Mille Miglia – two magical words which sum up how much the Italians love motorsport. For thirty years, between 1927 and 1957, this flat-out road race from Brescia to Rome and back to Brescia was watched by millions of cheering people, who lined the thousand-mile route oblivious to the danger. The modern Mille Miglia lives on as a three-day historic rally which caters for cars that ran, or could have run, in the original long-distance event. And the crowds are as big, noisy and foolhardy as ever. This year’s Mille Miglia took place from 11 to 14 May.

Everyone should watch the Mille Miglia at least once. It’s a wonderful way to enjoy a few days in a beautiful country. The Mille Miglia reveals the real Italy, ancient villages, town centres, countryside and mountains, with an emphasis on the best parts of the Italian peninsula: focusing on man, art, religion, craftsmanship, cuisine and the quality of life at peace with nature.

The Mille Miglia really starts with Wednesday’s scrutineering ritual in the Piazza Vittoria in the heart of Brescia. This year, however, the organizers used the nearby Piazza Loggia square because of subway building work in the original location. Tens of millions of dollars worth of historic sports-racing cars queued in the Brescia streets in Via 10 Giornate and Piazza Papa Paolo VI for a day to file one by one through the scrutineering bay. There’s virtually no crowd control, so the place is mobbed, and if no priceless aluminium panels get dented it’s a miracle. No less than 375 cars were entered this year. Therefore the FIVA stewards had a lot of work and even identified a Bugatti Brescia with a brand new chassis. Since that competitor had come all the way from Japan to Brescia they finally decided - after much haggling - to let him participate in the event.

On Thursday evening at 8 p.m. the cars drove up the ramp on the Viale Rebuffone and, to the cheers of the crowd, were flagged off at 20-second intervals, just as they used to start the real race. At Ferrara the crews snatched a few hours sleep before 14 hours hard motoring through the mountains and down to Rome. Day three took them for another 15 hours from Rome through Tuscany via Siena to Florence, and then over the legendary Futa and Raticosa passes back to Bologna, through Modena and on to Brescia. Prizegiving was on Sunday morning. Sometimes small accidents do happen but this year an immaculate, American owned Jaguar XKSS was badly damaged when it barrel rolled and a Jaguar C-Type owned by Stirling Moss (but rented to an entrant) was driven into a tree.

This year 35 Ferraris were entered originally but three teams didn’t show or participated in a different car. The oldest Ferraris at Brescia were two lovely 166 MM Barchettas bodied by Touring, one an ivory white and the other one a red example from Japan. Very popular are always the 250 Mille Miglias, as are the 500 TRs and 500 TRCs and naturally the 250 GT Tour de France Berlinettas.

Six of the Ferrari teams had come from the United States and two from Japan. England, Germany, Switzerland, England and Monaco were also represented with Ferraris. Extremely spectacular was a freshly restored, green liveried 212 Export Berlinetta Touring brought by the only Dutch Ferrari team. Among the most significant Ferraris entered this year was a scarlet 340 America with Coupé body by Vignale. This is the actual car which was driven to first place by “Silver Fox” Luigi Villoresi and his co-driver Cassani in the 1951 edition. A rather special body style was seen on a 225 Export Spider with an unusually skimpy, much narrower one-off body with suggestion of external fenders, the ex-Antonio Stagnoli car, also bodied by Vignale.

A British team entered a lovely 195 Inter Coupé with Ghia body, two-tone painted black and deep red. The car had no front and rear bumpers fitted. Interesting was also a 212 Inter with Pinin Farina Coupé coachwork, two-tone painted blue-green metallic with an off-white roof.

Unfortunately every year rock apes in various inappropriate cars – expensive and powerful moderns, battered dustbins and dubious replicas – mostly from Germany and Holland, choke up the event, to the dismay of the competitors and the boredom of the spectators. Many of the wealthier entrants have service cars following them in case of a breakdown and the route is indeed very crowded. Key points to see the Mille Miglia in northern Italy are certainly the scrutineering day and the start in Brescia, the mountains and passes on Saturday afternoon, then the drive-through in Modena and the arrival in Brescia again.

This year the modern Mille Miglia was held for the 24th time already. Among the competitors were racing champions and people who just love motor racing, financiers and captains of industry, celebrities from the entertainment and television world and noblemen, authorities and politicians. Brescia has always opened up its doors to this spectacular event which is a great tourist, cultural and economic attraction, the start and finish for what Commendatore Enzo Ferrari described as the “most prestigious travelling museum in motoring history”.

Click here for a list of all the Ferraris taking part.

© Marcel Massini 15/05/06

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