Thousand miles

Unlike the modern rally, in which cars start at minute intervals and professional crews are the first to leave on the track using more advanced equipment, Mille Miglia opened with the start of the slowest cars. This simplified the organization of the race, since the start time was reduced, and it was no longer necessary to block roads for a long time. Also, reducing the start time made life easier for the marshals who watched the huge crowd of fans. Cars received numbers in accordance with their starting time. For example, in 1955, the prototype of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Stirling Moss and his navigator Denis Jenkinson received the number 722 because he started from Brescia at 7:22 in the morning. The first car hit the road at 21:00 the previous day. In the early years of the Mille Miglia, the winners needed more than 16 hours to cover the distance, they started late in the evening and finished the race at sunset the next day.

Alfa Romeo 6C 2300B Mille Miglia Spider, 1938

Mille Miglia was organized by two young people: Aymo Maggi and Franco Mazzotti, after their hometown of Brescia lost the Italian Grand Prix , losing the right to host the Monza race. Together with a company of wealthy supporters, they chose the route from Brescia to Rome and vice versa. The distance was 1600 km (1000 miles), which gave the name to the race. In different years, the route varied a little, and, accordingly, its length changed.

The first Mille Miglia launched on March 26, 1927 . 77 crews took part in it, and all of them were Italian. The winner crossed the finish line 21 hours 4 minutes and 48 seconds after the start. All the riders who were on the podium spoke in the same cars of the local brand of O.M. for Brescia.

The races of 1929 were special because foreign teams did not participate in them (due to the economic crisis ) and because for the first time two women took part in them. Actress Mimi Aimler (even though she was alone in the car) took an impressive twentieth spot with her Lancia Lambda . Her rival, Baroness D'Avanzo, left the race due to a car breakdown ^[1] .

Tazio Nuvolari won the Mille Miglia in 1930 , speaking at Alfa Romeo. Starting after his team mate Achille Varzi , who quickly took the lead, Nuvolari spent the entire race behind him. In the dim light of the morning dawn, Nuvolari was invisible to Varzi in the rear-view mirrors, as he walked with his headlights turned off, but just before the finish, in one of the straight sections, Nuvolari “blindly” walked around Varzi and took first place.

Mille Miglia has always been popular with Italian riders and manufacturers, but, nevertheless, crews from other countries still managed to win 3 races. Such, albeit insignificant competition, the Italians could only make pilots from Germany . In 1931, Rudolf Caracciola , known for his performances in the Grand Prix races, and his mechanic Wilhelm Sebastian (Wilhelm Sebastian) won in his modified Mercedes-Benz SSK . This was the first of three defeats of the Italians, because Caracciola was German, despite the Italian surname. His victory was a big surprise for everyone, because because of the economic crisis that erupted at that time, he received almost no factory support. He didn’t have enough mechanics, so after the next pit stop they had to move very quickly around Italy, cutting off straight off all the bends of the race route in order to catch the next service area faster than the racing crew.

Racing was suspended by Mussolini after a tragic incident that occurred in 1938 and claimed the lives of several spectators. From the moment the Mille Miglia resumed in 1940 and until the outbreak of war in Italy, it duplicated the Brescia Grand Prix and passed through a short 100-kilometer ring, which racers overcame 9 times. Also in 1940, the debut of Enzo Ferrari , who then owned the AAC brand (Auto Avio Costruzioni), which put up the Tipo 815 model for the race, took place. The tension, unusual for the first races, grew along with the competition that the Italians racers from Germany made up . The winners in 1940 were the Germans Hashke von Hanstein and Walter Baumer, setting an absolute speed record for Mille Miglia at that time - 166 km / h.

The Italians continued to dominate Mille Miglia after the war, the route of which was returned to the traditional large ring in Italy. Mercedes flashed again in 1952, when the crew of Karl Kling and Hans Klenk took second place on the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL , known as the “ Seagull Wing ”. A year later, they won another, no less legendary race, Carrera Panamericana . In the same year, Caracciola returned to the race, but had an accident.

Among the racers from other countries on the Mille Miglia podium in the 1950s were able to climb: Juan Manuel Fangio , Peter Collins and Wolfgang von Trips . From 1953 to 1957, Mille Miglia was even a stage in the World Sportscar championship .

In 1955, Mercedes made another attempt to win the Mille Miglia with a new, more powerful and better prepared car - the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR . It was created on the basis of the 1954 Formula 1 car , and not the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL.

On the winding routes of Mille Miglia, young riders such as German Hans Gerrmann , who proved himself to be a Porsche team, and Briton Stirling Moss relied on the help of navigators. More experienced riders preferred to race alone. After the tragic death of his navigator in South America, Juan Manuel Fangio spoke alone, deciding that racing was too dangerous to risk anyone else's life. So did Karl Kling, the fourth Mercedes racer.

Moss and his navigator, car journalist Denise Jackinson, went through six laps for reconnaissance. At the same time, Jenks made notes on rolls of paper with a total length of about 4.5 m. During the race, Jackinson read his notes and gave instructions to Moss using gestures. Thus, the world's first transcript was created, which helped the crew a lot: Moss had to compete with Italian riders, who knew this area and all the roads much better than him, and the transcript negated their “natural” advantage.

Hans Gerrmann, who had previously performed at Mille Miglia at number 704, showed excellent speed. In 1954, he held an amazing race, when at the last moment he managed to overtake a high-speed train to Rome. Hans was driving a very low Porsche 550 Spyder , and when the barrier at the crossing began to close, he realized that it was too late to slow down. The rider hit the back of the helmet of his navigator, so that he bent down, pressed on the gas and, literally, flew under the barrier, in front of the nose of the train. Good luck turned its back on Gerrmann in 1955 , and he dropped out of the race after a brake failure. Kling didn’t reach the finish line that year either.

The Moss and Jenkins team on the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR showed the time at 10 h 7 min 48 sec. Then the victorious crew set a new speed record - 159.65 km / h, which no one could beat before the race closed in 1957 . Fangio arrived a few minutes later, but given that he started 24 minutes earlier than Moss, in the end he lost the first place half an hour.

Mille Miglia was closed in 1957 after an accident in the village of Guidizzolo , which killed the rider Alfonso de Portago , his navigator Edmund Nelson and eleven other spectators. Presumably, the cause of that accident was the explosion of the wheel. All the blame for the incident was placed on the Ferrari team, for which Portago spoke, citing the fact that in order to save time, they did not change the wheels on time.

From 1958 to 1961, Mille Miglia was a small rally race consisting of several special stages and public roads connecting them, in which riders had to observe the high-speed regime. But in 1961, and it was closed.

In 1977, Mille Miglia was reborn under the name Mille Miglia Storica, becoming a race of rare cars. In it are allowed to participate cars manufactured before 1957. Although these are the same race cars that once set speed records, now it takes them several days to overcome the same route of the classic Mille Miglia. The rules were changed in such a way that the determining factor was the observance by the riders of the speed limit, and not the maximum speed. A classic car parade preceding each race allowed Mille Miglia to earn the title of “The Most Beautiful Road Race in the World”. About the 2007 Mille Miglia Storica , the documentary Mille Miglia - The Spirit of a Legend was filmed.

* The route passed through these passes until 1948

• 1977: Hepp / Bauer - Alfa Romeo RLSS - 1927
• 1982: Bacchi / Montanari - OSCA MT 4 - 1956
• 1984: Palazzani / Campana - Stanguellini 1100 S - 1947
• 1986: Schildbach / Netzer - Mercedes-Benz SSK - 1929
• 1987: Nannini / Marin - Maserati 200 SI - 1957
• 1988: Rollino / Gaslini - Fiat 1100 S MM - 1948
• 1989: Valseriati / Favero - Mercedes-Benz 300 SL - 1955
• 1990: Agnelli / Cavallari - Cisitalia 202 SC - 1950
• 1991: Panizza / Pisanelli - Renault 750 Sport - 1954
• 1992:   Canè / Galliani - BMW 507 - 1957
• 1993: Vesco / Bocelli - Cisitalia 202 SC - 1948
• 1994:   Canè / Galliani - Lancia Aurelia B 20 - 1957
• 1995: Ferrari / Salza - Abarth 750 Zagato - 1957
• 1996:   Canè / Galliani - BMW 328 MM - 1937
• 1997: Valseriati / Sabbadini - Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Pr - 1952
• 1998:   Canè / Galliani - BMW 328 MM - 1937
• 1999:   Canè / Auteri - Ferrari 340 MM - 1953
• 2000:   Canè / Galliani - BMW 328 MM - 1937
• 2001: Sisti / Bernini - Healey Silverstone - 1950
• 2002:   Canè / Galliani - BMW 328 Touring - 1940
• 2003:   Sielecki / Hervas - Bugatti Type 23 Brescia - 1923
• 2004:   Canè / Galliani - BMW 328 MM Coupè
• 2005:   Viaro / De Marco - Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 S - 1928
• 2006:   Canè / Galliani - BMW 328 MM Coupè
• 2007:   Viaro / Bergamaschi - Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Super Sport - 1928
• 2008:   Luciano and Antonio Viaro - Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Super Sport - 1928
• 2009:   Bruno and Carlo Ferrari - BUGATTI Type 37 - 1927
• 2010:   Canè / Galliani - BMW 328 Mille Miglia Coupé - 1939
• 2011: Italy Giordano Mozzi / Stefania Biacca - Aston Martin Le Mans - 1933
• 2012: Argentina Scalise Claudio / Claramunt Daniel - Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Gran Sport “Testa Fissa” - 1933
• 2013: Argentina Juan Tonconogy / Guillermo Berisso - Bugatti T40 - 1927
• 2014: Italy Giordano Mozzi / Stefania Biacca - Lancia Lambda tipo 221 spider Ca.Sa.Ro - 1928
• 2015: Argentina Juan Tonconogy / Guillermo Berisso - Bugatti T40 - 1927

The name Mille Miglia also refers to the Alitalia airline bonus program, according to which passengers can receive free tickets, accumulating miles accumulated with the company.

Another “Mille Miglia” is a brand of jackets, so named after the race, the prototype of which were racing jackets of the 1920s. Jackets of this brand were created by Massimo Osti for his company CP Company, which produced clothes. They were distinguished by windshields built into the hood and a small round hole in the sleeve around the wrist, so that it would be more convenient to recognize the time by the wristwatch. Mille Miglia jackets have been produced for quite some time and are still popular with English football fans .

The sponsor of Mille Miglia Storica is the watch manufacturer Chopard , who in return received the right to use the name of the race and its trademark to promote its series of sports watches. In promotional products, Chopard uses photographs taken at the races by photographer Giacomo Bretzel.

One of the colors Chevrolet painted its Corvette model was called “Mille Miglia Red.” This color was available to customers from 1972 to 1975 . ^[2]

• List of major car races in Italy

• Mille Miglia Website
• Mille Miglia Museum in Brescia
• "Mille Miglia - The Spirit of a Legend" - a documentary about the history of the race