Skip to footer

Automakers gear up for 2014 Mille Miglia race in Italy

Mille Miglia, a famous car race in Italy, started on May 14 and continues through May 18. This year, some of the major automakers return to the race.

|
Felice Calabro'/AP
Actor Adrien Brody, right, and Esmeralda Brajovic sit in the cockpit of their Mercedes at the start of the "Mille Miglia" historical endurance for classic and vintage cars race, in Brescia, Italy, Thursday, May 15, 2014. The race will conclude on May 18.
  • By Viknesh Vijayenthiran Guest blogger

The original Mille Miglia was a point-to-point race on public roads in Italy, held annually from 1927 through 1940, then again from 1947 through 1957. Many now famous race cars ran the course, from Brescia to Ferrara to Rome and then back to Brescia, and many drivers made their name in the grueling course.

Unfortunately, the event was banned following the 1957 running, as two separate crashes claimed the lives of three participants and nine spectators. But in 1977, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original Mille Miglia (Italian for “1,000 Miles”), the event was re-staged in modified form, and continues to be run today. Modern cars now compete in the Rally 1000 Miglia, while vintage entries celebrate the event’s glory days in the Mille Miglia.

This year, some of the major automakers are once again participating. They include Bentley, BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, among others. Bentley is competing with two of its famous 4 ½ Liter supercharged Blowers: the 1930 Le Mans ‘Team Car’ once owned by original Bentley Boy Sir Henry Birkin, and a former company demonstrator Blower. BMW has brought an original Isetta as well as two 507s and four 328 historic racers. 

Jaguar, meanwhile, has 10 separate cars on hand ranging from XKs to C-Types and even a D-Type. The British automaker also got comedian Jay Leno to come along. He’s partnered with Jaguar design boss Ian Callum to drive a 1951 XK 120 roadster finished in original Ecurie Ecosse livery.

Finally, Mercedes-Benz, which celebrates 120 years of motorsport this year, has a varied collection of cars present including a 1928 SSK, a 1930 SS and a handful of original SLs. The German automaker also has its famous racing drivers Jochen Mass and Bernd Schneider on hand.

The 2014 Mille Miglia kicked off on May 15 and concludes on May 18.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Automakers gear up for 2014 Mille Miglia race in Italy
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2014/0517/Automakers-gear-up-for-2014-Mille-Miglia-race-in-Italy
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe