Alfa Romeo will be playing a major part in the Mille Miglia 2010, both as a sponsor and as an entrant. The “most beautiful road race in the world” – as it was famously dubbed by Enzo Ferrari – will be starting from Brescia on 6 May and finishing there four days later, following visits to some of Italy’s most picturesque cities.
This year some 375 crews will be competing in the 1600 kilometre event, driving cars which, as required by the rules, took part in at least one of the 30 Mille Miglia events staged between 1927 and 1957. Naturally, Alfa Romeo couldn’t miss out in the brand’s centenary year. Thus, the Official Automobilismo Storico Alfa Romeo team has made five museum cars available: a 6C 1500 Super Sport (1928), a 6C 1750 Gran Sport (1930), an 8C 2300 Le Mans (1931), a 6C 2300 B (1937) and a 1900 Super Sprint (1956). Three cars from private collectors will also form part of the official Alfa Romeo team: a 6C 1750 Gran Sport (1932), a 6C 2500 Cabriolet (1951) and a Giulietta Sprint (1955).
The all-new Alfa Giulietta will also be featuring in the Mille Miglia 2010. The result of Alfa Romeo’s new direction in style and technology, beginning with the 8C Competizione super car and highlighted by the return of Italian names for its new products, the Alfa Giulietta draws attention to the brand’s glorious past while projecting the car maker’s traditional values of technology and emotion into the future. Spectators can admire Alfa Romeo’s new car at the Mille Miglia ‘villages’ in Brescia and Rome, and elsewhere along the route: the fleet made available to organisers will include 18 Giuliettas, and seven other Alfas, including 159s and MiTos. Meanwhile, five Giuliettas (equipped with powerful 1.4 TB MultiAir and 2.0 JTDM engines, both delivering 170 HP) will be driven by foreign journalists who will be taking the wheel in turns along the entire route.
The oldest model ear-marked by Automobilismo Storico Alfa Romeo for Mille Miglia 2010 is the 6C 1500 Super Sport. This car is identical to the one with which Campari and Ramponi began Alfa Romeo’s winning streak of eleven victories in this event between 1928 and 1947 (an unbeaten record to the present day). This particular car – usually exhibited at the Alfa Romeo Museum in Arese – has won three Mille Miglia revivals (2005, 2007 and 2008).
Also creating quite a stir is a 1930 6C 1750 Gran Sport, a legendary model which made motoring history in the Mille Miglia. A similar car was driven to victory by Nuvolari and Guidotti in 1930, a race which remains famous for the record-breaking average speed of 100 km/h attained along the entire route, and for the finishing order: three Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sports in first, second and third positions, driven, in order, by Tazio Nuvolari, Achille Varzi and Giuseppe Campari.
An 8C 2300 Le Mans (1931) will this year be driven by Prince Bernhard of Holland, the Alfa Romeo Team’s guest of honour, who is being joined by the famous Dutch architect Roberto Meyer. Henry “Tim” Birkin, the car’s first owner, won the Le Mans 24 Hour race with it in 1931. A genuine racing car icon of the 1930s, this model is equipped with a supercharged eight cylinder in-line engine. It is one of the engineering masterpieces designed by Vittorio Jano, who also created the 1500 and 1750 6C.
The spotlight will also be on a 6C 2300 B. This elegant Touring saloon was the first to sport a Superleggera (superlight) emblem, and was driven to a Mille Miglia class win in 1937 by Boratto and Sanesi. A 1956 1900 Super Sprint completes the team of official Alfa Romeo cars at Mille Miglia 2010.
Once again this year, the Mille Miglia route will be offering some variations. For example, as it did before the Second World War, the cavalcade will be crossing the city of Bologna, and including visits to the motor racing circuits of Imola and Fiorano. Each succeeding Mille Miglia is a race and an adventure all rolled into one, never the same as before. This is the secret of a prestigious event which every year brings together admiring, enthusiastic spectators: an opportunity for all to see that these historic cars still arouse strong emotions, even among the youngest in the vast crowds who come out to watch.
[Source: Alfa Romeo]
