Dispatch: Five Days In Italy Driving The 2023 Mille Miglia, The Most Beautiful Race In The World
As we pull into the center of Rimini, Italy, our 1955 Porsche 356 Speedster whips into the oncoming lane around about 20 cars stopped at a red light, and smoothly settles into the intersection in front of them. A 1954 Mercedes 300 SL (that I’d later find out had been plucked from Cuba in a story worthy of its own novel) follows suit and I see the man in the driver’s seat next to me nod to the neighboring car and say, “Go?” The driver of the Gullwing nods back.
A 1952 Zagato Fiat 750 Berlinetta piloted by Hidemoto Kimura of Japan.
The light turns green, and both cars peel out, racing at 90+ km/h toward the Arch of Augustus in the old city wall as dusk falls. I look at my road book and call out the upcoming right turn in a quarter kilometer. My driver takes a very aggressive inside line, tires squealing, and once we hit the tight one-lane road, we’ve won our little drag race. As we pull up to a stage, surrounded by well over a thousand people who have stayed out late in the evening to see the arriving parade of Mille Miglia cars, the Mercedes pulls up next to us again. The driver asks, “What engine is in that?”
The Verona Arena in Verona, Italy.
“Two liter,” says my driver, sharing the secret that the engine, with its original block, had been upgraded past 1955 specs. The driver of the 300 SL responds: “That’s a lot of power.”
“Not for me,” my driver says. It’s an understatement.
The driver of our 1955 Porsche 356 Speedster: Romain Dumas.
For four out of five days of the 2023 Mille Miglia, I played co-pilot to one of the best drivers on the planet, the Porsche team driver and Chopard brand ambassador Romain Dumas. Fresh off his umpteenth time piloting at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – this time for New York-based Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus in their 3.5-liter V8 90° twin-turbo-powered hypercar – Dumas drove home to Geneva on no sleep before jumping on a train to Brescia. With only one night’s rest, Dumas took me on the ride of a lifetime through the cities and countryside of Italy for what’s been called “the most beautiful race in the world.”
The Mille Miglia is more than just a race. It’s a cultural event not only for the motorsports community but also for Italians along the 1,000-mile route from Brescia to Rome and back. Originally run 24 times from 1927 to 1957, the race was fraught with danger as drivers went flat-out across the landscape. The record time, set in 1955 by British racer Stirling Moss (a Mercedes factory driver) and Denis Jenkinson (a journalist), was 10 hours, seven minutes, and 48 seconds, at an average speed of 99 mph, a number we didn’t reach once in our little Porsche. Back then, deaths weren’t uncommon, and a major tragic accident led to the race’s cancellation in 1957 before it was reestablished as a “regularity” race in 1977. Chopard joined as the main sponsor in 1988. The brand’s Co-President, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, is a massive car enthusiast, and Chopard has, through the years, released a tremendous number of Mille Miglia-themed watches, including race editions given to the pilot of the car each year (and yes, I promise I’ll get to the watches).
Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and the legendary driver Jacky Ickx.
How do you get a rare Mercedes 300 SL out of Cuba? With the help of a Mercedes technician, the car was completely taken apart and the chassis was carefully cut, before being all being shipped as “metal.”
Paolo got into the vintage spirit.
The Chopard Mille Miglia 2022 Racing Edition in gold and steel.
Chopard’s new smaller 40mm Mille Miglia chronograph, released earlier this year.
Kids seem to have the day off when the Mille Miglia is in town. These kids were sitting on the street right next to the “sealing of the cars” in Brescia on the day of the start.
For many drivers, the Mille Miglia is still a chance to step back in time and drive flat-out with little consequence while enjoying the beautiful Italian landscape and bringing joy to the thousands of onlookers. And who can blame them? Everyone from young children to old nonnas (Italian colloquialism – and term of endearment – for grandma) cheer you on to go faster and faster through the tight streets of their tiny towns. It almost feels essential to wave back to everyone on the roadside, as if they came out there just for you. Other locals volunteer (even unofficially) to stand at the corners and point out the confusing turns of the landscape that you might miss in the thick and detailed road book that describes the route. They’re helpful, for sure, but they also get a chance to feel like they’re a part of the race.
One of my favorite nonnas of the trip in Recanati, Italy.
This 1947 Cistalia 202S MM Spider made two runs of the original Mille Miglia before starting again in 2001.
Whereas this car has made a bunch of different trips across the continent.
A team from the U.S. fielded this 1953 375 MM Spider Pininfarina. You’d be lucky to get one of these for less than $9 million. Sadly, I never saw the team again after the start line.
All cars competing in the Mille Miglia have to be the same year, make, and model as those that ran in the original 24 races. But unlike a Concours d’ Elegance, where rare cars sit quietly to be observed and appreciated, the cars here live their lives fully, often at the edge of a breakdown, regardless of frequent multi-million dollar values. A number of these cars actually competed in those original races and wore those years as badges of honor.
Unlike most races, this one is run on the open road. Drivers weave in and out of traffic, passing commuters or locals who, for the most part, smile, and wave. Flashing lights and whirring sirens of a police motorcycle behind came to feel like a blessing, a sign that the streets and traffic circles would be cleared for you so you can drive with near reckless abandon. Dumas told me the best lane to use (when you can, safely) is the “third lane” of the road – the one directly over the center line.
This local didn’t have much patience for the cars.
I’ll always remember two license plate numbers, ending 3097 and 3168. Those were the two motorcycle police that cleared the road for a good 20+ minutes so we didn’t get trapped in traffic. The sight of a good motorcycle officer behind you was a relief. A few even waved at us to go faster.
Last year James Stacey beautifully captured the atmosphere of the 2022 Mille Miglia and his ride to the starting line in a Fiat MilleCento 1100/103 TV Berlina, which unfortunately broke down along the way – an issue I’d come to commiserate with. I decided instead to focus on the drive itself and the experience along the way, with photos mostly shot from the passenger seat. Few, if any, journalist/factory-team driver pairs have “competed” in the entirety of the race since Moss and Jenkinson, so I knew it would be special. But I was nervous about spending five days – grueling days, I had been told – in a car with a stranger, let alone one far more adept in motorsports than I. How would we get along? How could I prove my worth? How would I, at 6’7″, fit into such a small car and survive the 15-hour days? Little has been written describing the experience in-depth, so I didn’t know what to expect or what would be expected of me.
Luckily enough, I was in good company. When Karl-Frederich Scheufele met legendary driver and six-time Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx at Germany’s Nürburgring racetrack back in 1988, it seemed like fate. Ickx “had a problem” with his wife’s jewelry that Scheufele promised to fix, and when Ickx came to pick it up later, Scheufele asked him if he wanted to do the Mille Miglia in the very same 300 SL they were in this year. The two had not spoken in the interim, nor would they really speak until Ickx showed up in Italy and then surprised Scheufele by telling him that Scheufele would be driving.
The lineup of Chopard team cars outside the hotel near Brescia.
The two got along just fine, they told me, and by the time they arrived in Rome, Ickx was sound asleep in the passenger seat. “I like to watch the scenery and relax,” Ickx told me. After a lifetime of driving, who can blame him?
Romain Dumas made the time nearly as easy for me. He is admittedly not a watch “nerd” in the same way I couldn’t tell you much about an engine, but somehow me showing him watch movements and him talking to me about engines allowed us to find common ground. We would skip most of the “regulation” tests, content with watching the landscape and trying to get to the finish each night as fast as we could to maximize what little sleep we could get. And while he wasn’t “racing,” there were times when we went from cruising comfortably to Dumas proving his skill in a car, taking any gap he could (most of which I wouldn’t trust anyone else to navigate), silently reminding me of how talented he truly is. Meanwhile, I had the responsibility of minding the road book (an invention that came out of the record-breaking 1955 race and a secret to that team’s success).
A commentator talking to Dumas at one of the stops on the Mille Miglia. The gentleman seemed to be holding up one finger for each of Dumas’ class wins at Le Mans (two overall wins and one class win with Porsche 2013).
But Dumas seemed to know exactly when I was distracted by posting on Instagram or photographing the landscape. “What’s next, chef?” he’d ask me, just to get me back on track, watching our road book. But even amidst our four breakdowns (one replaced clutch, one finicky carburetor that left our engine dying on any incline, and well… two times we forgot to refuel and had to “surf” our car downhill to a nearby gas station), torrential downpours, and the oppressive heat, Dumas kept our spirits high. He loved to do impressions of American phrases (“check this out!” he’d say in a nasally American accent). Often the Italian emcees at the stops would read our car number off their list and suddenly realize they were in the presence of a Le Mans champion. One commentator was so excited his voice got faster and faster until he was just shouting “ROMAINDUMASROMAINDUMAS!” Eventually, Dumas was shouting it too, miles later on the open road, still amused.
Then there’s the watch. Every driver gets a Mille Miglia chronograph from Chopard as a part of their entry. It’s a fantastic way to commemorate your time on the road. This year’s watch follows the size of last year’s: A 44mm-cased “Italian Limited Edition” Mille Miglia GTS Chronograph, this time with a cream dial and green and red accents. Co-pilots are given a discounted rate to purchase the watch, but I heard from some co-pilots that these watches sold out fast. I believe 40 watches were put aside for Italian retailers, and 60 were offered to co-pilots, with the 400 pilots rounding the total production out to 500 watches. Some of the proceeds from the watch will be donated to victims of the recent Emilia-Romagna flood disaster, which devastated much of the region.
Who better to model the new Chopard “Italian Limited Edition” Mille Miglia GTS Chronograph than Jacky Ickx?
Some of the proceeds of the sale of the 2023 watch will be donated to victims of the recent Emilia-Romagna flood disaster in Italy.
There are too many stories to recount from the five-day trip – breaking down on the side of the road only to find another driver’s phone and somehow miraculously reuniting it with its owner at lunch was one odd highlight. There were the Hodinkee readers from Germany, who were tracking our car on the Mille Miglia website, that I ran into on the side of the road. One of the best moments was running into Roger Smith (yes, that Roger Smith), fresh off the recent record-setting sale of his second-ever watch at Phillips, sitting in the co-pilot’s seat of a 1932 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS Spider Zagato on his second Mille Miglia. In fact, the first time I saw him, he was peeling out of the Piazza De Campo in Siena.
Roger Smith waving as his pilot, Keith Roberts, hit the gas.
Yet here we are, with well over 100 photos from five days. It might be a slog for some, I know, but it’s an experience unlike any other and one that few people will ever get to have. My job, as I see it, was to bring that experience (the good and the bad) to those of you who might not be fortunate enough to do it yourself. For others, maybe this story will inspire a you to put life on hold for a week and, if you’re lucky, take to the roads of Italy.
As they say in Italy, andiamo!
Everyone has to start their process checking in with their paperwork, including health forms, liability forms, and more. That includes the Co-President of the main sponsor Chopard, Karl-Frederich Scheufele, and six-time Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx.
Next the Carabinieri check drivers licenses. My New York driver’s licenses needed an extra international AAA license to go with it; meanwhile Romain Dumas just needed his FIA Platinum drivers license, something only 182 professional drivers hold.
Jacky Ickx looks on as Chopard brand ambassador Zhu Yilong tries out the fit of the Porsche Speedster the day before the race. Zhu Yilong would ride the first 30 minutes of the race with Romain for photos and promotion for Chopard, and the rest would be left up to me to co-pilot.
A Mille Miglia GTS.
And another with the “fuel gauge” power reserve indicator and a lot of love over the years, apparently.
A 42mm Chopard Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph, limited to 1,000 pieces.
A Mille Miglia 2018 Race Edition.
Leaving our hotel, Google Maps sent us down a one-way road, so we were already a bit late.
Pulling into Brescia for the sealing of the car.
The area in Brescia where the cars were “sealed” was a mess of people. James Stacey covered it last year better than I ever could have.
Cars arriving in Brescia.
It seems like everyone stops what they’re doing to take a look at the passing cars.
Meanwhile the police were getting ready. Apparently the choice was between classic cars…
… and something a bit more modern.
Of course it only took a few minutes for Romain Dumas to bump into another Le Mans driver, Matteo Cressoni.
A Mille Miglia GTS Chronograph.
One of the new, slightly smaller 40mm Mille Miglia chronographs.
We left the piazza…
… for the Mille Miglia Museum in Brescia where the cars start from.
It was the 100th anniversary of the Italian Air Force, so we would later visit a number of Air Force bases.
Getting ready to head out in a 1952 Jaguar XK120 OTS Roadster.
And without much further ado, they’re off. In this case in a 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2600 MM Spider Zagato “SF.”
Unfortunately the Porsche didn’t get far, but Pietro Tenconi didn’t seem to worry. He is the owner of Classic Car Charters and the head of the 20-person technical assistance team available to all his 14 cars in the Mille Miglia this year.
The car broke down outside this Italian home, and the group watched the fix while Googling the names on the car, surprised to see a Le Mans winner and famous Chinese actor in their front yard.
Romain Dumas wearing the 2023 Limited Edition Mille Miglia chronograph.
Pietro Tenconi wearing his own Mille Miglia chronograph.
Our first regulation test was at an Air Force base, where we were greeted by this excited supporter.
We didn’t get much farther before we realized that there was not only an ignition issue but the lack of a gas gauge was also a problem. We were bone dry and needed a jump start.
We eventually got back on the road and passed this incredibly rare 1955 Pierre Ferry F750 Renault.
I quickly lost track of what towns we were in. Here we were behind a 1957 Austin Healey 100/6.
As the sun started to set we were close to done for the first day, but not quite finished.
We eventually arrived at a traffic jam at the famed Imola race track. I didn’t get much in the way of photos at Imola. Romain has driven it a few times so he decided to take it flat-out, skidding through corners and chicanes at high speeds – and I just held on.
This was the moment we arrived at the final stop for the night. The bright lights and elevated stage made it clear that this show was as much for everyone else as it was for us.
The next day started out running through tunnels and up through higher elevations in the Italian countryside.
Some people decided to stop for snacks, like the Italians Massimo Di Risio and Giovanna Cianfrani in their 1949 O.S.C.A. MT4 1100 Siluro.
The road quickly wound up through San Marino, and I caught this picture of two of the Chopard team racers, Marc-Julian Siewert and Moritz Hardieck, in their 1950 Jaguar XK120 OTS Roadster Lightweight. The two put up with rain and windy conditions in an open cockpit all week and did so with a smile.
This was the only time that the two of us got out of the car to take pictures. It was also the only time we technically left Italy. San Marino has some incredible views.
In the back is a great 1953 Aston Martin DB2 Vantage.
Alberto Peragnoli and Carlo Peragnoli of Italy were giving Romain quite the hard time while driving their 1952 Jaguar XK120 OTS Roadster. When you’re a Le Mans driver who prides himself on stopping to talk with fans, everyone knows you.
Eddy Duquenne and Jos De Vuyst of Belgium had one of my favorite cars of the week, an incredibly rare 1951 Hersham and Walton Motors Alta-Jaguar.
The police and traffic police were heroes, blocking streets when a group of Mille Miglia cars drove through.
This 1951 Paganelli Lancia Aurelia B20 2000 Sport decided to stop during a reset period and top up on oil. Probably a good thing – we noticed a lot of black smoke coming out of the back on the way into town.
Jacky Ickx and Karl-Frederich Scheufele pulled up next to us at the reset point and the moment the door opened, the two were swarmed by cameras.
This woman was my other favorite nonna of the entire trip. Ferrari umbrella, pizza in the same hand, she reached out to me as we slowed to pass the group, held my hand for a few seconds, and wished us well before we departed.
Each day there was a lunch break with great food and a chance for everyone to catch up and depart again at their allotted times.
Every day we got an espresso doppio (or two) before getting back on the road.
Shortly after lunch the rain started. We threw on our rain jackets but decided against putting the top up. That only lasted about an hour before we chose to save ourselves from getting even more soaked.
That was not an option for the folks in this 1945 D.B. Citroen Spider. This car ran the Mille Miglia in 1950 as well.
1949 FIAT 1100 B Berlina.
1939 MG TB.
I love the unfinished look of this 1951 Paganelli-Lancia Aurelia B20 2000 Sport. But I’m guessing they wished they had a roof right about then.
Every so often there was a stop where we got a piece of paper stamped to prove we had done all sections of the race. If you don’t, you get penalized. That matters if you were gunning for the win. Spoiler: we were not.
Rough time for engine trouble in the rain.
That 1951 Hersham and Walton Motors Alta-Jaguar looks even better in the rain.
1948 Cistalia 202 SC Berlinetta Pinin Farina that ran the race in 1949.
A 1929 Chrysler 75.
1947 Cisitalia 202 S MM Spider.
1929 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 SS Zagato.
Eventually we pulled into Rome and once we made it across the line I plotted us a course to our hotel.
That course unexpectedly took us past this familiar-looking structure.
Rome was only the halfway point, so on the third day, we started to head back.
Maybe my favorite car of the race, the 1953 Ferrari 250 MM Berlinetta Pininfarina. Want one for yourself? Better have a cool $7.5-9 million handy. The 1953 Fiat 1100/103 Berlina in the back is fun too.
1952 FIAT 8V Berlinetta.
Then we started to pull into one of my favorite stops of the entire trip. The streets were narrow and Romain had told me that it was incredible but I didn’t know what to expect.
Welcome…
… to Piazza del Campo, Siena.
Roger Smith and his pilot, Keith Roberts, sure seemed like they were having fun.
A Speedmaster on Roger Smith’s wrist.
Sadly our day would end shortly after. The car broke down on the side of the road and a van from our technical team picked us up while a flatbed towed the car to Torino for overnight repairs.
Romain Dumas speaking with Eduardo Tenconi, the father of Pietro, who ran our technical assistance, who restarted running the Mille Miglia route with 15 friends, unofficially in 1970.
Not exactly a Mille Miglia car but we passed this 1971 Shelby Cobra a few times on day four…? What day were we on? I think four.
Another favorite car from the week, a 1955 Maserati A6 GCS/53 Fantuzzi. Anyone want to go in on one with me?
A 1950 Fiat 1000 ES Berlinetta Pinin Farina and 1953 Jaguar XK120 OTS Roadster.
We broke down just over that hill in Case Boschetti but this Mercedes 300SL had no problems.
Eventually we got to lunch and saw one of the most incredible groupings of Ferrari’s I’ve ever seen. There were at least 50, almost all different models.
You don’t see too many F40s in Giallo Modena yellow.
Speaking of great Ferraris, check out this 1951 340 America Spider Vignale.
The race is far safer than the original era, but accidents do happen. I don’t know what happened here but having seen drivers cut through traffic far closer than they maybe should have, it wouldn’t surprise me if the tractor swerved to get out of the way and crashed.
While we had rain on day two, day four meant warm weather and no clouds, so the umbrellas had more than one role.
1945 D.B. Citroen Spider.
1950 Aston Martin DB2 Drophead Coupé.
1946 Ermini Fiat 1100 Sport.
1952 Fiat AR 51 Campagnola.
If you want to cruise in style may I suggest a 1935 Bentley 3.5 Litre?
Traffic in Milan was a MESS. While the Carabinieri take care of the streets outside the cities, it’s up to local police to manage most traffic in the bigger cities. In Milan it was a free-for-all until we realized that if we were already breaking traffic laws, why not use the bus and taxi lanes?
It was all worth it once we got to pull up to the Duomo in the heart of the city.
Tourists in the Piazza del Duomo.
These guys were giving Romain a hard time for not making more of an effort to be at the top of the leaderboard, but earlier cars get more points, so the only people truly in the running are the oldest and most reliable cars.
As the day wound down in Milan it was time to say goodbye to Romain Dumas. He would hop in a car and drive from Milan to Nice to catch a flight to the U.S., where he’d be competing at Pikes Peak Hill Climb.
The next day I drove with Pietro Tenconi, who had 14 of his company’s cars (and 20 employees) in or supporting the race this year.
Pietro was wearing the Chopard Mille Miglia Zagato edition from 2019, which we wrote about here.
The lineup at the start of the last day was particularly chaotic.
One of my favorite watches of the week, the Chopard Mille Miglia 70th Anniversary Watch from 1997.
Pietro decided we’d take a shortcut and we accidentally got to the second stage first, 244 cars too early, so we pulled over for an Aperol spritz.
Getting closer to the finish.
One of the last stops for stamps!
Pietro got stopped by about a dozen people in a short period of time because he’s so close with so many of the organizers and automotive clubs.
In case you forgot who the main sponsor was this year.
When you get to the finish line, you have to wait to cross.
1948 Cisitalia 204 Spyder Sport.
Then came time to collect our medals for completing the Mille Miglia. By this point I was already texting friends to try to find a way to do it again.
At the end of the race you can do your best to look as good as Giulio and Gregorio Ghersi, here with their Fiat AR 51 Campagnola.
But you probably will feel a little like the grill of this Lagonda. Either way, it’ll all be worth it.
Shop this story
Hodinkee is an authorized retailer of Chopard. Explore more here.
Hodinkee
