As you well know we finally got to the world's largest moving classic car show. What a blast! See the website Mille Miglia 2003 for some info. We went a couple days in a advance to meet with the American teams (only 30 accepted from US per year). Half of them meet at this little Locanda (hotel) out of Parma in the town of Soragna. Ferrari invited us for a special tour, introducing the new Maserati Quatroporte and wined and dined us one afternoon. Jaguar hosted a 14 course meal at a castle for us and I'm telling you the whole event was everything I ever dreamed of. p>Rosa was my co-pilota and actually was excellent as a navigator and partner. We were not serious about the timing thing after the first couple timed events. Not your cutthroat rally guys. And actually we were retired the 2nd afternoon for missing two checkpoints after our radiator cracked and we had it fixed and back in the car 2 hrs but wanted to catch up to the group. We go 2 kilos to the finish when the car finally broke. Cracked radiator, blown head gasket, driveshaft busted and went through the center console.
Fortunately, no injuries. We had the car blessed at the Duomo in Brescia and when the radiator broke, we went to the Duomo in Urbino for a little help too. I can only say this was the most amazing display of men and their toys ever. We saw a 6 million dollar Ferrari get t-boned at an intersection, a 1.5 m Maserati race car hit the rear of a 2m Ferrari. Lucky for us I only had a Moretti. Not a precious, but every bit a cute and of course red and Italian.
The people of Italy were out in droves. Even at 2am in the middle of nowhere, groups of people standing alongside the road to wish you on and putting their hands up to their ears shouting something in Italian that much have meant "Lets hear that engine!!!" Andiamo!!! Of course our car number as you can see on the website was 356. Very lucky, my birthday was 3/56! The car is also a '56. Here is our story:
Italian Mille Miglia
The unprecedented most famous of all vintage rallies in the world. Just got back May 22-25. Invited to the challenge after 10 years of applications, three eligible autos (they have to be either of the type or the actual cars that were raced in the event from 1928-1958) and much time anticipating the letter of confirmation that arrives in February after a four month wait from application.
Then, there is the two month hurry up and get the car in perfect running order to be shipped as soon as possible. What, after 9/11 and with the war in Iraq, this year it was very difficult as well as expensive to even get the car to Italy. Understand that they only accept 30 US teams per year for the race of 375 autos. The acceptance rate is something like getting into Medical school. My wife accepted the offer to be Co-Pilota and navigator. Only a dozen or so husband/wife teams for the event.
A couple of days in Milan to unwind from travel and to prepare mentally. Take the train to Fidenza outside Parma where we hopped a cab to Soragna. In Soragna, a very small country town famous of course for Prosciutto(Parma Ham) and Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan) cheese, there is a pre-event meeting of the US teams who wished to party and enjoy food, wine and English speaking company. Several events hosted by Ferrari and Jaguar made the two days pre-race unbelievable! You understand the 14 course Italian lunch or supper. Try one at some castle outside Soragna where the of this or that built this Enormous Edifice for his mistress and painted it white because her name was Bianca. And then the oil paintings and the portraits. My goodness Bianca was the ugliest...She must have been treated really well! Ok, so the car was delivered like clockwork by A. N. Deringer from the US to the US team mechanic in Soragna. Uncrated and tested, our '56 Moretti 1500 sports racer was ready for adventure.
Next morning departure for Brescia where the race beings. Overnight in a very nice hotel with great food. But no sleep, too excited. This event covers 45 cities in 3 days, driving at speed in cars older than most of the participants. Autos range from 30K Lancia's or Alfa's to 6 million dollar Ferraris. Men and their toys. A high speed traveling Concours d' elegance. But after a few miles, rarely was there a thought about the value of the car and what could happen on the road in an old car. These vehicles were driven as they were new Ferraris. After 5 hours pushing the car through the city of Brescia along side many of the worlds most precious moving art the scrutineering tent is reached. The 375 cars are pushed by hand as to not start/stop and destroy starters, engines and to limit fumes in the city. At scrutineering, the worlds record keeper of old cars, FIVA(Federation Internationale Vehicles Anciens) inspects the cars to make sure there is no attempt to modernize or to upgrade the vehicle. It should be run as it had run. Several counterfeit autos were disqualified at the dismay of the owners. Could you imagine spending the wad and finding out at last minute your car is a reproduction?
Our car was numbered 356, fitting for my birthdate was March of 56 and the car was a 1956. Maybe a good sign? From the city center in Brescia, the first leg was dinner at a Monastery outside of town. Great food again, this time en-masse with all those cars in the parking areas. Then to the start area, again pushing the car a mile or so until reaching the starting ramp where the Queen Mother of Brescia offers flowers and "Buca Lupo" or the Italian version of "Break a leg" because saying good luck is not very lucky!
Our start time was 10:30pm with expected arrival in Ferrara at sometime between 2 and 2:30am with several time stamps and time trials on the way. Time stamps are to evaluate and control speed. You see in 1957 the Spanish race car driver De Portago had a tire burst at speed (175mph) and his car took out some 9 spectators and the driver and co-pilot. The race for speed around Italy was run for the last time and current retrospective timed rally emulates the route, the cars and the regalia, but keeps check on those who may be entirely too fast or out of control.
Out of Ferrara after 4-5 hrs of sleep and on the road to Rome. Delightful weather was so unheard of since for the past several decades it has always rained in Brescia and en-route for the Mille Miglia. We were pleased to have our Florida type hot muggy weather with no rain since our car was an open sports racer.
Problems developed after several checkpoints and at our lunch. The roughness of the cobblestone roadways leading into each of the small Italian Feudal cities and the bumpiness of the ride caused a deterioration of the connecting donut in the driveline between transmission and driveshaft. Luckily, I had a spare donut but only one. A five minute repair and we were off but now a crack in the radiator. Through the country of San Marino (a country within Italy) we roared up the swithbacks to the summit for our time stamp. At lunch our retained Italian mechanic pulled the radiator and had it back in the car and we were off and running within 2 hrs. Of course before starting up we headed up the hill in Urbino to have the car blessed by the priest at the Duomo there.
A bit late for the checkpoints we decided to catch up with the group and took a short cut which immediately retired our number. No big deal, we were still in the race just not able to win! By Asissi, we found the oldies on path of the Mille Miglia again. A few more cities then we found ourselves with all the other cars stopped for a grand entrance to Roma. By 11pm the road into Rome had been completely shut down by the Polizia. It was really grand but the cobblestones and pavement in the old city continued to beat on our antique car. Around the Circus and Vatican then past the Colleseum to the outskirts where we had accommodations for the night. We had to scrub the dirt from our ears at least four times before being presentable to go for dinner by 2am. Then fast asleep. Up at 7 for the last leg from Rome to Brescia through Tuscany with highlights of Siena and Florence.
By late morning after getting lost leaving Rome (everyone gets lost leaving Rome) the head gasket was a gonner. Oil in the radiator and worse, bubbling water around the spark plug from cylinder 1. Loss of power but not stamina. We trudged onward and in those instances of rest and start through the smaller cities our car had sudden spurts of energy and performed like that a new Ferrari it once had been thought to be.
My Co-pilota developed a bit of carbon monoxide poisoning. I figured this out as she was complaining about headache during the mid day sun and then started passing out here and there. We had to stop for an hour or so in a small hillside town near Grave after Siena. Tuscany is gorgeous. Wonderful for families and children. Lots of small towns with parks. A gelateria on every corner. And, rolling hills with bountiful crops and of course the wine. But, we were driving, no wine, not yet! A rest, some gelato and water for the radiator, we were off again. Well revived, my co-pilota felt good and had no further problems.
We saw Florence (Firenza) quickly. In fact I don't think we were there but 40 minutes and saw the entire city, the whole tourist package, Ponte Vecchio, the Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio, Duomo, Pitti Palace. This was behind our polizia escort and at very high speed with all traffic and pedestrians gone from our path.
Through two of Italy's most treacherous mountain passes we headed for Bologna and Modena. Then straight out for the finish in Brescia, no more time stamps or trials. Did I mention the crowds? Well, this event is par to the World Cup, the Superbowl and affects people and crowds the same way. There are droves of people, bystanders, cheering squads and kids shouting and waving. They love to see the cars. They love to hear the cars. They love to encourage the drivers to speed up! Even at 2am in the most out of way place there would be a crowd of people shouting "ANDIAMO!" Even when refueling there were crowds of people at the stations, offering food, drinks, encouragement and directions to the drivers. With all the crowds especially situated at the ending of the race, and with our adrenaline flowing because we were actually going to make the most grueling rally of antique vehicles ever, we actually missed the turn into Brescia, the finish point. Now on the highway where there were no more crowds we figured we needed to turn around. We did and then at speed to catch up to the rest of the cars we heard an awful sound. Then more and louder noise, coming from beneath our seats. All of a sudden the driveshaft of our cute car became a claw like appendage of a monster slicing through the steel center console sending shrapnel and rivets flying. The car came to an abrupt stop. No more race. Fini. Two kilometers from the finish line. Well, we were alive unscathed, not burned and the car needed to be fixed but if you think about it we really did finish. We did the 1000 miles plus some with getting lost. We actually were officially retired after the second morning so what matter to cross the finish line. We did it. To me and my co-pilota this was the adventure of a lifetime, after the agonizing wait for seemed a lifetime to be accepted and finally to go the route against competitors who had much more experience, better cars and whole crews of mechanics and support people. We did it and are so happy to be here to tell of our adventure, the 2003 Mille Miglia.