Mille Miglia 1934

Achille Varzi, here at the 1933 Monaco Grand Prix, won his first and only Mille Miglia in 1934

The fifth placed Piero Taruffi after the finish

An Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza; here at the Silverstone Classic 2008

MG Magnette K3 as they were driven in the Mille Miglia in 1933 and 1934

The eighth Mille Miglia took place on April 7th and 8th, 1934 and ran over 1,616 km from Brescia to Rome and back to Brescia.

The race

New routing

At the Mille Miglia in 1934 there were some not insignificant changes in the route. In Cremona , shortly after the start, there was a new road to Bologna , which shortened the route length by 34 kilometers, but increased the average speed. After the turning point in Rome , on the way back to the north, the route to Padua turned towards Venice (corresponded to today's Strada Statale 309 Romea ). The car bridge over the Venice lagoon had to be passed in both directions. From Treviso , the cars drove back to Brescia on parts of the Autostrada A4 , which opened in 1932 .

Teams and drivers

In 1934, Alfa Romeo factory returned to the Mille Miglia. Vittorio Jano developed a new 2.6-liter 8-cylinder in- line engine for the Alfa Romeo 8C . The company car was driven by Tazio Nuvolari . In order to maintain equal opportunities, Jano decided that Scuderia Ferrari, run by Enzo Ferrari , should also receive vehicles with the new engines. Ferrari had raced for Alfa Romeo with his racing team in 1933 and won the Mille Miglia with Nuvolari .

The top driver at Ferrari was Achille Varzi . For many years, Nuvolari and Varzi's relationship was marked by deep enmity. At the Bordino Cup in Alessandria, Northern Italy, in 1930 there was a scandal. The race was named after Pietro Bordino , who had a fatal accident there in 1928. Varzi and Novolari had a race on the bend, which eventually ended in a collision in which Varzi pushed Nuvolari off the track. Nuvolari broke his leg in the process. The rivalry at the Mille Miglia 1930 intensified . Both drove factory Alfa Romeos. But while Varzi adhered to a non-aggression pact issued by Jano at the end of the race, Nuvolari drove at full speed even with no lights on in the early night in order to be able to catch up with Varzi. He won the race and Varzi complained heavily about his compatriot in the Italian media. It was not until the Italian journalist and motorsport official Giovanni Canestrini , co-founder of the Mille Miglia, that the two drivers were reconciled in the spring of 1933.

Mario Tadini drove another Alfa Romeo from the Ferrari team . Tadini, owner of a chain of clothing stores, had financially supported Enzo Ferrari in founding Scuderia in 1929 and competed in sports car races. Louis Chiron was one of the most successful drivers in international motorsport in 1934 and, alongside Guy Moll, the second non-Italian to compete for the Scuderia. But the attraction in the team was a woman. Anna Maria Peduzzi drove an Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 SSft Spider Brianza with her husband Gianfranco Comotti .

As in the previous year, the MG factory team was at the start in Italy in 1934 . Three MG Magnette K3 were prepared . The cars registered in the class for sports cars up to 1.1 liter displacement were driven by Giovanni Lurani , Clifton Penn-Hughes , Earl Howe and Eddie Hall , whose wife was his co-driver. The only enclosed truck at the start was the work - Lancia Astura of Mario Nardilli and Carlo Maria Pintacuda . The only factory car from Maserati was a 4CS 1100 , driven by Piero Taruffi .

The three-way battle for victory

The result of the Mille Miglia 1934 was significantly influenced by the tires. For the first time since the first event in 1927 , the race was almost exclusively driven on wet roads. While the Scuderia Ferrari drivers could fall back on special rain tires from Pirelli , Nuvolari had to make do with dry tires from Dunlop in the factory Alfa Romeo . So he was handicapped from the start. In many publications the race is described as a duel between Varzi and Nuvolari; In truth, however, it was a three-way battle that was dominated by Mario Tadini halfway through the race. Tadini was leading at halftime in Rome and was only stopped by a gearbox failure on the drive back north. At the finish, Varzi was almost eight minutes ahead of Nuvolari. Chiron was more than an hour behind in third.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	Driver / passenger	vehicle	Travel time
1	S 3.0	48	Scuderia Ferrari	Achille Varzi Amedeo Bignami	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza Spider Brianza 2.6	14: 08: 05,000
2	S 3.0	44	Alfa Romeo	Tazio Nuvolari Eugenio Siena	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza Spider Brianza 2.6	14: 16: 58,000
3	S 3.0	46	Scuderia Ferrari	Louis Chiron Archimede Rosa	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza Spider Brianza 2.6	15: 24: 00,000
4th	S 3.0	59		Giovanni Battaglia Ferruccio Bianchi	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza 2.6	15: 29: 34,000
5	S 1.1	8th	Maserati	Piero Taruffi Guerino Bertocchi	Maserati 4CS 1100	15: 39: 01,000
6th	S 3.0	60	Gruppo San Giorgio	Arrigo Sanguinetti Renato Balestrero	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	16: 21: 31,000
7th	S 3.0	56	Scuderia Subalpina	Piero Dusio G. Aymini	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 2.3	16: 38: 16,000
8th	S 3.0	57		Gennaro Auricchio Umberto Berti	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	16: 43: 17,000
9	T 2.0	42		N. Pertile G. Jonoch	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Spider Brianza	16: 55: 29,000
10	T + 3.0	32	Scuderia Lancia	Mario Nardilli Carlo Maria Pintacuda	Lancia Astura	16: 58: 56,000
11	S 1.1	3	MG	Giovanni Lurani Clifton Penn-Hughes	MG Magnette K3	17: 01: 14,000
12	S 3.0	55		Felice Bonetto A. Negri	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 2.6	17: 24: 28,000
13	S 1.5	27	Scuderia Ferrari	Anna-Maria Peduzzi Gianfranco Comotti	Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 SSft Spider Brianza	17: 39: 55,000
14th	S 1.1	15th		Giuseppe Gilera Sebastiano Manzoni	Fiat Siata 508S	17: 46: 32,000
15th	S 1.1	12		O. Chilesotti G. Goti	Fiat 508CS Balilla Sport	17: 49: 30,000
16	S 1.5	25th		G. Mignini T. Montesi	Alfa Romeo 6C 1500	17: 54: 04,000
17th	T + 3.0	31		Mario Coda G. Ramella	Lancia Lambda	18: 02: 08,000
18th	S 1.1	7th		Ettore Bianco A. Mignanego	Fiat Siata 508S	18: 21: 35,000
19th	S 1.1	4th		Vittorugo Mallucci O. Astolfi	Fiat Siata 508S	18: 31: 52,000
20th	S 1.1	22nd		Alberto Macchia M. Jelmini	Fiat 508CS Balilla Sport	18: 41: 57,000
21st	S 1.1	20th	Theodor Fork	Theodor Fork Charley	MG Magnette K3	18: 43: 35,000
22nd	T + 3.0	30th		F. Giovanelli O. Vaggelli	Itala Speciale Diesel	18: 46: 52,000
23	T 2.0	38		G. Castellano Gino Zordan	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS	18: 52: 56,000
24	S 1.1	2		A. Facchetti F. Venosta	Fiat 508CS Balilla Sport	18: 55: 55,000
25th	S 3.0	61		Giovanni Battista Santinelli B. Donnini	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	19: 30: 00,000
26th	T 2.0	37		F. Crivellari Enzo Bortolon	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750	19: 36: 12,000
27	S 3.0	53		Guglielmo Gramolelli R. Toti	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300	19: 41: 00,000
28	S 1.1	17th		PL Torriani S. Petruccioli	Fiat 508CS Balilla Sport	20:04:05,000
29	S 1.3	13		Francesco Apruzzi A. Antelmi	Fiat 508CS Balilla Sport	22: 03: 00,000
Failed
30th	S 1.1	5		Giacomo Ragnoli "Torni"	Fiat
31	S 1.1	6th	MG	Eddie Hall Mrs. EJ Hall	MG Magnette K3
32	S 1.1	10		Luigi Villoresi Emilio Villoresi	Fiat 508CS Balilla Sport
33	S 1.1	11		Moris Bergamini E. Guastalla	Fiat 508CS Balilla Sport
34	S 1.1	14th		L. Beccaria Attilio Battilana	Fiat Siata 508S
35	S 1.1	16	MG	Earl Howe T. Thomas	MG Magnette K3
36	S 1.1	18th		P. Ravano M. Lenzi	Fiat Siata 508S
37	S 1.1	19th		Alfredo Caniato A. Rocca	Rocca 1100
38	S 1.1	21st		D. Bignami and Cavanna	Fiat
39	S 1.1	23		G. Coppola Bacciocchi	Fiat 508CS Balilla Sport
40	S 1.5	24	Manech Dinshaw Petit	Manech Dinshaw Petit A. Esson Scott	Aston Martin Le Mans
40	S 1.5	26th		Ippolito Berrone P. Bortolini	Maserati 4CS 1500 Campari & Sorniotti
41	S 1.5	28		Alb. Pellerano A. Scarpari	Alfa Romeo 6C 1500
42	S 1.5	29		O. Argentiero A. Ferrari	Alfa Romeo 6C 1500
43	T 2.0	33		E. Gioni R. Cinelli	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750
43	T 2.0	34	Scuderia Subalpina	Giuseppe Farina Luigi Della Chiesa	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750
44	T 2.0	36		Francesco Beneventano G. Della Valle	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750
45	T 2.0	39		P. Ferraro G. Clerici	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750
46	T 2.0	40		Giovanni Restelli C. Dell'Orto	Alfa Romeo 6C 1900 GT
47	T 2.0	41		Ermanno Gurgo Salice Carlo Laredo de Mendoza	Alfa Romeo 6C 1900 GT
48	T 2.0	43		V. Parodi E. Zuccarini	Alfa Romeo 6C 1900 GT
49	S 3.0	45	Scuderia Ferrari	Mario Tadini Nando Barbieri	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza Spider Brianza 2.6
50	S 3.0	47	Scuderia Siena	Giovanni Minozzi Luigi Soffietti	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 2.6
51	S 3.0	50		Nicola Borelli V. Lo Prete	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300
52	S 3.0	52		Giovanna Maria Cornaggia Medici E. Premoli	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Touring
53	S 3.0	54		Lelio Pellegrini Giuseppe Santi	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300
54	S 3.0	58	Scuderia Ferrari	Pietro Ghersi Guglielmo Carraroli	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza 2.6
55	S 3.0	63		Hans Ruesch Ulrich Maag	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300
Not started
56	S 1.1	1		Secondo Corsi	Fiat	1
57	S 1.1	9		"Cross" "Par"	Fiat	2
58	T 2.0	35		G. Azzali	Alfa Romeo	3
59	S 3.0	62		Gino Rovere Giovanni Alloatti	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 2.6	4th
60			Eddie Hall	Eddie Hall Mrs. EJ Hall	Bentley 3/1	5

¹ not started ² not started ³ not started ⁴ not started ⁵ only used during training

Only in the entry list

No further reports are known for this race.

Class winner

class	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
S 3.0	Achille Varzi	Amedeo Bignami	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza Spider Brianza 2.6	Overall victory
S 1.5	Anna-Maria Peduzzi	Gianfranco Comotti	Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 SSft Spider Brianza	Rank 13
S 1.1	Piero Taruffi	Guerino Bertocchi	Maserati 4CS 1100	Rank 5
T + 3.0	Mario Nardilli	Carlo Maria Pintacuda	Lancia Astura	Rank 10
T 2.0	N. Pertile	G. Jonoch	Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Spider Brianza	Rank 9

Racing data

• Registered: 60
• Started: 55
• Race classes: 5
• Race day weather: Heavy rain
• Distance: 1623 km
• Racing series: did not belong to any racing series

literature

• Hans-Jörg Götzl : Mille Miglia Motorbuchverlag 2006.

Web links

Commons : Mille Miglia 1934  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Official website
• Race results

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harvey T. Rowe: Men, women and engines - the memories of the Mercedes racing director Alfred Neubauer . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, p. 141
2. ↑ ^{a b} Harvey T. Rowe: Men, women and engines - the memories of the Mercedes racing director Alfred Neubauer . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, p. 142
3. ↑ Information on Giovanni Canestrini
4. ↑ Information on Anna-Maria Peduzzi