06.05.2004 Thirty three Alfa Romeos, including eight cars from the official museum will take part in the 22nd commemorative running of the Mille Miglia, which starts today from in Brescia

Thirty three Alfa Romeos, including eight cars from the official Historical Museum will line up today to take part in the 22nd commemorative run of the 1000 Miglia, which finishes on Sunday, starting and terminating in Brescia.

A large group of superb cars which will underline Alfa Romeo's record number of wins (no fewer than 12) in the race, twenty-four editions of which were disputed between 1937 and 1957.

Fabrizio Giugiaro and Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy will be driving an Alfa 1900 Super Sprint of 1955, the European Touring champion Gabriele Tarquini and his team manager Monica Sipsz will be driving the Alfa 3000 CM of 1953 with bodywork by Colli which Juan Manuel Fangio competed with, and Renato Pozzetto and Renato Della Valle will compete in a 1900 Sport Spider of 1954.

The remainder of the exceptional group of cars from the Alfa Romeo Museum are an Alfa Romeo 750 Competizione driven by Sylvia Oberti from California, a 1750 Super Sport of 1929 driven by the team Viaro-Mair, a 1500 Super Sport of 1928 for Claromont-Pecoroff, a 1900 C 52 Coupé of 1953 for Marx-Marx and a 2000 Sportiva for Magro-Magnalbò.

Although it is a commemorative run, the 1000 Miglia does draw up a leader board, based on the reliability trials dotted along the demanding 1600 km route, which is divided into three legs.

The first starts from Brescia today at 8.15 p.m. and concludes at midnight in Ferrara, from where the second leg will start at 7 a.m. tomorrow, concluding in Rome at 9.40 p.m. the same day. The last leg takes the teams from the capital (leaving at 6.30 a.m.) back to Brescia, arriving at 9.50 p.m. A difficult test for cars and drivers, but also a spectacular one, because the road crosses some of the loveliest parts of Italy.

Towns like Verona, Ferrara, Ravenna, the Republic of San Marino, Siena, Florence, Bologna, Modena, Cremona, Urbino and Rome, and areas of outstanding natural beauty like the Gole del Furlo, the Sibillini mountains and lake Vico.

It is a fascinating event that attracts huge crowds who will be able to admire the 375 competing cars, all built before 1957, the year the last 1000 Miglia was run.