Mille Miglia - that's not just translated 1000 miles. It is the most famous classic car rally in the world and every kilometer counts for eternity. Especially when you are driving a Mercedes 300 SL.
Is 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds a long time? Depends on. But certainly not to race around 1000 miles from Brescia to Rome and back in 1955. A certain Stirling Moss did that at the Mille Miglia in Italy. No one has ever completed the course faster than the British racing legend in an open-top Mercedes 300 SLR: His average speed of 157.651 km/h on public, albeit mostly closed roads is therefore unrivaled to this day.
In the mid-1950s, the Swabians were once again at the forefront of Formula 1 and sports cars. Ordinary mortals could also get a taste of motorsports air if they were well-heeled. For example in the 300 SL sports car, which was launched as a coupé with gullwing doors and as a roadster. How big the myth of Moss, Mercedes and Co. still is in Italy can be experienced today at the Mille Miglia.
Since 1977, this has been held again as a regularity drive for historic cars - also a select circle. Anyone who has a qualifying car and can currently pay around 10,000 euros per team can take part. Whereby the participation fee is still the smallest chunk. Only cars that were entered in the original races between 1927 and 1957 are allowed to start. So the fleet is correspondingly noble - and correspondingly expensive.
And hardly any other car is as valuable as the 300 SL Gullwing. Mercedes has just redeemed 135 million euros for a special example. This tripled the previous record of a Ferrari GTO. However, this was not one of the 1,400 Gullwing models that Mercedes produced largely by hand between 1954 and 1963. It was about the so-called 300 SLR Uhlenhaut coupé, which was only built twice. It was based on the 300 SLR that Moss drove to victory in the Mille Miglia.
But even a normal 300 SL is hard to come by today for less than seven-figure prices. But that too is just a logical continuation of history. After all, the gullwing cost 29,500 German marks when it premiered in 1954, and for the majority of people it was a car from another planet.
And yet the coupe is worth every penny today, at least when you drive it at the Mille Miglia. What is considered the most famous vintage car rally in the world is only formally a regularity drive. Unofficially, however, the annual event is a new edition of the race, in which the police turn a blind eye and many carabinieri themselves take the opportunity to finally drive out their patrol cars and motorcycles. And probably no other car has as much street credibility over the 1000 miles as the gullwing.
Instead of getting annoyed that the Mercedes often cuts corners, cheating its way to the left in a traffic light jam, only to turn right in the end, or even forcing oncoming traffic to brake when overtaking, hearts fly to it everywhere. Instead of wild curses, the only thing he hears is one sentence, which you can understand straight away even without an Italian course: "Che bella macchina".
The Italian love of cars is hot and deep. And she literally follows her very own laws here. Even the police officers smile enthusiastically when the vintage cars fly over the country roads beyond the limit. They block intersections, wave the PS gems through red traffic lights and, if in doubt, escort the classic caravan through the rush hour with flashing lights and full throttle when the organized chaos in Parma or around Milan gets too big again.
Unfortunately, the enthusiasm cannot be transferred to the many stationary speed traps, so that one is hardly protected from traffic tickets. But at least from the Carabinieri there is an encouraging pat on the back instead of sanctions.
Many thousands of spectators at the side of the road, from schoolboys to priests, give every single participant the feeling of being a hero who has really achieved something. The applause for Stirling Moss couldn't have been greater than the enthusiasm that greeted the around 450 vintage cars in every small town. And the older the car, the louder the engine and the dirtier the driver, the more frenetic the celebrations.
You hardly notice that the gullwing has been on its narrow wheels for 70 years. While other cars from similar years still look like motorized carriages, it drives (almost) like a modern car - apart from the toothless drum brakes.
Yes, it gets hot as hell in the surprisingly spacious cabin once inside. The spectacular double doors above the high parapet require a bit of gymnastics beforehand. And it's better not to think about an accident in the first place. Because long before standard seat belts or even ABS and ESP, apart from the thin tubular space frame, there was nothing that could save your life.
But the engine purrs like on the first day, the gears just slip through the four-speed gearbox. And the road holding fuels an unshakable trust in the developers of yore. The six in-line cylinders have a displacement of three liters and mobilize 158 kW/215 hp.
They only really get going after 4000 tours. Then, however, the silver arrow shoots through Tuscany, Marche or Lazio as if there were no stopping it. With a sprint value of around ten seconds, he literally leaves much younger competitors behind. The cypress trees along the way blur into a green veil at a top speed of well over 200 km/h.
Halfway through the rally we roll into Rome just before midnight, escorted by the police at full throttle around the Colosseum through the Eternal City. Then at the latest you actually feel like Stirling Moss on his record drive for eternity.
In the end, the participants sit in the car almost four times as long as Sir Stirling, who died in 2020. And at least during the three dozen special stages with an extra low average speed or crawling to the second, they even deliberately took their foot off the gas. But when the 300 SL rolls over the finish ramp after 1000 miles on the red carpet in Brescia, 70 years have melted into four days - and one realization: the legend is more alive than ever.
