The Mille Miglia (Thousand Miles - pronounced ['mille 'miʎʎa]) was an open-road endurance race which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 (thirteen before the war, eleven from 1947).

The race was established by the young Contes Aymo Maggi and Franco Mazzotti, apparently in response to their home town of Bracia 'losing' the Italian Grand Prix to Monza. Together with a group of wealthy associates, they chose a race from Brescia to Rome and back, a figure-eight shaped course of roughly 1500 km - or a thousand Roman miles. Later races followed twelve other routes with varying total lengths.

In 1955, after 10 h 07' 48", Moss/Jenkinson arrived in Brescia in their Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR with the now famous #722, setting the event record at an average of 159.65 km/h (99.20 mph) which was fastest ever on this 1,597 km (992 mi) variant of the course

The race was banned after a fatal crash in 1957 that took the lives of driver Alfonso de Portago, his co-driver/navigator Edmund Nelson, and eleven spectators, at the village of Guidizzolo.

In 1982 the Mille Miglia endurance race was revived as a road rally event. Nowadays,timing rather than speed is of the essence for the enthusiasts from around the world who race their vintage cars, dating from 1927 to 1957. This magnificent parade of classic machines has earned the Mille Miglia the reputation of being the "the most beautiful road race in the world".

More info on the 2009 event can be found here:

http://www.1000miglia.eu/inglese/home.html

Below are some of the cars leaving Rome this year :