Mille Miglia
The Mille Miglia (Thousand miles) was an open-road endurance race which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957, thirteen before the war and eleven from 1947.
The race was established by the young Contes Aymo Maggi and Franco Mazzotti, apparently in response to their home-town of Brescia 'losing' the Italian Grand Prix. Together with a group of wealthy associates a race from Brescia to Rome and back was chosen, a figure-of-eight of roughly 1,500 km - a thousand roman miles. Later races followed twelve other courses. The first race was on March 26-27, 1927 with around seventy-five starters - all Italian. The winner completed the course in just under 21 hours, 5 minutes.
The race was stopped by Mussolini after an accident in 1938 killed a number of spectators.
Stirling Moss set the course record in 1955 in under 10 hours, 8 minutes, driving a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR roadster. Moss and navigator Denis Jenkinson ran a reconnaissance lap beforehand, and Jenkins made course notes on a scroll of paper 15 feet long that he read from and gave directions to Moss during the race by a coded system of hand signals. (Although this assistance undoubtedly helped the win, Moss' innate ability was clearly the predominant factor. Indeed, it should be noted that Moss was competing against drivers with a large amount of local knowledge [of the route], so the reconnaissance lap was considered an equaliser, rather than an advantage.)
After a fatal crash in 1957 that took the lives of two drivers and eleven spectators, the race was banned.
The MM made Gran Turismo (Grand Touring) sports cars like Ferrari and Porsche famous.
Since 1977, the name was revived as the Mille Miglia Storica, a parade for pre-1957 cars.
Mille Miglia winners
- 1957 : Piero Taruffi - Ferrari
- Charlie Lohmander/Harald Kronegård - Saab 93 (Turismo Preparato 750cc)
- 1956 : Eugenio Castellotti - Ferrari
- 1955 : Stirling Moss / Denis Jenkinson - Mercedes-Benz
- 1954 : Alberto Ascari - Lancia
- 1953 : Giannino Marzotto / Marco Crosara - Ferrari 250
- 1952 : Giovanni Bracco / Alfonso Rolfo - Ferrari 250
- 1951 : Luigi Villoresi / Pasquale Cassani - Ferrari 212
- 1950 : Giannino Marzotto / Marco Crosara - Ferrari 166/195
- 1949 : Clemente Biondetti / Ettore Salani - Ferrari 166
- 1948 : Clemente Biondetti / Giuseppe Navone - Ferrari 166
- 1947 : Clemente Biondetti / Giuseppe Navone - Ferrari 125
- 1940 : Huschke von Hanstein / Walter Baumer - BMW
- 1939 : Ercole Boratto / Consalvo Sanesi - Alfa Romeo
- 1938 : Clemente Biondetti / Aldo Stefani - Alfa Romeo
- 1937 : Carlo Pintacuda / Paride Mambelli - Alfa Romeo
- 1936 : Antonio Brivio / Carlo Ongaro - Alfa Romeo
- 1935 : Carlo Pintacuda / Alessandro Della Stufa -Alfa Romeo
- 1934 : Achille Varzi / Amadeo Bignami - Alfa Romeo
- 1933 : Tazio Nuvolari / Achille Compagnoni - Alfa Romeo
- 1932 : Baconin Borzacchini / Amadeo Bignami - Alfa Romeo
- 1931 : Rudolf Caracciola / Wilhelm Sebastian - Mercedes-Benz
- 1930 : Tazio Nuvolari / Battista Guidotti - Alfa Romeo
- 1929 : Giuseppe Campari / Guilio Ramponi - Alfa Romeo
- 1928 : Giuseppe Campari / Guilio Ramponi - Alfa Romeo
- 1927 : Ferdinando Minoia / Giuseppe Morandi - OM
See also: List of major automobile races in Italy
External links
- Grand Prix History, Mille Miglia
- http://www.millemiglia.it/