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 Stuttgart/Brescia
– “Mille Miglia” stands for the
fascinating history of motor racing legends. Again
and again, the famous racing sports cars from Mercedes-Benz and their
drivers
have reached new heights in this legendary Italian thousand-mile race.
This is
now being marked by the “Mercedes-Benz Champions at Mille
Miglia” exhibition at
the Museo Mille Miglia in Brescia. This event is the first highlight of
the
strategic cooperation between Daimler and the Museum in Italy, which
was
concluded in February 2012. “Mercedes-Benz Champions at the
Mille Miglia” will
open its doors on 15 February, and can be seen until this year's 2012
Mille
Miglia (16 to 20 May 2012). The
stars of the exhibition are automative gems from the Mercedes-Benz
Classic
collection which have contributed to the history of the Mille Miglia.
These
racing sports cars and other exhibits bring this history to life, major
highlights being the overall victories by Rudolf Caracciola in 1931 and
Stirling Moss in 1955. The history of this event carried out from 1927
to 1957
also includes several class victories and excellent placings for
Mercedes-Benz.
These successes give the Stuttgart-based brand an exceptional status in
the
history of the Mille Miglia. For one thing, no other non-Italian car
brand has
ever managed to win this road race from Brescia to Rome and back.
From the SSK
to the
300 SLR
The
Mille Miglia was three years old in 1930, when Rudolf Caracciola and
his
co-driver Christian Werner left the starting line for the
“Thousand Miles” in
their Mercedes-Benz SSK. On this first attempt Caracciola achieved the
class
victory for cars with a cubic capacity of up to 8 litres,
reaching sixth
place overall with an average speed of 92.8 km/h. In the
following year he
returned to Brescia to drive for Mercedes-Benz, this time at the wheel
of a
Model SSKL, a weight-reduced version of the SSK designed for road and
mountain
races. Caracciola duly won an overall victory in the racing sports car,
whose
supercharged six-cylinder engine developed 300 hp (221
kW) from a displacement of 7065 cubic centimetres.
As a
German national accompanied by co-pilot Wilhelm Sebastian, Caracciola
was the
first non-Italian to win the Mille Miglia.
Building
on its success during the era of large, supercharged Mille Miglia cars,
Mercedes-Benz
entered a new generation of racing sports cars in the race during the
1950s: in
1952 Karl Kling took second place in the new Model 300 SL from
the W 194
series, with Rudolf Caracciola in fourth place. Kling was the fastest
driver to
cover the route from Brescia to Rome, and received the
“Sportman of the Year”
award in that year. Three years later, in 1955, Mercedes-Benz almost
completely
dominated the Mille Miglia. Stirling Moss and his co-driver Denis
Jenkinson won
an overall victory in the 300 SLR (W 196 S)
racing sports car, whose
2982 cc eight-cylinder engine developed up to 310 hp (228 kW). The 157.65 km/h average
speed achieved by Moss is the
best ever achieved in the history of this road pace. Juan Manuel
Fangio, who
embarked on the “Thousand Miles” with no co-driver,
was the second to cross the
finishing line.
In
1955 John Cooper Fitch with co-pilot Kurt Gesell also won the class
victory for
GT cars above 1300 cc cubic capacity in a standard 300 SL sports car
(W 198 I), and in the diesel class
victory went to Helmut Retter and Wolfgang Larcher in a Mercedes-Benz
180 D (W 120). That season also saw the debut of the
new Mercedes-Benz
racing car transporter, which was created on the basis of the
300 SL for
the purpose of rapidly transporting a racing car from the factory to
the
racetrack when required.
The
“Mercedes-Benz Champions at the Mille Miglia”
exhibition provides a
particularly wide view of the motor sports world in the mid-20th
Century. It
repeatedly becomes clear that the champions are not just the drivers
who are
the first to cross the finishing line. Instead the winners are a large
team
using the innovative strength and performance of the entire company, a
company
whose origins go back to the independent invention of the automobile by
Carl
Benz and Gottlieb Daimler in 1886.
Tradition of
the Mille Miglia viewed in a
historical setting
The
Museo Mille Miglia (Museo Mille Miglia) is where the fascination of
this
legendary road race can be experienced throughout the year. For this
reason Daimler
has embarked on a strategic cooperation with the Museum in Brescia. One
major
aim is to emphasise and strengthen the aspects held in common by the Mercedes-Benz
Museum in Stuttgart and the
Museo Mille Miglia. Opened
in 2004, the Museo Mille Miglia is located in the historic
Sant’Eufemia della
Fonte monastery complex outside the gates of Brescia. The former
Benedictine
monastery was founded by Landolfo, Bishop of Brescia, in the year 1008.
The
monastery having been moved inside the city in the 15th Century, the
historic
buildings were first used as warehouses, then as a hospital. In 1997
the
decision was taken to create the Museo Mille Miglia in this highly
evocative
location just under 20 kilometres from the shores of Lake Garda. The
focus of the permanent exhibition, which is divided into nine periods,
is on
the road race itself. However, the Museum also reflects the national,
social and
cultural history of Italy using the example of the regions traversed by
the
race in the course of time. Here the emphasis is on the period between
1927 and
1957, to which seven sections are devoted.
There is also one section each covering the Mille Miglia
from 1958 to
1961, and the present event for classic cars which was first held in
1977. Special
exhibitions such as “Mercedes-Benz Champions at the Mille
Miglia” are devoted
to individual, celebratory perspectives during which a dialogue also
develops
with the permanent exhibition. The exhibition opening in February
provides a
complete, panoramic view of the exciting motors sports history written
by the
racing sports cars of Mercedes-Benz at the Mille Miglia. Accordingly a
visit to
“Mercedes-Benz Champions at the Mille Miglia” will
be one of the highlights of
the programme for both the participants and spectators at this year's
race from
Brescia to Rome and back.
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