The World's Greatest Motor Competitions The Mille Miglia

It is over 30 years since the Mille Miglia was last run in its original form and in the intervening years the race has grown into a heroic legend; it has come to symbolise a Golden Age of the sport. For most of its history the Mlle Miglia was paid little attention outside of Italy and foreign competitors were few. A number of British works cars, MG for example, which took part averaged no more than one or two per race across the years and it was rare for any non-Italian team to mount a full-scale assault on the race. In retrospect, however, the Mille Miglia has acquired an aura internationally even greater than that it possessed in its day. In this well illustrated and informative book Mike Lawrence has cast a critical eye over the event's history tracing it from a conversation between four friends in 1926 to the last, tragic race in 1957. He has given an account of each race year by year, including the fantastic 1955 win by Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson and put it in the context of both motor racing and European history. He has also attempted to answer the question, why has the memory and the idea of the Mille Miglia become so potent? Illustrated with 80 black and white photographs 12 colour photographs.