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This year’s
Coppa Milano-Sanremo regularity race for classic cars marked
the 100th anniversary of the event’s creation. The race was
first held in 1906 as a reliability trial on a route which
was already becoming popular for the Milanese automobile
pioneers who liked to spend their week-ends in Sanremo, a
tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast. The race,
rearranged as a regularity challenge, only became a regular
fixture from 1929 onwards and lasted in this form almost
continuously through to 1973. Since 2003, it has been
revived to offer classic car enthusiasts a pleasant season
opener, making the most of the beautiful scenery of the
Apennines and Liguria region.
Cars admitted unsurprisingly range from 1906 to 1973 without
restrictions on model type, although the organisers make a
point of attracting models of great historical interest or
with links to the original race. This provides for a
colourful, 200-strong entry with cars ranging from bespoke
pre-war tourers to popular Fiats and Lancias from the 1950s,
or – as in this year’s case – even a London Austin Taxi!
Relatively few Maserati teams were taking part this year,
but one of them boasted a true star attraction: coming from
Luxemburg was a Ghibli SS delivered new in 1973 to the great
Italian movie director Roberto Rossellini. Known for his
love of Ferraris, Rossellini came to consider the Ghibli as
the most fascinating performance coupé of its era, and kept
it until his death in 1977. A Mistral, a 3500 GT Touring and
another Ghibli SS presented a significant sample of the
Trident’s GT production from the late 1950s to the early
1970s, headed by a resplendent 3500 GT Vignale Spyder of
1962. This fantastic example was perhaps the most enjoyable
of the lot due to its convertible top, which could be used
as the weather stayed fine throughout the week-end.
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