peter collins in the 1957 ferrari 335 sport scaglietti s/n 0700. on left is mechanic ascanio lucchi, in middle is enzo ferrari and on the right in black shirt is martino severi, a test driver.

1955 ferrari 750 monza – the horrific 1957 ferrari crash that ended the mille miglia race

the last race : 1957 mille miglia

in april of 1956, the year before this, the ferrari racing team was victorious at the mille miglia, winning the first four places. the grand champion was eugenio castellotti, one of the brightest young stars on team ferrari… less than two months later, personal tragedy struck enzo and his wife laura. their beloved 24-year-old son, dino, succumbed to a years-long battle with muscular dystrophy. enzo was inconsolable and briefly considered quitting ferrari. when he was finally ready to return to work, enzo suffered a second painful blow—his star driver castellotti was killed in a training accident on the ferrari test track in modena.

castellotti’s death came just weeks before the 1957 edition of the mille miglia. for the first time in his life, enzo ferrari publicly expressed doubts about dedicating his life to such a dangerous sport. “something had changed within enzo and the way he was looking at motor racing,” says luca dal monte, author of the biography enzo ferrari: power, politics, and the making of an automotive empire.

the night before the start of the 1957 mille miglia, ferrari gave a speech at a big banquet in brescia. “maybe it was the deaths of dino or castellotti that made him more sensible to the whole issue of dying,” says dal monte. “he expressed doubts the night before the race—that what he’s doing is actually bringing death to people.” those words where haunting given the faith of alfonso de portago who thundering down the road at 155 miles per hour, when something punctured the left front tire of the ferrari which killed him and 9 spectators during the crash

the 24. edizione mille miglia (italian for “one thousand miles”) was an auto race held on a course totalling 992.332 miles (1,597.004 km), made up entirely of public roads around italy, mostly on the outer parts of the country on 11–12 may 1957. the route was based on a round trip between brescia and rome, with start/finish in brescia.

as in previous years, the event was a race against the clock, as the cars were released at one-minute intervals. in the mille miglia, the smaller displacement, slower cars started first. each car number related to their allocated start time. for example, wolfgang von trips’s car had the number 532, he left brescia at 5:32am, while the first cars had started late in the evening on the previous day. some drivers went with navigators, others didn’t; a number of local italian drivers had knowledge of the routes being used and felt confident enough that they wouldn’t need one.

this race was won by scuderia ferrari driver piero taruffi without the aid of a navigator. he completed the 992-mile distance in 10 hours, 27 minutes and 47 seconds- an average speed of 94.841 mph (152.632 km/h). the italian finished 3 minutes in front of his second-placed team-mate, the german driver, von trips. olivier gendebien and jacques washer were next, ensuring scuderia ferrari finished 1-2-3. by uh