on the occasion of the Swiss Grand Prix aboard a Maserati 250F.

For the event Fangio was joined by old friends and fellow racers, including Toulo de Graffenried, Luigi Villoresi and Giorgio Scarlatti as well as former Alfa Romeo managers from the 1950s Paolo Marzotto and Battista Guidotti.

Denied a renewal of his card, Fangio reportedly challenged Traffic Bureau personnel to a race between Buenos Aires and seaside Mar del Plata (a 400 km (250 mi) distance) in two hours or less, following which an exception was made for the five-time champion.

[43] In 1979, some residents of the city of Balcarce began to promote the formation of a work commission to the construction of a Museum when they learned of Fangio's intention to gather all his trophies, cars and presents accumulated throughout his life sports in one place.

Although the building had been closed for years, and was in a deplorable state of conservation, it occupied a lot of significant proportions and was located in the southern corner of the town's main square.

[44] Aware at the end of 1980 of the proposal of the Pro-museum Commission, Province of Buenos Aires De facto Governor, Ibérico Saint Jean, promoted it and provided the initial capital that made the bidding and the beginnings possible.

[44][45] The restoration of the building and its contents caused astonishment among visitors and world journalists, leading it to be described as the most important motorsports museum in South America and the best dedicated to a competitive driver.

[41] In his last years he had to undergo three weekly sessions of dialysis by Doctor Roque Sala at the same time that he began with a progressive loss of consciousness and motor problems derived from his previous pathologies.

His pallbearers were his younger brother Ruben Renato ("Toto"), fellow racing icons Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart, compatriot champions José Froilán González and Carlos Reutemann, and the president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina at the time.

[49] The president of FIFA, João Havelange, expressed his condolences and Jackie Stewart, three-time Formula 1 world champion and personal friend of Fangio, decided to travel for the funeral.

[41][50] In 2021, the remains of the racer were moved from the Balcarce Cemetery to the Museum that bears his name, in the same city where he was born and grew up more than 110 years ago, being the culmination of a ceremony that lasted two days full of tributes to Fangio, coinciding also with the 70th anniversary of his first Formula 1 victory.

The ceremony was attended by Oscar “Cacho”, Ruben and Juan Carlos, the three sons of the quintuple, together with outstanding national and world motorsport personalities such as Sir Jackie Stewart, Oreste Berta and Horacio Pagani, who were also Fangio's friends.

After the Roman Catholic religious service, officiated by the Mar del Plata's Bishop, the coffin with the remains of the former racer was placed in a special vault in the Museum, next to the trophies he won and some of the cars with which he had his successful racing career.

[52] "Cacho" even participated in the Argentine Mission, organized by his father, of the 84 Hours of Nürburgring in August 1969, where national cars IKA Torino, prepared by the renowned mechanic Oreste Berta, competed.

[52] In 2000, Espinoza publicly admitted in an interview to Olé that he was the former racer's unrecognized son and in 2008 he initiated a case in a Buenos Aires civil court to prove his filiation and to be able to use his paternal surname.

[52] After ten years and after receiving more comments that he was similar to Fangio not only physically but also in his voice, in 2005 Vázquez decided to confront his mother to find out the truth about whether or not he was the son of the former racer, although she was still weighed down by the extramarital relationship she had had with the “Chueco” decades ago.

[57] Catalina Basili died in December 2012, at 103 years old, but shortly before her death she had signed a deed before a Notary Public admitting that her son was the fruit of a relationship with Fangio.

After the exhumation and in order to extract samples from the racer's remains, experts sent by the Civil and Commercial Judge of La Plata, Daniel Dipp, who was in charge of Rubén Vázquez's filiation case, were also present.