Ready for another Mille Miglia? This year more cars and specatators than ever. This year, Alessandro Gerelli attends the start at Brescia.
Story and Photos by Alessandro Gerelli
Bugatti T13 with luggage.
Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 B MM berlinetta Touring
Fiat 508 C MM berlinetta aerodinamica of 1939.
1947 Rovelli Fiat with a 1100 engine prepared by Testadoro with a Castagna body.
Fiat Motor RG1 750 sport of 1948
1948 Stanguellini 1100 Berlinetta by Bertone.
Dagrada Fiat 750 Siluro of 1949.
Ermini 1100 sport of 1950.
Ermini 1100 Motto Berlinetta, 1950.
Fiat 1100 E coupè Zagato of 1950: the first of three similar but not equal Zagatos at the race.
Fiat 1100 E coupè Zagato of 1952.
Fiat 1100 coupè Zagato of 1954.
Siata Daina Gran Sport Stabilimenti Farina of 1951.
Siata Daina 1500 Sport of 1952.
Alfa Romeo 2000 Sportiva of 1954 with body by Bertone.
1949 Bristol 400 with body by Pinin Farina.
Talbot Lago T26 GS of 1951.
Panhard Bianchi 750 Sport Colli of 1954.
Renault Dauphine of 1956.
Citroen 15 Six of 1954.
Weldangrind Parson Maserati 150 S of 1957.
Ferrari 225 S spider Tuboscocca of 1952, coming from Australia.
Not in the race but very interesting is this Fiat 1100 TV of 1954.
Mercedes with superfast transport also appeared.
Lovely pictures.
Could the “Fiat Motor RG1 750 sport of 1948”, #154, with the Lancia badge on the nose and the intake scoops on the RH side of the hood, be powered by a Lancia motor?
That Fiat 508 berlinetta aerodinamica looks like the predecessor to Savonuzzi’s Cisitalia 202 Cassone… nearly 10 years in advance!
Incredible to see how advanced this was for 1939 when cars were still largely with running boards and wings.
Dear Mr. Makaus:
The fine work of your committee in organizing a successful 2014 Mille Miglia deserves a tribute, a salute and an observation about recent years past.
I have personally raced and followed the course of the Mille Miglia three years now…2011, 2012 and 2014 and consider myself a well-informed observer and probably the American with the most personal experience with the Mille Miglia in recent years.
In a well-circulated American auto enthusiast blog in May of 2012 I wrote of the “Germanization” of the Mille Miglia in 2012 and how I felt that 15 Mercedes Benz 300SLs, a dozen or so BMW 328s, a constant visual barrage of the three-pointed star and BMW’s familiar ‘propeller’ logos, not to mention the 50,000 waving Mercedes-Benz flags passed out along the circuit, the preponderance of Mercedes-Benz and BMW banners and car exhibits…..and the out and out the belligerence of the menacing German manufacturer Support Cars …and the collective impression that the Germans had ‘bought’ the Mille Miglia.
You responded to my remarks in partial defense of this display and commented that I would be delighted to see changes made to the 2013 Mille Miglia and should withhold judgment until then.
I chose not to attend in 2013 for personal reasons but I did race the course with the 431 entrants this year as a member of the media and I am pleased to say that your committee has corrected the overall net impression that the “Mercedes-Benz Mille Miglia” (a.k.a “MBMM”) of 2012 had in fact been returned to a more normal, fair and balanced “Internationalization”.
Understanding that a huge amount of money had been pledged by Mercedes-Benz to lead the sponsorship of the event…and that other manufacturers and sponsors had passed on their opportunity to sponsor the event themselves… I feel you have successfully controlled the arrogance of the German manufacturers and generally returned the event to that of a world-class event supported by a wider class of sponsors who did not attempt to overpower each other with their respective messages throughout the 1100 miles of the race.
In part, you were responsive to those who agreed with me.
You faced fiscal realities involved in controlling and balancing competing sponsorship messages. I was particularity gratified to see that Alfa Romeo had stepped forward to become a major sponsor…instead of a more remote and distant participant.
I look forward to the 2015 Mille Miglia with more confidence that your “Internationalization” message will be further applied to the event and that the parade of the German car manufacturers will be more tightly controlled for the public relations benefit of all of the marques presented.
Please pass my congratulatory remarks along to your associates and committee members in Brescia.
Ciao,
Robert Little
New York
Dear Sir,
The Talbot Lago GS #202 depicted above is definitely not a 1951 car and not even a Talbot Lago GS. The body of the car is in fact the body of chassis nr 110060. The last and only Talbot Lago GS mad, from the beginning, with a fully enveloping body. I owned this car in the 1960’s and sold it to the late mr Anthony Blight, who unfortunately modernized the body to look like the one depicted. The car originally had 2+2 separate front lights. A small front window, a preselector mounted on top of the gear-box (on off), normally the preselector was on the right side of the steering wheel. AND all racing Talbot Lagos were RHD’s! If you want to I can submit some photos of the car (110060). AFAIK the original body was sold to Holland and the original chassis of the 110060 was equipped with a cycle-wing body, which it never had during it’s racing career.
Thanks for the corrections and clarification, duly noted! [Ed.]