La Corsa piu bella del mondo"* are the words of Enzo Ferrari. He used them more than once. It all started in 1927 with a frustrated Automobile Club of Brescia who saw the Grand Prix move to Milan (Monza). The club decided they needed a new event to draw attention to Brescia and the products of their region. Having been involved with motorsports since 1899 with the Brescia-Cremono-Mantua-Verona-Brescia race they knew what to do, and the MM was born. In a matter of years the event became a major staple in European racing, and Enzo saw the potential to advertise his cars. OM had won the first edition and after that Alfa Romeo was the brand to beat. That was not to the liking of "the Man". He started to engage factory cars and drivers, certainly driven by the fact that this event was in the backyard of his factory, and easier to reach for other European teams than for instance the Targa Florio. In less than ten years the race became a "must win" for all drivers of a certain quality (or ego). The routes change from year to year, but the format doesn't. Cars were started in Brescia and had to go over open public roads and be back in Brescia as soon as possible. The race was supported by masses of Italians that would take the day off to stand alongside the route and cheer, help and enjoy seeing the fast sporty cars go by. The roads became better, the cars became faster and two years after Moss set his incredible record of over 100 Mph average with a Mercedes Benz, the unavoidable happened. A car lost a wheel at high speed and killed the driver and co-driver plus 9 spectators. A lesser known fatal accident happened in Brescia when a TR3 driver lost his life as well. That was in 1957, the last "real Mille". The following three years the organizers tried to hold an alternative rally, in which speed was no factor. It never worked, and the event died. The Automobile Club of Brescia revived the event in 1977. The format was similar to the last three events; road sections with specials. The road sections are supposed to be driven at an average speed that makes you have to go faster than the speed limit. The good news is that speed limits are not applied during the rally. Cities, villages, and mountain roads make it tough to stay penalty free for the whole three day duration of the rally. The specials are series of longer and shorter stretches where the car has to do an exact speed. These can vary from 10 meters to a couple of hundred and even more. The modern MM starts on Thursday. Wednesday is tech and registration and Thursday the rally starts for the spectators. First the rally cars are escorted through town from the Fairgrounds to the Piazza della Loggia. This is where the official sealing takes place. A mere ceremony, as now a days all cars are equipped with modern transponders which allow the organizers to know where the cars are at any point in time. After the sealing, where thousands of people are gathered around the plaza (no porta-potties!) the cars are shown to the public in the streets of Brescia around the Piazza della Loggia. After three PM the participants are free to leave and drive to the Mille Miglia Museum. The museum is a wonderful peaceful place that used to be a monastery. The chapel is still intact and I believe still used for religious purposes. The 382 cars that participated were too many to fill the enormous patio. The museum consists of a shop, fine restaurant and a good amount of cars that participated in the rally at one point in time. They also show neat footage of the early rallies and have a nice collection of vintage Vespa's and motor cycles as well. It appears that the shown collection changes, as I saw many different cars during this visit than those that were shown last year. A great buffet has to provide energy for the first leg of the rally. They are good enough to feature local specialties at all buffets during the rally. I love Salami, Prosciutto, the mountain cheeses, etc. Francophile as I am, I am still undecided which cuisine I like better, the French or Italian? First car starting is always an OM, and the starting order basically is from older to newer. Only cars of the type of a car that participated in the "original" rally and build before 1957 are eligible to participate. All cars have to have a FIVA passport, which acknowledges that the car is "original". First start this year was at 6.45 PM. Three cars start per minute. As only the rally cars can go through the towns we started early and waited some 40 km outside Brescia for the Siata 1100 VT Vignale -my customer- to pass. Many cars didn't even make it to that point. The Lincoln Capri from Texas was at that point already out of the rally (Fuel pump).  | |
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The tough thing for us followers is that we always want to be close behind the car we're servicing. When the non-rally cars are rerouted, we are on our own. We get barely any instructions, sometimes little maps each time of different scale, without any indications. When and if you reach the point where the service cars get to the route again there is usually a police officer making sure that the rally cars are not hindered. Thus we wait forever to join the route again. We have no idea what the drivers have to go through in town. Sometimes a special, a presentation, interviews with TV etc. So when we join we have to decide if we are ahead of "our car" or behind. The result is that we usually have to race and catch up. Catching up with a rally car that is in a hurry is a tough quest! Our first day, from Brescia to Ferrara was a breeze. The little car did very well, apart from a broken window regulator. We finished around 1 in Ferrara and it took more than an hour to get to the hotel.....in Bologna! 35 minute drive away. 6AM was the start, so we left before 5 AM. 2 hours of sleep and a shower. This time it took 55 minutes to get to the parc ferme, and the team barely made the start in time. The second day went from Ferrara to Rome through Ravenna, San Marino and Spoleto filled with wonderful scenery and beautiful weather. In Sansepolcro I got a call that we were having a problem, a gas leak in the tank. My friend and co-driver Chuck Carl and I went as fast as we could (three times the speed limit) to the spot they were waiting to go through timing. We had had problems with the tank before, and I didn't agree with the way the tank was replaced. Thus I had anticipated the problem, but not such a big hole! It came streaming out of the tank, and they had just filled it with an extra 18 liters! Long story short, we managed to get it stopped and the hole plugged. Luckily the driver got the message and was a whole lot more careful going over speed bumps. Rome is an adventure by itself. Too bad we only get to see some of it during the early morning at the start (behind the Vatican) and driving out of town. We arrived, again, just before 1, got lost finding the parking garage and had diner at 2.45AM. Breakfast was at 4.30. Barely time to shower. The last day is the longest. It does the whole way back from Rome though Siena, Firenze, Bologna, Modena (Ferrari and Maserati) Parma and finally Brescia. The scenery changes from Roman in Rome (what a green city that seems to be), to wonderful Tuscany landscapes and wineries. North of Bologna it reminds me of the polders in the Netherlands, but prettier. Again we had a day with no major troubles, until Reggio nell Emilia that is. It had started to rain, which was a good thing in the sense that all the wannabees disappeared. Driving became a lot easier. But even with the ease on the car, the guibo (donut) wore out. Not in the normal way, but it had managed to "ovalize" the bolt holes. Even though I had a spare with me, we decided not to change it and hope it would last as we were quite behind on the schedule, and were hoping to make it in time to Brescia. Midnight was our deadline. With all the traffic gone, and hardly any spectators left because of the rain we could make up quite some time, and 5 km before the finish I thought we had it. Had it not been for a wrong turn on a roundabout, we would have made it in time, but now we were 2 minutes late. The Mille Miglia has the reputation to be one of its kind, and I think with the Pan-Americana is probably one of the few vintage events that can count on such a support from the locals. It really is amazing how the Italians react. At one point in time a commuter is two wheels off in the ditch to let a wannabee pass. I am passing the wannabe. There is a car coming and it is a two lane road. The oncoming car goes off and....... applauds for us ( we have the MM stickers on our car too). Try that in McHenry? For more information check out the web site of the MM, www.1000miglia.eu. All participating cars are featured there and so are the results. Yves Boode * "La corsa piu bella del mondo" means The most beautiful race in the world. | 
