Twenty-eight years later, in 1955, Stirling Moss and journalist Denis Jenkinson teamed up and drove for Mercedes-Benz. The Germans worked hard to dominate the Mille Miglia and in that year they performed one of the greatest drives of all times. With their Mercedes 300 SLR, Moss and Jenkinson covered the 1000 miles at an average speed of nearly 100mph and returned to Brescia after only 10 hours and 7 minutes – even for today’s standards hard to believe as the roads were open and lined with cheering spectators. On top of that, cars even came the other way!

The Mille Miglia’s all time low came not long after Moss’s victory. In 1957, the aristo-crat and racer Alfonso de Portago crashed his Ferrari into a section of the crowd. In the horrendous accident 12 people were killed, including five children. As a consequence, for 20 years, the race was removed from the sporting calendar.