Mille Miglia, 1927–1957: The Fabulous Story of the Great Road Race. (First English Edition)

A$110 · Offered by Harry Hartog Rare Books · No longer available

LURANI, Count Giovanni. Mille Miglia, 1927–1957: The Fabulous Story of the Great Road Race. Lausanne: Automobile Year (Edita SA), 1981. Quarto (30 x 23 cm). Original publisher's bold red leatherette. Cover and spine gilt. Pictorial dust jacket. 207, [i] pp., illustrated throughout with black-and-white photographs and circuit maps of every route. First edition in English (originally published in Italian, 1979). The Mille Miglia — a thousand miles of open Italian road, run from Brescia south to Rome and back, through towns and villages where the crowds stood inches from the passing cars — was staged twenty-four times between 1927 and 1957, and it was like nothing else in the history of sport. More than a race, this was a national event and a seasonal ritual. The names of its great winners — Nuvolari, Varzi, Campari, Caracciola, Moss — read like a roll-call of the greatest drivers in automotive history, and the cars they drove were among the most celebrated objects the twentieth century produced. Count Giovanni Lurani was uniquely placed to write its history. A fine racing driver himself, he competed in nine editions of the Mille Miglia between 1932 and 1952, finishing three times first in his class. This history provided him with an intimate knowledge of the race: its greatest moments of triumph and tragedy, and the vivid personalities that were involved. Narrated year-by-year, this is a definitive authority and chronicling of the event - the only account written from the insid

• Binding: Hardcover

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