The Mille Miglia (which means one thousand miles in Italian) was an open-road endurance race which took place in Italy from 1927 to 1957. The Mille Miglia made Gran Turismo (Grand Touring) sports cars like Alfa Romeo, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes Benz and Porsche famous. Fans so loved the race that it brought out an estimated five million spectators. The race was banned in 1957 after two fatal car crashes, one of which, sadly, took the lives of 9 spectators.
The Race
Revived in 1977, the “Mille Miglia” is now a much anticipated and highly watched race for classic and vintage cars. Only cars produced before 1957 may participate, and only the cars selected from the models which took part in the original race can participate in Mille Miglia, with teams coming from all over the world. The route (Brescia-Rome round trip) is similar to that of the original race, beginning and ending in Viale Venezia in Brescia.
The Cars
The 2016 Mille Miglia race took place May 19-22, 2016. In their report on the 2016 race, Sports Car Digest lists the cars that participated in their 1000 Miglia race wrap up. Be sure to visit their site for lots of pictures from this one of a kind race.
“The 34th retrospective edition saw a great field of historical automobiles celebrate the legendary Mille Miglia endurance road race. Of the 440 entrants at the Mille Miglia 2016, more than 70 took part in at least one original Mille Miglia racing edition. The cars at the Viale Venezia start included 71 marques, with the lion’s share going to Alfa Romeo with 46 cars, followed by Fiat with 39, Mercedes-Benz with 33, Lancia with 25, Ferrari with 22, Porsche with 21 and Jaguar with 20 entries. Notable was the Ferrari 340 with which Gigi Villoresi won the 1951 edition, as well as Benito Mussolini’s Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Pescara, which ran the Mille Miglia in 1936 driven by Ercole Boratto.”
The Winners
So who took the top prize for 2016? The first place prize went to the 1930 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Zagato driven by Andrea Vesco and Andrea Guerini. Luca Patron and Elena Scaramuzzi in a 1926 O.M. 665 Superba Sport 2000 CC followed close behind. A 1933 Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Gran Sport driven by Giordano Mozzi and Stefania Biacca rounded out the top three. For a complete list of the finalists visit the 1000 Miglia page. We can’t wait to see what the 2017 1000 Miglia brings!
