The Mille Miglia race car is a part of the romance of the history of the automobile, not only in Italy, where the race took place, but all over the world, where there are people who can think the car more interesting than the simple transportation. It encapsulates the passion of a time, were allowed to be exciting and regular road race was free to stir the spirit as cars.
The Mille Miglia was designed as an open road race, that it occurred on rural roads through villages and countryside of Italy. The audience felt that they were an integral and important part of the event, as she walks the fine machine to the fastest speed possible through their own villages, from their own front doors and down the familiar looking way. The Mille Miglia was designed by the Italian people, the Italian countryside and the legendary cars that participated in a memorable event.
The first Italian Grand Prix race was near Brescia in northern Italy, in 1922 instead, but the Royal Automobile Club of Italy has decided to move to a circuit near Milan. This decision enraged fans of racing from Brescia, which responds by thinking, an alternative event, which would be at least as remarkable. They wanted an event that the support of the Italian automobile industry by the car for the people who would be the race on normal roads and demonstrate the durability and reliability of products by holding a long-distance running that would have a test of endurance and speed.
There were a number of people who were involved but the major makers were the “four musketeers” Mazotti Franco, Count di Gradelle Aymo Maggi, Renzo Castagneto and Giovanni Canestrini. The race was to cover a large area of ??Italy, and follow a road that ran from Brescia to Milan and back to Brescia on a different path, a distance of 1600 km. When she came to choose the name, one of them noticed that the distance was about 1,000 miles, and when the Italians generally used as the unit of kilometers, the Romans used the mile. They felt that by naming the race “Mille Miglia” they are called ancient traditions of Rome, who was involved in a popular sentiment among the, many of whom called the followers of Mussolini’s fascist party, which is often the glory of Italy in Roman times.
Fortunately, one of the first organizers, there were a lot of know-how and relevant experience for the first Mille Miglia event, which took place in 1927, was a great success and attracted much attention. There were only three entries to make from outside Italy, but the event achieved its goal, the Italian car manufacturer known. The race was so successful that even Mussolini ordered that they should be held annually.
From 1928 to 1938, rejoined the race course in the same year and was one of the most spectacular annual global motor sport, as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Targa Florio and Carrera Panamericana, helped by the big names set to manufacturers of large touring cars such as Ferrari public Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Jaguar and Aston Martin in the opinion. These pre-war years were plagued by many difficulties. The crash of 1929 to keep many of the participating teams and the sanctions against Italy after Mussolini’s decision to Ethiopia in 1936 led to severe shortages imposed on petrol and tires. But the Mille Miglia as a legend has grown with such automobile related stories like the story of the triumph of Tazio Nuvolari in 1930. Nuvolari was driving at night behind the leader and kept their lights off for a long stretch would come from the view of his opponent, Varzi it. He does not want to, after he passed Varzi and continue to win on.
The race is a race on the open road where the cars mixed with the daily traffic was always a concern for the safety of its inception. Tragedy struck in the 1938 race. A car left the road to Bologna audience ten were killed and seven children. Mussolini reacted immediately prohibit the race never found again.
However, the spirit of the Mille Miglia too powerful and Mussolini once again in 1940 after the outbreak of the Second World War as a propaganda tool in an attempt to hollow to show the world that despite the war, life goes on as usual in Italy. The race was not held on public roads, but a circuit road which was closed for the event and the participants completed nine tours of the training. Most cars have been seized by Italian teams, but some French and German participants were present. The Italians found themselves totally outclassed by the entries of the BMW from Germany. BMW won the race and his teammate for third place. It was alleged that BMW had the second order of the Berlin slowed down so that the Italians were not completely humiliated by their allies.
After the war, the new democratic government was trying to show they could run things at least as good as the fascists and the revived Mille Miglia again in 1947 allowed the event to the pollution policy beyond its origins. It was a difficult at first, because roads and bridges Italians were in very poor because of war and there was even bandits in the mountains, the attack traffic released. Despite these difficulties in the beginning, the race quickly became popular again attracts international entries.
In 1949, a new way the cars in the starting number was introduced. The smallest engine, slower cars started, so Brescia evening at intervals of one minute of nine clock. Cars would stay up all night, would be to increase until the next morning. Number of cars was the time left for Brescia to leave, for example, a car at 7:22 was the number 722 and a 10:30 departure from the night before 1030 would have the part number. This system made it easy for viewers to see how cars were made in the race.
The Mille Miglia and other races have helped stimulate a new confidence in the Italian automobile industry after the war. Is not only the traditional manufacturers is a strong presence, but there were also many smaller manufacturers of sports cars often affectionately called “etceterinis” These small manufacturers have built small sports cars mainly from components Fiat and manage exciting, the machines that had their supporters not only to make in Italy but also in the United States. The most important of these brands were OM, who went to the start of the Mille Miglia Cisitalia 202 and the model of the style of the great Milanese car designer Pnin Farina, was celebrated as the forefront of automotive design when it appeared in 1947 and was in New York Museum of Modern Art exhibited. Other smaller companies like Stanguellini OSCA and were also of genuine fans who are wonderful devices have been made full. Abarth etceterini began as a corporate before it is swallowed by Fiat and are high in their in-house performance.
The Mille Miglia was always an open road race with participants pledging not to violate the rules of the Italian Highway Code, if it still difficult to see how they are in a race without doing so. It was not held until 1953 that the entire route was closed to public traffic, as the race. The memories of the terrible accident in 1938 were swept under the rug, but tragedy struck again in 1957. A Ferrari driven by Alfonso de Portago Spaniard left the road in the village near Mantua Guidizzola killing the driver, passengers and nine spectators, including five children. This time, took common sense and the government banned all racing on public roads.
Would not leave even though the glory days were during the Mille Miglia. In the years 1958, 1959 and 1961 was one of the organizers of the Rally Mille Miglia as a kind of hardness test cars with speed limits and other rules of the road between the stages of testing. The public has not reacted as this approach was rather uninteresting and they lost interest.
Mille Miglia was a strong reminder to the Italian culture and it was back in 1977 as a vintage car rally is limited to vehicles of the period in question again, if it is a race for himself, so between 1927 and 1957. This includes many participants from all over the world and the cavalcade of hundreds of classic cars is impressive in its own way, as by stirring a sight as the original race. It is now perhaps more on entertainment and tourism, it is about racing, but it shows that the car is still a thing of beauty and imagination as it has in the old time.