Auto racing is, more often than not, about intensity. Some of the world’s most famous races, such as the Indy 500, the 24 Hours at Le Mans, and the Monaco Grand Prix, were conceived in order to push the endurance, focus, technical skills, or risk-taking capabilities of drivers to the limit, with injury or death always looming as a penalty for error. However, not every race needs to be pulse-pounding, death-defying, or a showcase of professional racing pedigree to be exciting. Races that honor the everyday enthusiast community and allow drivers to compete in their commuter vehicles can be just as inspiring and entertaining to watch and participate in. One such race was the Italian Mille Miglia, in which drivers from across Italy–and eventually from all of Europe–competed to complete a 1000 mile course in an everyday production car. The legacies of these racers are not those of speed demons, but of people who so loved driving that they wanted to give a long race a shot. Almost 100 years have passed since the first batch of those racers took on the Mille Miglia, but variations on the race have persisted almost continuously until today. In order to appreciate that journey, let’s take a look at the men who have to thank for the race in the first place. 

We promise this isn’t the setup for a joke, but the race was first conceived by a sports manager, an auto journalist, and two Counts. Renzo Castagneto, Giovanni Canestrini, and Counts Aymo Maggi and Franco Manzotti were the men in question, and each of their positions gave the opportunity to contribute to the foundation of a new race in 1927. Castagneto was the head of the then-continent-spanning Automobile Club of Brescia, Canestrini knew how to organize a race and plot the course, and the Counts had the funds to make it all happen. It’s also important to mention that the “Four Musketeers’” decision to create such a race was a combination of their proud citizenship of Brescia (an Italian village in Lombardy) and their annoyance at the decision to move the Italian Grand Prix away from their village to Monza. Perhaps it was the desire to show the Grand Prix organization what they were missing out on that pushed the organizers to create the course they did; a 1,000 mile–or 1,500 kilometer–figure-eight circuit that took drivers from Brescia to Rome and back. But if the race committee had been worried about attendance or entries when they started conceiving the Mille Miglia, that must have dissipated when seventy-seven drivers sat at the starting line on race day.

Each of these participants came behind the wheel of an ordinary, unmodified production car and only paid one Italian Lira to enter. But their race was given a showstopping treatment nonetheless; each of the cities they would pass through on their course was decorated and packed with fans in anticipation of their reception, but Brescia itself was lined with wooden spectating barriers, filled with loudspeakers that updated all of the onlookers with the progress of the race, and adorned everywhere with the symbol of the race, the Red Arrow. These beautiful sights, along with a spectacularly parasol-filled central plaza, greeted Giuseppe Morandi as he completed the course and became the first Mille Miglia champion on the morning of March 27th, 1927. 

After that first outing, the Mille Miglia was an instant smash hit in Italy and a curiosity that the rest of Europe would become increasingly interested in as well. Over the next thirteen years, the race would be run almost religiously, with tens of thousands of Italian households pouring out to stand trackside and become part of something they knew would become historically significant. These years obviously included some standout driving as well, including the 1930 victory by Tazio Nuvolari–where he turned off his headlights to pass the race leader in the dark of dawn and clench the victory–and the 1931 championship led by Rudolf Caracciola–who was the first non-Italian winner and the first to average 100 km/h on the course. Unfortunately, not every Mille Miglia was as filled with passion for the goods of motorsport as the others. In 1938, an 11-casualty driver accident forced none other than Benito Mussolini, the leader of then-fascist Italy, to step in, scrap the 1939 race, and change it to 10 laps of a smaller, 100-mile circuit in 1940. 

Despite the tragedy of 1938 and the governmental rework of the race, it soon became clear that nothing could keep the spirit of the Mille Miglia down. After a hiatus during World War II and its aftermath, the race returned in full force to its 1000-mile figure-eight construction in 1947. Alfa Romeo and Ferrari dueled to become the vehicle brand of choice for the average Italian driver, and more German and British drivers piloting Mercedes appeared as well. As the pool of drivers began to change in the late 40s and early 50s, so too did the course itself. The route was at an all-time length for the race’s return in 1947 and was changed so that the route was run clockwise. In 1949, the route was reverted to counterclockwise, and changed to lie largely along the Italian coastline, making it the straightest and fastest incarnation ever. Then, in 1950, the route was run clockwise again permanently, still changing slightly over the years but edging closer to the original route all the while. And it was on the 1955 track–the track the year after the course would no longer change for the rest of the Mille Miglia’s existence–that one of the greatest outings in the course’s history would occur.

In the 21 incarnations of the Mille Miglia leading up to 1955, only two of the winning teams had been composed by non-Italians. This by no means meant that fewer German and English teams participated, but they barely ever beat out the Italians on their home turf. Mercedes-Benz, the manufacturer of the cars most commonly used by non-Italian teams, decided that it wanted to make a big push to win the Mille Miglia in 1955, and they used all of the weapons at their disposal to do so. They had recently manufactured the 300 SLR, a production vehicle that was only a few steps away from an F1 car if looked at closely enough. To further the edge that these vehicles would have over the competition, they recruited some of the best racers on the scene at the time; among their team of four drivers were the inanely talented British F1 driver Sterling Moss and the promising new German F1 star Hans Herrmann. With a combination of reconnaissance (Moss and his navigator made six laps of the course in the leadup to the race, creating an 18-inch scroll of notes and a hand-signal navigation system in the meantime) and daring (at one point during the race, Herrmann drove straight through a railroad crossing, smacking the back of his navigator’s helmet to make him duck under the guardrail and narrowly missing the oncoming train), the Mercedes team clinched victory in 1955, doing so with more spectacle than almost any race beforehand.

Of course, we’re referring to good spectacle here. By 1955, where bad spectacle was concerned, the Mille Miglia was having its fair share as well. Because of the willingness of the drivers to push dangerously fast paces and the insistence on using limited barriers in spectator cities so that onlookers could get close to the action, the race had become increasingly dangerous, even after Mussolini’s one-time intervention. 21 drivers were killed during all of the prior outings, and 23 onlookers had died in accidents as well. This safety issue came to a head in 1957, when two crashes took the life of both drivers and a total of nine onlookers. The governing body of the race were facing internal and external pressure to address the safety situation and changed the race back to the rally format that limited speeds and reduced the race to multiple shorter laps. Ultimately, though, this format didn’t draw the same crowds, drivers, or general interest in the race that its dangerous, albeit captivating, previous incarnations had. In 1961, after only 28 outings, the Mille Miglia was no more. 

Even though the race itself died, the passion for its core idea, the love for the beautiful Italian scenery that it highlighted, and the relationships between drivers and their vintage Italian sportscars most certainly did not. In 1977, a group composed of car club president Beppe Lucini, some sports journalists, and sports organizers (sound familiar?) came together with the idea to revive and pay tribute to the original race while addressing the safety concerns that the original did not. They approached the Automobile Club of Breccia for permission to proceed, and then got to work on their redesign of the concept. Changes that made it from this group’s concepting phase to the final product were simple: cars eligible to compete were to have been actual participants in the original 1923-59 races (or be the same models of one that had). Additionally, the race course, although once again 1000 miles, was segmented into checkpoints where each car was timed from start to finish in regularity style. This plan ensured that the race was more of a tribute to the good of the old style than a celebration of the emphasis on speed that had cost the old race its livelihood. And was it a successful plan?

Ask the committee of the 1000 Miglia, the successor to the Mille Miglia that will celebrate its 44th anniversary this year! In 1977, when the race resumed under the previously mentioned conditions, the passion for the event was evident even when the funding wasn’t. The race wasn’t held again until 1982 due to these logistical issues, and was held every two years until 1987 when the interest in it was enough to restore it to its annual status. Nowadays, entries often reach or exceed 400 total competition vehicles, and with a route that changes annually just like in the old days, there’s always something for drivers new and old to discover on the track. The 1000 Miglia organization also oversees a number of additional events in Europe and North America, including car meets, warm-ups for the namesake race, and even unique spin-off events like the 1000 Miglia Green for electric cars. All these years later, the 1000 Miglia is a powerful force for preserving the love of classic cars and motorsport that Italy is so well known for.

As for the future of the 1000 Miglia, the only thing we have to go on its the past. In that case, there should be no cause for concern as to its success; after all, both it and its predecessor enjoyed national and international participation and viewership on a grand scale! However, it’s as important to celebrate the success of these races as it is to recognize their humble origins. In both cases, small groups of people with a passion for cars and an idea came together to create a race on a massive scale. These races showcase the remarkable beauty and automotive history of Italy while also showing that anybody of any skill level can enter and have fun in a race with a car they love. Ideas with this much heart should be the ones that make it to a finished product, and we’re so glad that out of the many that fail, the Mille Miglia concept succeeded. So if you’re just now learning about the Mille Miglia, do yourself a favor and watch--or better yet, visit--it next year and become part of the fun. Or, if you own a 1934 Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 Monza Spider Brianza, why not enter the 2026 race?

References:

Mille Miglia - Wikipedia

1000 Miglia

Mille Miglia (sportscardigest.com)