Mille Miglia - The End

The End

The race was banned after two fatal crashes.

• The first was the crash of a 4.2-litre Ferrari in 1957 that took the lives of the Spanish driver Alfonso de Portago, his co-driver/navigator Edmund Nelson, and nine spectators, at the village of Guidizzolo. The car supposedly landed on top of Portago and Nelson cutting them in half. Five of the spectators killed were children, all of whom were standing along the race course. Portago desperately wanted to win this race and waited too long to make a tire change. The crash was caused by a worn tire. The manufacturer was blamed and sued for this, as was the Ferrari team.

• A second car crash in Brescia took the life of Joseph Göttgens. He was driving a Triumph TR3.

From 1958 to 1961, the event resumed as a rallying-like round trip at legal speeds with a few special stages driven at full speed, but this was discontinued also.

Since 1977, the name was revived as the Mille Miglia Storica, a parade for pre-1957 cars that takes several days, which also spawned the 2007 documentary film Mille Miglia - The Spirit of a Legend.

From 1927 to 1957, the race took the lives of a total of 56 people.