The sorcerer of speed
IF YOU FIND YOURSELF between Brescia and Rome in mid-June, you may come across a fleet of achingly beautiful classic cars haring along equally beautiful roads. The 1,000-mile MILLE MIGLIA is now a five-day rally more about fun than competition: but back in the day it was a brutal non-stop race, and in 1955 it witnessed perhaps the greatest single performance in motorsport history.
The roads were closed, but they were still unprepared public carriageways rather than racetracks, and spectators in their hordes crowded as close as they dared. Drivers didn’t wear“safer” was very much a relative term — and many preferred not to carry a navigator, wanting to be responsible only for their own safety rather than someone else’s too.
