Conte Maggi's Mille Miglia [Hardcover]

Peter Miller (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Mille Miglia, a 1000-mile car race run over the back roads of northern Italy, was inaugurated in 1927 and discontinued 30 years later, banned by the government after a crash killed 10 spectators. One of the four founders of the race was Count Aymo Maggi, and sports journalist Miller, who has procured Maggi's widow's family racing photo albums, here couples pictures with brief snatches of text. Supplementing Miller's words are contributions from former participantslike Stirling Moss, Alfred Neubauer and Enzo Ferrariwho tell of their roles in the races. Because the Mille Miglia was one of the top races, the text will please auto racing buffs; the photos, however, are almost uniformly mediocre.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 164 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (November 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312025254
• ISBN-13: 978-0312025250
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,492,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Conte Maggi's Mille Miglia, June 20, 2000

By 

Simon Boulton (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conte Maggi's Mille Miglia (Hardcover)

During its thirty years of existence, from 1927 to 1957, the Mille Miglia was considered "the greatest road race in the world." In his book Peter Miller has captured the spirit of this great event with over 150 photographs - many of which have never been published, and contributions from Stirling Moss, Piero Taruffi, Alfred Neubauer and the Contessa di Maggi. Miller has produced a family album because when the race was held all the drivers were treated as family and the event took on the feeling of a family reunion at the Maggis' Calino villa. The story of the Mille Miglia is the story of one man's dream, Conte Aymo Maggi with the help of three friends sought to revenge the loss of the Italian Grand Prix to Milan by creating the worlds greatest road race for sports cars. They wanted to spur the Italian motor industry out of its doldrums and bring publicity to Brescia. The four musketeers as they were known decided on a race from Brescia to Rome and back to Brescia. The distance of approximately 1600 kilometers converted to 1000 miles which had a nice ring to it. One of the four Franco Mazzotti remarked that the Roman legions used to calculate their marches in miles "so why don't we call it a race for the Coppa della Mille Miglia?" Renzo Castegneto, who would become Maggi's right hand man and the one responsible for the organization of the race came up with the famous symbol of the red arrow emblazoned with the words 1000 MIGLIA.

Chapters such as Race Hazards, the Final Lap and The Man Who Loved Life bring back echoes of a long gone age. Peter Miller describes all of the problems that had to be overcome each year the race was run, the politics and the rivalries that are a part of Italian daily life are all described in an engaging style. We learn of Conte Maggi's own racing exploits as one of the leading Italian drivers of the 20's. The race would take more and more of his energy and he discontinued driving. In the end it was said that he died of a broken heart when his race was banned after 1957.