Driving the Mille Miglia

IN THE WINTER OF 2020, I attended Retromobile, Paris’s annual classic car show, and among the treasures I photographed and reported on was the car on display at the stand of the Alfa Classic Club de France (ACCF), one of France’s Alfa Romeo owners’ clubs. This car was a rare 1953 1900 C Sprint Coupé, one of less than a hundred whose body was designed and built by Pininfarina (most 1900 coupes have Touring bodies). It turned out to belong to Stefan Gavell, a member not only of ACCF but of our very own Alfa Owners of New England (AONE). Little did I dream, at the time, that three and a half years later I would not only be co-driving and navigating this very car but doing it in the Mille Miglia! This is in fact what happened, as my photographing the car at Retromobile led to Stefan and I getting to know each other and, eventually, Stefan very kindly inviting me to be his navigator and co-driver, so that he could fulfill a dream of his own: drive the Mille Miglia.

Click here to watch and hear Stefan and Peter passing through several towns along the route