BMW Group Classic’s involvement in this year’s Mille Miglia sees a number of legendary racing cars taking a route steeped in tradition, swept along by memories of historic motor sport victories. The spotlight will be turned most intensely on the BMW 328, whose success story is closely intertwined with this long-distance event through northern Italy.
Fielding several examples of this racing classic along with an international line-up of drivers from Germany, the USA, Britain, Italy and China, BMW Group Classic will be at the start of this year’s internationally popular round-trip event with BMW’s overall Mille Miglia victory of 75 years ago very much in mind.
With its low weight, high reliability and perfect roadholding, the BMW 328 caused a sensation soon after its debut in 1936, both on the road and on the race track. At the Mille Miglia it first drew attention to itself in 1938 when it won the 2.0-litre category.
Two years on, Fritz Huschke von Hanstein and Walter Bäumer followed that up with overall victory in a BMW 328 Mille Miglia Touring Coupé. Among the models BMW Group Classic is dispatching to this year’s event are the BMW 328 Berlin-Rome Touring Roadster from 1937 and a BMW 328 Mille Miglia Roadster hailing from 1939.
The Mille Miglia has been held as a regularity and reliability trial for historic cars since 1977. Only models that took part in the 1,000-mile event between 1927 and 1957 are eligible to compete, with original racers from that era enjoying an especially exclusive status. The winning car of 1940 has plied these self-laid tracks of motor racing history more than once.
Indeed, 2004 saw the BMW 328 Mille Miglia Touring Coupé from the BMW Group Classic fleet cross the finish line in Brescia as overall winner. It was the first time a car had won both the original event and the new iteration of the Mille Miglia.
The 2015 Mille Miglia starts in Brescia on Thursday, 14 May 2015. More than 460 historic automobiles have registered for this year’s rendition of the round trip. The opening stage begins in the afternoon and runs via Verona, Ferrara and Ravenna to Rimini.
The destination of Friday’s second stage is Rome, whence the field continues its journey the following day to take in Siena and Pisa before rolling up in Parma. During the final stage on Sunday, 17 May 2015, the historic racing cars and their escorts will negotiate the Autodromo di Monza race track, among other points en route, before finishing at the event’s starting point in Brescia.
BMW Group Classic is fielding the following teams in the 2015 Mille Miglia:
133 Ian Robertson / Jim Holder BMW 328 Berlin-Rome Touring Roadster
146 Alexander Bilgeri / Scott Hughes BMW 328 Mille Miglia Roadster
125 Ulrich Sanne / Wang Wei BMW 328
123 Peter van Binsbergen / Wolfgang Wieland BMW 328
132 Sergio Solero / Michele Lupi BMW 328
