MILLE MIGLIA 1957

VILLEIVIGLIA 1957

LAST ACT IN A LEGENDARY RACE by Carlo Dolcini

“All my means are sane, my motive and my object mad,” is the fitting quote lifted from Melville’s Moby Dick to begin what promises to be a collectable series dedicated to the great road race of 1000 miles.

Each post-war Mille Miglia since 1947 will receive individual attention in the next few years, but here the publishers have chosen to begin at the end. Alfonso de Portago’s 1957 accident, which killed not only him but co-driver Ed Nelson and nine spectators (five of whom were children), meant the Mille Miglia would only survive first as a rally, then as a ‘retro’ historic event. As an Italian book with a parallel English translation, it reads as such. But with such a subject and photographs including Louis Klemantaski’s famous onboard shots with Peter Collins you can’t go too far wrong. DS Published by Giorgio Nada Edilore, ISBN 978 88 7911 5322, €40