The Tribute cars start at number 501 (see the entry list on the Tribute website). The reason for the 500 numbers is that number 400 could still be a car on the waiting list for the MM Storica. It will mean that you will start midfield, around half an hour after the first car starts. I think we started at 18:30 last year, so you should be on the ramp around 19:00 or so. Remember that the tribute starts before the MM Storica, so car number one starts after the last Ferrari has left, at 19:30 I think. Last year, the cops politely asked if the drivers of a couple of Enzos and F-40s could reign it in a bit when they drove into Rome with 260 km/h. I think it is fair to say you have a little bit of leeway.... But - for the sake of the rally and future editions - I would like to ask everyone participating to use common sense and act responsibly. It only has to go wrong once for this event to be banned for ever. Onno
What you need is a stopwatch, preferably with more than 1 memory as some of these tests follow each other in immediate succession, and something accurate to measure your speed with. Your speedometer is not good enough if you want to finish high in the rankings. Onno
In my opinion first-timers should forget about rankings and enjoy the event, the people, and the cars. There are a number of Italian teams who know the roads and the circuits perfectly, have very sophisticated electronic time-distance measuring equipment (everything is allowed), and are highly trained. Forget about competing against those. Relax and take care of your car. My first Mille Miglia was hellish, as I tried to do everything at once. This is number four, and I intend to have fun. For example, I forget about timing on the circuits: We just go flat out, my brother and I screaming all the way, with a delicious mix of joy and fear!
Fully agree with that, but I found it is also a lot of fun to at least try to do your best even if you know you are going fail miserably. Onno
i was reading through the stuff sent yesterday....wow, its complicated ! in the targa florio they were doing the same thing, but since my car was not eligible for anything anyway i didnt pay any attention and just went as fast as i could so that i would get a good parking spot at the hotel ! i guess some of the tribute people will take it seriously but i doubt that many will...i hope!
Congrats to everyone participating! Julio, 4 timer, great! I will be watching from Pennabilli! on friday afternoon. This time with some white whine and pecorino, and my village friends. ciao Oscar
Agreed. The trouble I have with just "trying to do my best" is that I rapidly get psyched up and competitive, and then things start going wrong, and then I get upset at my driver or at my copilot or at myself... But that's just me... I remember the Tour de France last year: I had a great time at first and didn't try too hard. Unfortunately we discovered after two days that we were.. in third position out of more than 200 cars! So my copilot and I got very excited, and the next three days were a disaster with tensions, mistakes, screaming matches, and a final position in the 50's... To each his own! My good friend Pueche never takes a chronometer and says that rallies are for driving, not for keeping time...
He may be a wiser man than you and me both, Julio! Final preparations are being done today - leaving for Italy before dawn tomorrow! I'm always excited about a European roadtrip, but this one is leading up to something special. Can't wait. Onno
Good luck and safety to all the F-chatters going this year. I will not be there but my brother will . . . So my bro is currently in school doing a 4 year program for auto-restoration (http://www.mcpherson.edu/). He gets an internship at the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Stuttgart. I assume they have a fairly large presence at each Mille Miglia. Normally, interns get to watch the shop while mechanics with seniority attend the race but this year with so many entrants (some type of MB anniversary I think) he gets to be in a repair/chase car. Nice gig right? All-expenses-paid "work week" following around a newly-restored 300 SL Gullwing, driving on some of the nicest roads in Italy. His chase car, easily the cheapest in the MB fleet this year, E-class AMG wagon, $100k (in other words, not the R-class AMGs ($200k) nor the Maybach ($400k)). His job: liason to any USA driver who's MB car needs service. Anyway, I told him to look you guys up and say hello. It looks like the following cars are F-chatters but I think I am missing one or two: 60 139 379 565
Indeed, this year felt like the charm is evaporating fast. Talk is that a new organization will definitely come in starting in 2013. For now, seems like the event has been turned into a giant rolling PR exercise with very little car content. Sad.
I agree. After 7 MM and a bit of thinking this are my conclusions: - I understand they have a business and the brand possibilities are enormeous, so they need to make money because it cost them a lot of money to do it. - having said that, when the previous tema organized it the quality of the cars was much, much, much better, no comparison. - in general it has been perfectly organized understanding what that means. Perfectly, BUT - This is the Mille Miglia, not a new Ferrari s event!!!!! Last year I was worried about the Ferrari Tribute, but I have to say that it was absolutely ok, honestly we didn t even see them. But this year it s been a ****. They learnt it s better not to cake up early, so we ve been driving a 1931 Alfa sorrounded by 599 s and new California s, slightly different that driving round Blower Bentley s, SSK s, or Aston s. And crossong the cities the same. Sorry but simple terrible. 99% not going NeXT year Jaime
Agreed. Ill wait for 2013. What a letdown. By the way, signs and police coverage were down 75pct this year. the result were many many traffic jams. Elad
Last week I was in my second home and with some locals we watched the MM come by. Very relaxed with some chairs and white whine our expectations were high...... The first group of cars were some idiots in modern Ferrari's racing their way through the checkpoint where we were. Very nice accompanied by their not subscribed other ferrari's or Fitas or Mustangs or Lotus clubs...and the parade of support cars that did not have a single tool on board. The best was a Jaguar e-type with a copied MM number..... To say it briefly: it was not what it should be. Only one on 30-40 cars was a competitor the rest were wannabees, gangs, clubs or organisation. We ended in my house with one of the Ferrari competitors with a fantastic lunch and wine. The highlight of the day! It was my first time as a spectater, probably the last time. Of course in the cities you only see the real cars, but I would have love to see them drive through the landscape. I think the MM will drown in its succes....Putting the whole route on internet is nice but has its downside as well. Driving the MM in my 212 was fun, I was not aware of the fact that so many cars were trying to compete, although seeing the Porsche GT club trying to outbrake me was a sign. Ciao Oscar ps PM, you made my day!
This was my fourth MM. I am happy I participated again, the Mille Miglia will always be a magic event: The cars, the history, the roads, the views, and the people were all there as expected. However, various elements of this year's event were highly dissapointing: 1. Mercedes and Porsche If I see another Gullwing I am going to scream. Enough. This was a Mercedes MM: Reserved parking spots at the end of the day with Mercedes personnel arrogantly preventing access to non Mercedes cars, a parade of racing Mercedes support vehicles pushing aside the MM cars, a predominance of the German language (loud), and more gullwings than I thought existed. Porsche was also there in full force, with very high levels of support and far too many sport beatles (excuse me, 356's...), with the ugliest engine noise of all participant vehicles. More German spoken. Climbing the Futa, we were tortured by Porsche service SUV's dominating the road and driving like animals. Nearing the top of the pass, we saw far in front of us a crowd of people and a few vehicles on the side of the road. Getting closer, we understood it was an accident. Our natural preocupation turned into uncharitable but highly enjoyable hilarity: It was a support Cayenne that had fallen into the ditch! Pathetic! We laughed! 2. The MM has become a pure money making machine. My brother and I had the distinct impression that the MM has become a sophisticated and powerful commercial entreprise, at the detriment of history and atmosphere. We felt somewhat used: Shouldn't they be paying us also???? 3. The MM run with a high number is a completely different experience, with a few advantages but very important disadvantages. We were number 379, with only four cars behind us (and 345 in front). Much less trafic in cities, but very little police support, much less atmosphere and a lot of night driving. Again, it was worth it. It's the Mille Miglia. But we will not participate again under these conditions. No MM for me in 2012. Cheers, Julio
Wow Oscar and Julio, those are rather dissapointing stories. The MM is one of those events that are still on my list, but going from your reports, it will drop a few places. How sad that yet another event seem to be going under by the hunger for money.
Yes, this is very disappointing news. It seems impossible to keep the greedy away from our events. We, as enthusiasts, make something magical and then the "interests" invade and it all turns wrong. Meadowbrook, the Quail, and now the Grande Dame of them all. A shame, these last few years. George
As we heard some thoughts of participants I wanted to say a few words as spectator. My first MM was in 1997 and so this was my 15th visit to Brescia and as mentioned above things have changed since then very much, some are because of the change of the organization and some are because the entire classic car scene has changed since. 1.) Participating cars: A principal problem of all rallies these days are the high values of the top cars. Many great cars stay at home in the garage as owners are afraid of damaging them, that is the same at the Tour Auto, Coppa d´Oro delle Dolomiti or others. As we do not know what further cars applied for the MM we do not know what they had to refuse. It was always said (even before MAC) that almost double the cars where entered but how many of them are Porsche 356, VW Beetles or even more Gullwings? Furthermore the new list of eligible cars took out some cars running in the past, for example most of the Bentleys and many of the pre-war Aston Martin (of the 3 Series of 1 ½ Litre cars just the second is allowed today) although these cars were highly enjoyed by the crowds. What is strange: Mercedes is not allowed to enter their SSKs as they have non of the very few original surviving examples but at the same time BMW is running a car clearly declared as a replica (the 328 Kamm Coupé). So the quality of cars has not that much to do with the new organization, a reduction could be seen over all the years. The thing with the Gullwings and 356: I do not think that this is just because of the sponsors, these cars are very reliable and easy to drive so they might be entered in high quantity. The same can be seen with the increasing number of Aston Martin DB2. They are running at the good numbers (as mentioned above, somewhere in the late 100s) and are (if good serviced) very reliable. 2.) Accompanying cars: there has always been many cars driving along the road with the competitors (especially on the Futa) and they are getting more and more every year. The myth of the MM and the fact that this is promoted in many Magazines and TV means that almost every classic car owner or roadster driver north of the Alps is coming down to the MM to have a good week in Tuscany. I know of no other event that attracts so many foreign visitors with their cars. The difference today is just, that most of them have a sticker on the car (Sponsor, Accompanying Car, Media,...). The problem is that everyone is talking of the MM as a race and that is how they all drive, be it an entrant or a visitor. At the Tour Auto the pace is also fast but as there are few cars running aside there are less dangerous moments. On the Futa they all get mad and there was a major accidents every year since I visit this event. With thousands of spectators all the self-exposer and the numerous bikes are driving above their own limit. This year a GTO of the Tribute crashed with a bike frontal. Although the ambulance was already gone the bike was lying in parts over all the road so I doubt that the biker walked away. But after passing the remains of the accident they where all back on the edge two corners later. Since two or three years the accompanying cars are separated from the entrant when ever it is possible on the Radicosa (where a road is running parallel to the passo) so the organization is well aware of the problem but what can they do, these are public roads... As I mentioned earlier in this thread I think that the best days of this event are over. I doubt that a change in 2013 does make things much different, the MM has just become to big. I was very sceptical on the Ferrari Tribute but it is a clever thing. Most of the Ferraris in the Tribute would be there anyway so why not organize it and sell them a number? I do not think that without the Tribute things would look much different. Other marques have club events there (for example the SLRs) as well but do not pay for that (I pretend). As a photographer I can just say that it is getting more and more difficult and sometimes frustrating to get a picture of a MM car without other cars on the picture. When I read the posts above I see that next year there will be again at least two great cars missing that I loved to see every year but as long as there are enough cars (unfortunately of lower quality) happy to take their place I doubt that this will stop the machine MM from running... Just my thoughts Peter
I was in my 599GTO about 10 cars back from the crash. It was totally nuts, there were so many sports cars on the road - in the 10 cars between me and the crash there was a Ferrari (not taking part), a Lambo 560spyder, a Radical and a Diablo. There were so many bikes on the road - and when you were trying to overtake the slow cars (half of which were going slowly to video you overtaking them on a bend) the bikes came right behind you making it impossible to pull back in if a car/bike came round the corner. Overall I thought the Ferrari event was a good thing - but I thought we were meant to be way ahead of the "real" cars On the first day it was fine, but in Imola we had only just started when a Bentley drove straight past me through a red light. IMO the Ferraris should have been further ahead because the old cars were driving on the wrong side of the road (but they are small so could squeeze through), so they overtook us in the villages. Then as soon were we out of town I was passing them at 120mph
