Sixty-nine years ago, two Englishmen entered an open-road race known for killing people. Ten hours later, they had seen nearly 1000 miles of Italy, left fourth-gear jumps four wheels up, and spent heaps of time at 170 mph. All in a car with no safety belts, no roof, and an engine borrowed from Formula 1.
And they won.
What does that look like through a modern lens besides . . . absolutely bonkers?
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. This episode is our monthly deep dive into an epic moment from racing’s past—in this case, the 1955 Mille Miglia and Stirling Moss’s legendary, record-breaking win for Mercedes-Benz.
Related (Italian) Trivia: Ross drove Ferrari prototypes in IMSA in the 1990s. Jeff engineered those cars in the same era. Sam once got lost in Maranello while looking for a store that sold Haribo, but then he downed three espressos and everything turned out okay.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
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Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.**Topic suggestions, feedback, questions? Let us know what you think!⁠INTCPod@gmail.com