Back in 1955, the Mille Miglia road race was an actual race through the streets of Italy, and not a fun run for owners of ten-figure vintage racers. That year, racing legend Stirling Moss set the record for the 1,000-mile burn from Brescia to Rome and back — 10 hours, seven minutes, 48 seconds, at an average speed of around 98mph — in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. This year, Moss appropriately drove the Mercedes in the event for the last time — the third-to-last public outing for the car before it'll be sent out to stud at the Mercedes-Benz museum. If only that were possible.
[Update: David, our Palm Beach correspondent, offers the following: "The passenger in Stirling Moss' epic drive was the renown motoring journalist Dennis "Jenks" Jenkinson. They created a system for mapping the entire circuit and recorded the information on an 18 foot roll of paper from which "Jenks" read instructions during the race. These meticulous navigation notes must be given some credit for the incredible pace they achieved together."]
Mercedes SLR300 - last chance to see (and hear) [Gizmag]
Related:
Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing Turns 50 [internal]