The 2009 edition of Italy’s Mille Miglia Storica attracted its usual mixed bag of royalty, politicians, motor racing icons, and showbiz folk, all presided over by Italian TV actress Manuela Arcuri, whose love life is of constant speculation in the country’s media. The regularity race’s impressive collection of 378 spectacular vintage cars made its stately way from Brescia to Rome and back, driven by people like Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Princess Annette Sekrève in a snarling Porsche 550 1500 RS, while Formula One retiree David Coulthard drove one of the original 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLRs, and the Mayor of Moscow, Juri Luzhkov, with Elena Baturina, made do with a 1934 Talbot AV 105.
Two prime ministers attended the event, one serving and the other out of office. Gijs van Lennep, 24 Hours of Le Mans and Targa Florio winner, chauffeured Dutch PM Jan Peter Balkenende in another Porsche 550 1500 RS, while Walter Pauwels did likewise for Belgian ex-premier Guy Verhofstadt in a more modest 1954 Fiat 1100 TV.
The new organizers, Mac Events, Meet Comunicazione, and San Remo Rally, truly got into the swing of things this year after hurriedly taking over the 2008 event. This time, they inaugurated the Mille Miglia Community, a kind of database and means of communication to which competitors past and present will have access under the banner 1,000 milers. Then there was the new “Terra di Mille Miglia,” a means of bringing together the 480 municipal areas through which the event was run between 1927 and 1957, and those the 2009 event passed through. Each car was “twinned” with a municipal area, and this year carried a sticker bearing the name of its adopted community. Each town or village could underline its association with the Mille Miglia by placing the same sticker on its own police cars. Even the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, became involved, awarding a silver plaque to the Mille Miglia in recognition of the event’s historic, sporting, cultural, and financial relevance.
The proceedings got off to a frightening start on the Thursday evening (May 14). As the daughter of the former mayor of Brescia, Franca Boni, an 11-time winner of the Mille Miglia Storica’s Ladies Cup, was driving her 1949 Lancia Aprillia between San Martino della Battaglia and Rivoltella, a number of spectators set off some fireworks. A rocket flew into the Lancia and went off inside the car, seriously injuring one of Ms Boni’s eyes. She was immediately taken to hospital and subsequently withdrew from the race.
The long line of priceless vintage gems continued on to Verona, Ferrari, the hilltop Republic of San Marino, Rieti, and Rome. After an overnight stop in the capital, it was back to Brescia via Viterbo, Siena, Florence, Modena, Parma, and Cremona.
Perhaps the star of the show was not a car from the time between 1927 and 1957 at all, but one that hasn’t been built yet, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Stirling Moss. It didn’t compete in the rerun of the famous race, but followed along driven by double Formula One World Champion, Mika Hakkinen.
The new SLR commemorates Sir Stirling’s incredibly courageous victory in the 1955 Mille Miglia at the wheel of Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR number 722. He and codriver Denis Jenkinson completed the course in 10 hours 7 minutes 48 seconds, at an average speed of 98.5 mph, a record that was never broken.
With no roof and no windscreen, this future Mercedes can be best termed a speedster, and only 75 of the two-seaters will be built between June and December of this year, bringing to a close the current SLR story. The exclusive new McLaren-built car is powered by a 5.4-liter, 650-hp engine, and will cost 750,000 euros, ergo well over a million U.S. dollars, and only loyal Mercedes customers will be allowed to buy it.
Back at this year’s event, initiate David Coulthard summed up his experience: “I was really happy to drive through the marvellous cities and small towns of Italy, where the people were, to say the least, enthusiastic; and to discover a little of the culture, art, and nature of this beautiful country. It is difficult to describe the joy I felt in Rome and Siena, even if the real adrenaline was the route itself, battling against the other competitors.”
In the end, the win went to Italians Bruno and Carlo Ferrari in a Bugatti Tipo 37, with Argentineans Carlos Sielecki and Juan Hervas 2nd in their Bugatti Tipo 35 A, and previous winners Luciano and Antonio Viaro 3rd in the Alfa Romeo Museum’s 6C 1500 Super Sport.
