Nordschleife, Monaco or Mille Milgia?

Firstly I'll apologise for being so rubbish lately and not updating the blog but the post-Christmas/pre-New Year period was ruined for me because I caught a stinking cold. I've also been lacking inspiration and wanting to throttle one of my housemates. Fortunately with Ben, Matt and occasionally Dom capering around my writer's block hasn't lasted too long so here are my latest musings.

Last night down the pub (as always) Ben and Matt started chatting about the £500 challenge and the fact that Laura (Matt's girlfriend) wanted to tag along. Laura didn't want to ruin an all boys adventure so Marianne decided she'd crash the fun saying she'd cover the event photographically and so Laura would feel like she was spoiling our fun. Hmmm. There was further muttering from Matt over insurance (insurance to cover our cars for the Nordschleife would be expensive to put it mildly) and Ben suggested jokingly Monaco. Matt and I both liked the idea but this seemed to set Laura off on one of her erratic turns of temperament. From what I gathered Matt had been mooting an idea that they'd go for a holiday there or something and Laura didn't like the thought of the rest of us crashing their romantic getaway. Charming.

Monaco

Anyway after I got home and was getting ready for bed I thought of a brilliant idea why not head done to Italy and follow the competitors of the Mille Milgia, once an endurance race through northern and central Italy and now a road rally for cars built between 1927 and 1957. When it was an endurance race it was an open race on public roads with racers like Sterling Moss averaging 97mph along the route! Not surprisingly it all ended in tears in 1957 with a huge smash in which 13 people died and it all ended up in court. It then slowly died out until it was revived again in the early '80s. Now at this point some of you will be saying how the hell does he intend to get a rare and rather fruity motor eligible for the Mille Milgia for just £500? The answer is of course simple we don't take part in the event but simply shadow it soaking up the Italian sunshine, the scent of Castrol and the melodious sounds of vintage cars thundering through the confines of the narrow streets of Italian hilltop towns all whilst scoffing great food and snapping photo's of the automotive erotica rumbling past. Our cars' endurance would be sorely tested having to travel down to the event, chase the cars through beautiful countryside and then roar home again with their boots stuffed with the local vino, olive oil, cheese and as many dry-cured Italian sausages that I can find space for. Also we could visit the Ferrari and Lamborgini factories which I believe are just a short detour off the route as well as take in San Marino and Rome which are on route.

The route of the Mille Milgia 2008

But before I warm to the idea of all this I have to remember that both Matt and Ben are philistines and have no appreciation for most of the vintage automotive beauties that'll be doing the Mille Milgia. Ben'll be asking wear all the Japanese performance cars are and Matt will be annoyed because the only German cars he'll probably see are Mercs and both of them will suck their teeth and shake their heads whenever they see an Italian car scream past before arguing over how long it'll be before it breaks down. Bollocks... oh well just a thought...

 

Ben: "A Bugatti"

Matt:"It's not a German made one is it though?"

Ben:"Nope"

Both of them:"It'll breakdown before it reaches the finish line"

Matt:*Squeal of girlish glee* "OOOOoooo!"

Ben:"Ugh ruthless German efficiency"

Matt:"Hmm looks a bit old. I think getting shocks for that thing would be difficult"

Ben:"It's still the devil's work"