Osborne Files: Mille Miglia ~ A Truly Incomparable Experience
The Mille Miglia ‘Storica’
There are arguably a score of excellent
multi-day vintage rally and tour events held around the world each year, many
held in wonderful places with terrific roads and contested by exciting and
beautiful cars. However, it can be definitively declared that all the rest
exist as a tribute to the greatest historic driving event of them all, the
historic Mille Miglia of Italy.
The Mille Miglia ‘Storica’ – Italian for
‘historic’ – is in most ways very different from the original Mille Miglia ‘di
velocità’ or ‘speed’ contests held between 1927 and 1957. What once was a
non-stop blast through city, town, village and open country, a test of not only
machine but the endurance of the driver and navigator is now a four-day
‘regularity trial’, the modern versions of which began in 1982, following a 50th anniversary commemorative run in 1977.
Image Source: Stirling
Moss and Denis Jenkinson Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR in 1955 Mille Miglia
(100Motori.it)
A Brief History of Mille Miglia
In 1927, the winner completed the distance in 21
hours, 5 minutes at an average speed of 48mph. The fastest was Stirling
Moss’ 1955 victory, done in 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds,
averaging 98mph on everyday streets, across bridges, up mountain passes and
through towns and cities. It would never be beaten. Today’s event is a rather
more leisurely affair, but that doesn’t mean it’s not without its challenges.
It’s difficult to believe that a race only held
24 times could have become so legendary that it still excites millions of
people across thousands of kilometers in Italy. The photos you may have seen of
crowds standing on the roadside, snapping photos, waving flags and urging the
teams and cars on are neither staged nor rare.
Image Source: Mille
Miglia 2015 – Alfa Romeo 1900 Super TI de 1953 par Laurent-B (Donald Osborne)
In every town, at all times of the day and well
into the night eager and thrilled spectators ranging in age from toddlers
getting their first taste of speed to nonagenarians remembering seeing Fangio,
Ascari, Moss and Taruffi flash through their town as youngsters all come out to
party with the entrants.
I have had the great good fortune to participate
in the 2013, 2014 and 2015 editions of the Mille Miglia. In 2013, I was
co-driver for a friend and client for whom I had found a 1949
Maserati A6 1500 Pinin Farina coupe. He invited me to join him in the car and of course I
accepted. Our event was short- we dropped out on the second of three days with
radiator trouble after driving through pouring rain from the start.
Image Source: Mille
Miglia – Alfa Giulietta (Darragh McKenna)
The Magic of the Mille Miglia
But the magic of the event had imprinted itself
on me. The next year I was not in a car, but as a guest of the organization
stood on the storied departure ramp, welcomed the cars back to Brescia on the
finishing ramp and sang the Italian national anthem at the prize ceremony at
the ornate baroque opera house in Brescia.
In 2015, I was once again back in a car, with
another friend and client for whom I had found a 1956 Alfa Romeo Giulietta
Sprint. It was an early, column shift car, one of only 1500 made and one of the
few survivors. We shared driving and navigating duties and completed the route.
I also once again sang at the prize ceremony and life doesn’t get much better
than that.
Image Source: Alfa
Romeo Giulietta Sprint on the Mille Miglia in Tuscany (Donald Osborne)
The Mille Miglia Experience
The experience of participating in the Mille
Miglia cannot be adequately described to anyone who hasn’t done it. It is truly
a live-changing event. That’s not to say it’s always fun, sometimes it’s downright
unpleasant. But that’s what life is, isn’t it? While it’s not a non-stop run
from start to finish, the schedule is demanding. You’ll spend a lot of time in
the car, sometimes driving on roads crowded with support vehicles, everyday
traffic and sports car club interlopers from across Europe who descend in
droves on the Mille Miglia route to misbehave in traffic as they dare not do
back home. You have to keep your wits about you at all times.
From Brescia, the first cars begin leaving at
2:30pm. Those are the oldest cars from the 1920s, led by OMs, the brand that
won the first Mille. Three per minute the remainder of the field departs, in
chronological order, until the last 1957 car is on its way. Our 1956 entry was
number 412 and we left at about 4:45pm.
Image Source: Mille
Miglia (ansa-it.com)
A Long Day…
The first segment was 8 hours of driving, from
Brescia to Rimini, where we arrived around midnight. The second day saw us in
the car and off at 8:30am for a scheduled 13 hours of driving down to Rome. We
were delayed en route and arrived in Rome close to 11:30pm, just making it to
the checkpoint before it closed. A very late dinner – or perhaps very early
breakfast saw us in bed around 1:30 and up and out at 8:00am for 15 hours of
driving up to Parma. Driving past the Leaning Tower in Pisa made up for any
exhaustion and after excellent Parma Ham, cheese and wine it was another nap in
a hotel before leaving at 8:30am for the final push back to Brescia, another 8
hours away.
On the way, we stopped at the Autodromo di Monza
where a time trial was a lap of the full track- including the no longer used
but recently restored banked oval! What a thrill.
We arrived in Brescia, beat but exhilarated,
around 3:30pm. We met our other halves for a quick late lunch, I repaired to
the opera house, washed at a sink in a backstage dressing room, changed clothes
and strode out to sing ‘Fratelli d’Italia’ for a packed house.
Image Source: Parked
for the Night in Parma (Donald Osborne)
That evening, in our hotel in the Franciacorta
wine country, I was drained and emotionally spent- and quite certain I need
never do that again. A week later I began to muse on what it might be like to
do the Mille in a pre-war car ‘next time’. Yes, there will be a next time. It’s
the spell of the Mille Miglia that has me completely entranced. There is no
escape once you’ve been exposed, no vaccine to protect you. And you’ll never be
happier.
Image Source: Donald
Osborne and David Word at Finish (Donald Osborne)
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Written by Donald
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it was a pleasure sharing this article. I absolutely love the older classic/vintage vehicles!! I'm going to my own post on the classic ones that I've taken just this year...I've come across a few of them and love them all!
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Interesting piece! Thanks for sharing, Lisa!
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