Mille Miglia 2025: Driving through Italy in diesel

Nothing can prepare you for the Mille Miglia. No classic car rally, no road trip, no reportage. Besides, so many great colleagues have written fantastic articles about the Mille Miglia. Almost all of them report exhaustion, heat, stress, and happiness.

Is it the happiness of being there, or the happiness of having survived everything? The Mille Miglia lingers long after the last car has rolled down the ramp on Viale Venezia in Brescia. The sound of the cars roars through your head long after the participants have returned home.

Time and again, a hearty knocking noise sneaks into the roar of the Fiat 1100, the screech of the Ferrari, and the hiss of the gullwings. It's the combustion sound of a winner: Helmut Retter and Walter Larcher won the diesel class of the Mille Miglia in May 1955 in a Mercedes 180 D.

A success that was overshadowed by Stirling Moss's record-breaking run: The Briton completed the journey from Brecsia to Rome and back in around ten hours. An average speed of almost 160 km/h. No one before or since had driven the Mille Miglia that fast.

Retter and Larcher completed the trip in their diesel engine in 17 hours, 12 minutes, and 14 seconds. They averaged 94.645 km/h. The two Austrians must have been pushing the accelerator hard, as the pontoon's top speed was 110 km/h, and the route included two passes: the Futa and the Raticosa. According to Christof Vieweg, Walter Larcher recounted in his memoirs: "There was only one thing that helped: engaging second gear and constantly applying full throttle."

In second and third place in the newly created diesel class: also the Mercedes 180D. The competition from Fiat and Peugeot ultimately only saw the rounded rear end of the pontoons, and after the Mille victory, Mercedes customers increasingly ordered diesels – "win on Sundays, sell on Mondays" also applies to diesels.

A victory like this not only boosts sales, it also puts you at ease. For example, I'm competing in the Mille Miglia for the first time. The Ponton delivers relaxation in a flash: insert the ignition key, press, turn, press the start lever, and pull down. The diesel engine starts running.

Use the steering wheel shifter to find first gear (up!), release the clutch. The clunking becomes more metallic, and the Pontoon sets off. There's something maritime about not only the name, but also the movement patterns: smooth movements suit the sedan. Hectic maneuvering won't achieve anything. So stay stoically on the gas, let the amazingly elastic diesel do its work, and steer smoothly.

This doesn't seem to fit with the hectic activity around us. But didn't a Fiat 1100 overtake us yesterday while we were sitting in the gullwing? Let them go, you think to yourself, turning the enormous steering wheel of the pontoon. At the next speed limit, they're in front of you again: the Fiats, Ferraris, and gullwings.

Another thing I learned that day at the Mille Miglia: Every mountain pass we climb, we also descend. And that's where the 180 diesel can show what it's made of: No one can easily overtake the old diesel downhill. The sedan handles incredibly well despite its skinny 13-inch tires and, despite the rather indirect steering, handles the rear end well. Meanwhile, the passenger is best advised to hold on to the comfortable tote dangling from the B-pillar behind his right ear. The Ponton has no lateral support or seatbelts.

What was our final result? It doesn't matter. We had a lot of fun on the fourth stage of the 2025 Mille Miglia: the Ponton, Peter, and I. Arriving at the finish line in Parma late in the evening, we drove the Ponton into the hotel garage, briefly pulled the starter lever, and the OM 636 VII shook itself and fell silent. Silence.

And even though days like these are long at the Mille Miglia, I'd love to start the pontoon again tomorrow at 7 a.m. and continue driving. But I have another appointment tomorrow. Someone has to do the job.

Four men conceived the Mille Miglia: Giovanni Canestrini met with Renzo Castagneto, Aymo Maggi, and Franco Mazzotti in Milan in December 1926. The four men wanted to "create something absolutely sensational" and organized a 1,600-kilometer road race—the Mille Miglia. The first Coppa della Mille Miglia began just a few months later, on March 26, 1927. Brescia was the home of the car manufacturer OM—three cars from this brand took the first three places in the first Mille Miglia. To this day, an OM carries the starting number 1 in each Mille Miglia.

With few exceptions, the race was usually won by an Italian manufacturer: in 1931, Rudolf Carraciola won in a Mercedes SSK, in 1940 Huschke von Hanstein in a BMW 328, and in 1955 Stirling Moss set a record for eternity in a Mercedes 300 SLR: In May 1955, with his co-driver Denis Jenkinson, he drove the Brescia-Rome-Brescia route in 10 hours, 7 minutes, and 48 seconds. The average speed of almost 160 km/h was not exceeded in the following two years.

After a serious accident in 1957 that killed ten people, the race was banned. Since 1977, the Mille Miglia has been held as a classic car rally. It's no longer about achieving top speed, but rather about reliability, achieving the specified times as accurately as possible in dozens of special stages—and the joy of driving a vintage car.

Models entered in the original race are permitted in the historic Mille Miglia. Typical Mille Miglia cars include the Alfa Romeo 6C 1750, Fiat 1100 and Balilla, Mercedes 300 SL and BMW 328, as well as the Aston Martin DB2 and Porsche 356.

The 43rd edition in June 2025 featured 78 cars that had previously competed in the original race. A total of over 400 teams from 29 countries participated. The route covered over 1,900 kilometers over five days from Brescia to Rome and back.