Continuing since 1953 Mille Miglia It was packed with Italian drivers and car manufacturers racing for the title over a 1,000-mile round trip from Brescia to Rome. ferrariAlfa Romeo, Maserati, oscaLancia, Fiat, Moretti and Bandini all had factory-backed racing activity in this round, while Aston Martin, Jaguar, Gordini, Porsche, Deutsch Bonnet, and even Chrysler did the best at their level to get to the end. More than 400 cars took part in this event, but dozens failed to return to Brescia. this is. . .was One of the most exciting race prizes In Italy, everyone wanted to take that trophy home.
How difficult was Mille Miglia? Well, to put it in perspective, Juan Manuel Fangio, one of the greatest racing drivers of all time, never managed to win a race. He was unable to reach the top step of the podium despite five attempts, taking his third place in 1950, ’53 and his second place in ’55.
If you don’t want to see spoilers about a race from over 70 years ago, please stop reading. Giannino Marzotto and navigator Marco Crosara covered 1,000 miles in just 10 hours and 37 minutes in a Vignale-spec Ferrari 340 MM. This corresponds to his 1953 average of 94.14 mph.
And in fact, he ran even faster than that. Perhaps the best anecdote from this race is that Marzotto’s bonnet closed and the mechanics were unable to perform the designated mid-race oil change. Marzotto exited a later checkpoint, but remembered that he still needed an oil change and made a U-turn to return to his crew. The team completed the job by drilling a hole in the car’s hood above the oil inlet. It’s unclear how much time he lost due to this minor accident, but he kept going and finished just 14 minutes ahead of Fangio.
And they did all this with things like drum brakes and carburetors. I don’t know if I can get that kind of speed in a modern minivan, even though I’m pretty sure a good driver could do the same.
Anyway, watch this video. Because it’s a really interesting way to see how races were covered at the time.