Italy in ’57 was a country rebuilding itself from the ruins of the post-war period. It was a Italy full of hopes for a better future, the Italy of vacations in the Fiat 1100 with suitcases piled on the roof of the car, as depicted in the black and white films of Vittorio De Sica and Totò. But it was also Italy experiencing the unstoppable growth of Fiat. Italians also dreamed on the roads of their towns, watching the fantastic racing cars zoom by in what was the craziest automobile race of all time. Perhaps comparable to the Temporada in Argentina, equally insane but on a circuit, or the 24 Hours of Le Mans, always on a track.
Former Formula 1 pilot Enzo Ferrari was in a bad place: his racing team was not doing well at all, as wasn’t his marriage, threatened by the awkward presence of his lover and already undermined by the loss of their only child. Enzo sets out to change his life and destiny, be...
Only here, in the distant year of 1926, was the madness conceived to race 1600 km on urban streets amidst the people. Until that cursed day of May 12th, ’57, when the blood-red racing car of the Marquis de Portago, one of Enzo Ferrari’s horsemen of the Apocalypse, took flight at the finish line (the race was later won by the legendary Piero Taruffi), crashing into the crowd that eagerly awaited the passage of the cars, killing nine people. It was the definitive end of the craziest race of all time and the beginning of a series of disasters that would strike Enzo Ferrari and his cars in the years to come, when one by one, he lost many of his champions.
Featured image: Ferrari, official still © Eros Hoagland
