Mille Miglia 2008: Pre-War Italians

On a trip to Paris in 1928, Maggi, Canestrini and Mazzotti encouraged French cars to send stronger teams and more cars to participate in what was becoming one of the world’s premier sports car events.

The French responded, but the efforts fell short of overall victories. In the meantime, as the Italian marques of O.M. and Lancia faded, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati took their places and dominated the majority of the interwar races.

For Alfa Romeo (and for a time, Scuderia Ferrari), the Mille Miglia was a proving ground. Their cars went from strength to strength, gaining reliability, speed, displacement, and cylinders. Alfas dominated every race before the war, save 1927, 1931 and the abbreviated 1940 event won by BMW.

In light of the total dominance of the cars from Milan, the Mercedes Benz victory of 1931 seems even more remarkable. Winner Rudolph Caracciola apparently took it in stride, however, for in his autobiography he only mentions it as an aside. The Italians celebrated for and with Rudi, as he also drove Alfa Romeos in the Grand Prix events. But note was made of the tremendous power and toughness of the Mercedes SSKL. The Germans would repeat their win again in 1955.

Lancia Lambda’s competed in the early Mille Miglia races, and in the late 1930s, special bodied Astura’s and Aprilia’s did well in their respective classes.

But the unsung hero of the early races was the O.M., which was an acronym for Officine Meccaniche, and was based in Brescia, the town which also hosted the start of the Mille Miglia.

O.M. was primarily concerned with locomotives and commercial vehicles, but from the early 1920s to 1934, when Fiat bought out the company, a series of excellent passenger cars were produced with both four and six cylinder side valve engines with displacements from 1327cc to 2,350cc. Two seater sports models were offered, often bodied by Zagato, and with four wheel brakes these little known cars were very competitive not only in Italy but in France and Great Britain.

For the 1927 Mille Miglia, O.M. built three special cars, with lightweight bodies, engines capable of 80 hp and led by the experienced team of Ferdinando Minoja (Minoia) and Morandi. The O.M.s took the first three places in the grueling event, defeating Lancias, Alfa Romeo RLSS, Isotta-Fraschinis and Tazio Nuvolari driving a Bianchi.

In 1928, an O.M. finished second to Compari in the new 6c1500 Alfa Romeo, and another O.M. placed tenth. But the Alfas were going to be virtually unstoppable, while the O.M. company concentrated more effort on the commercial side of the business. The 1929 event still had two O.M.s in the first ten places, and Morandi/Rosa actually finishing second to the new 1750cc Alfa. Pushed up to the full three liter class in 1930, O.M. finished fifth overall and first in the three liter class, Alfa winning overall with the 1750cc model. The team of Morandi/Rosa again took their now-ancient O.M. to a remarkable third place in the 1931 race, behind Caracciola’s Mercedes and Campari’s Alfa.

With the big 2300 cc Alfas now in ascendancy, the O.M.s were no longer competitive, and the 1931 race was the last appearance of an O.M on the top ten lists in the Mille Miglias. In 1934 the O.M. passenger car unit was sold off, but no further cars rolled off the assembly line. Fiat took over the commercial vehicle side of the business.

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