From Brescia to Rome and back in just four days while covering over 1500 miles on a few hours rest. Collectors, enthusiasts, celebrities and racers, in custom-made outfits and matching helmet racing in a convoy of rare, collectable and completely priceless classic and vintage Alfa Romeos, Fiats, Maseratis, Ferraris, Mercedes-Benzes to the sound of cheering crowds. This is Mille Miglia, the most evocative classic car race in history and the most Italian of all endurance tests.
Mille Miglia 2018 has been a triumphant one for one the main sponsors of the race, Alfa Romeo, the Italian marque taking the top trophy with the 6C 1500 GS Testa Fissa, as well as second and third in the 6C 1500 Super Sport and 6C 1750 SS Zagat – all classics from FCA Heritage and museum pieces from the newly refurbished Museo Storico Alfa Romeo. The 36th edition of the race happens to also coincide with the 90th anniversary of the first of the now 12 victories for Alfa Romeo recorded from 1927 to 1957 making the carmaker the Mille Miglia champion.
This is my first experience of the race and I soak in the atmosphere. The enthusiasm for the automobile is infectious; these are true motor car aficionados and Mille Miglia is an ode to the golden age of the automobile. The collection of metal here is truly incredible, the beauty in their crafted purity enhanced against the golden cobbled streets of Rome, Siena, Arezzo, Cortona. Their evocative roar acts as a symphony through the rolling Tuscan hills, lush and green and glorious with the frequent Spring downfalls and blossoming poppies.
We drive along the racers, trying to keep up in the latest hot sedan Alfa Romeo Giulia 2.9 V6 and the compact performance SUV Stelvio 2.9 V6 – both in flagship Quadrifoglio guise. These are fast, exciting and offer engaging driving dynamics in possibly more comfort than our racing companions especially when on occasion the skies open-up, rain drenching the many open-top roadsters. Yet spirits remain high and the race continues. The route is intricate, complex and analogue, documented in three thick volumes carefully drawn out to make sure the race does not veer off to any main smooth highways.
Milla Miglia was born in 1927 as a brainchild of two young counts, Aymo Maggi and Franco Mazzotti, their sports manager Renzo Castagneto and Giovanni Canestrini a motoring journalist. Together with a group of wealthy friends, they decided on a race from Brescia to Rome and back that resembled the figure eight, covering roughly 1500 km — or a thousand Roman miles, hence the name Mille (1000) Miglia.
Until 1957, the race was an open road endurance test; then it was reborn in 1977 as a classic and vintage car race. The route stays true to the original path, but there are strict rules and regulations for today’s Mille Miglia. To be eligible for the competitive 450 or so slots, the car needs to be born before 1957 and be an automobile attended, or registered, to the original race. Drivers and co-drivers have to be over 18 and there is a deposit of €8,000 (around $9,000). The cars start every 20 seconds daily– although in Italian style this is less rigid as imagined – and there are strict speed limits to abide to in indicated areas to keep racers on their toes.
At the end of each day, as the drivers settle down for a few hours rest, the support staff are busy, animatedly vetting and repairing the vehicles in the carpark. At one of the lunch stops I start chatting with Stefano Agazzi, FCA Heritage collection manager. It is his 12th race, he tells me visibly excited. This is a demanding race for even modern cars. I ask if he resorts to imaginative solutions on occasion to rescue some of these old vintage automobiles. “At Mille Miglia 2013 we had a one-off Sportive by Bertone driven by an Italian journalist who had forgotten to switch off the lights in the parking lot and the battery was completely out,” he smiles recalling that night. “We finished the last 50km holding a torch outside the window.”
He says as some of the cars are more than eighty years old, you need a driver with the ability to handle them. Naturally, pre-war cars are entirely different to drive than modern cars. “From 1930 to 1950 there is a universe of difference,” he says. “Our target is to come back to Arese with a car completely working and to continue the record finish we have had at Mille Miglia.”
Marcus Ericsson and Charles Leclerc, the drivers of the Alfa Romeo Sauber Formula One Team, join the race towards the end, driving a 1932 Gran Premio Tipo B and a 1955 750 Competizione. The marque has recently returned to F1 and their presence will help in communicating this message. “This race is an essential part of our brand building,” explains FCA marketing director Gianfranco Gentile. “On the one hand, it helps us revisit our history, on the other it offers a platform for presenting our new models.”
There are drivers here from 46 countries and you can tell they revel in the freedom of driving this race encourages. Police on motorbikes escort our fleet through historic Tuscan towns and villages allowing us to drive along otherwise restricted areas.Gentile offers: “This is big celebration of Italian culture, the Italian landscape, the scenery, the architecture, the beauty that characterizes our country. It is a unique opportunity to see Italy in four days.”
He admits to working extremely hard in the last year to re-establish Alfa Romeo’s position as a premium brand. “We have done this with the new products Giulia and Stelvio, but also supporting these events to remind people of the glorious history of Alfa Romeo.” Milla Miglia is a great platform for this since the typically high-net-worth contenders are also petrol-heads and are therefore natural influencers in the real world. “It is about storytelling.”
The US market is increasingly a target for the company. “The Americans have had a passionate love affair with Alfa Romeo,” Gentile continues referring to 1967 movie The Graduate with Dustin Hoffman driving abroad an Alfa Romeo Spider. Yet the marque stopped selling cars there in the mid 1990s. “New generations may not know what Alfa Romeo represents, so we are taking part in high-level events like Pebble Beach to raise awareness.”
The Mille Miglia style is utterly Italian – it is “made in Italy” in all its splendor, so the mornings are a touch chaotic, plans at time erratic, the route is hair-raising and completely fun, emotions run high most of the time and lunches are marvelous. Mostly, the participants make Mille Miglia the unmissable event in the calendar. This is a celebration of the motor car, the beauty of the metal, the artistic engineering, of the art of driving. Enzo Ferrari called Mille Miglia the most beautiful race in the world – a “globally unique travelling museum”. It is difficult to disagree.
