MotorsFeature: recreating the Mille MigliaThe original Mille Miglia was tough and often deadly. But, writes Tony Dron, today's Mille Miglia Storica is a gentler and more pleasant event
Returning from the Mille Miglia, there was a letter from the bank. My puchases of large quantities of fuel across Italy within a 24-hour period had convinced Visa's ever-watchful computer system that Mafiosi were cleaning out my account. So they cancelled my card.
Perhaps I shouldn't complain. The Mille Miglia event, running for 1,000 miles on old roads with some 350 pre-1957 cars officially taking part, plus dozens of others tagging along, could only happen in Italy. Speed limits and red lights don't apply and the police are everywhere, to help you. When the blue lights of their bikes flash in your mirrors, your job is to put your foot down and get moving. It's a fantasy come to life.
The Italians love it. Tens of thousands line the route, schoolchildren wave flags and cheer and it's all rather beautiful until, I imagine, there's a crash. Then the full weight of the Italian lawbook gets thrown about, which is probably no bad thing.
Perhaps that's one reason why we didn't see even a minor scrape on the entire 1,000-miles. Or maybe it was just a lucky year in which the sun shone all the way.
Death wasn't that unusual in the real race that ended in 1957, but today's Mille Miglia Storica is a very different event. It's a parade for the greatest of old cars, and it runs at a gentle pace. Cruising at 100km/h keeps any follower up with the action. Often, it's not possible to go any faster as the traffic is so heavy with competitors, support crews and all sorts of hangers-on, as well as the general public.
These days the results are decided over very short regularity sections, run at extremely low speeds. As for the bystanders, they seem to think they are watching the wacky races.
Obviously our Audi made something of a statement among these glorious classic cars. Whenever the R8 came into view, many went into a frenzy. Whenever we had to slow right down, they'd call out for us to "Open! Open it!" which seemed to be the Italian for "Give it some welly". And it's not just young car-mad Italians; Mille Miglia fever gets them at all ages, including Italian grandmothers who probably witnessed the last real Miglia going past their doors in 1957.
The R8 was an incredible crowd-puller - it's new, it does look great and it was probably the first one they'd seen in the metal. Yet even the grandmothers seemed to know what it was: "Audi" was shouted out between the bystanders repeatedly as we swept through narrow villages with our windows down. At a rough estimate, about 10,000 photos were taken of our R8 by fans at the roadside.
For those who've spent the last year in bed, we need to say that the R8 is Audi's new mid-engined two-seater, taking the company into the fringes of supercar territory. Powered by the firm's renowned 4.2FSI V8 engine, producing 414bhp, it has quattro permanent four-wheel drive, and either a six-speed manual or semi-automatic R-tronic gearbox.
That deals with the dry technical facts. Of more import to us was the fact that the R8 is surprisingly easy to trundle around narrow streets, as well as being tremendous fun to drive at speed. Opportunities to - officially - put pedal to metal did crop up along the route, and it was then that the supreme competence of this chassis/transmission package shone through.
It doesn't slide around like an old classic car on narrow wheels, of course. The grip provided by those wide, low-profile tyres does not permit that.
The R8 is capable of worry-free late braking, and it offers extraordinary traction away from tight corners, but it's the feeling of utter security in the way it does these things that is so outstanding. Yes, the grip is excellent but it's the handling more than the roadholding which is so astonishing. If you think that mid-engined cars are all tricky near the limit, the R8 will make you think again.
ALL THAT'S NEEDED IS TO GET the pace right; the R8 then becomes a delight to drive. If you choose to pile it into a tight corner fast and put your foot down hard, it responds superbly well, gets into a stable slide without being leery, and simply belts away with the torque being appropriately split between all four wheels.
Occasionally you can feel one of them, usually the inside rear, doing a little skip as the traction control comes into play. Far from being intrusive and irritating, this is set up for sporting performance, it's fun to use and there's no point in trying to turn anything off.
On one of the famous passes we escaped from a slow queue of traffic and got 15 minutes of unrestricted driving on a great mountain road. Our R8 left everything behind, disappearing smoothly into the distance, while we enjoyed the wonderful growl of the engine which sounds great when revved hard on a fully open throttle.
It's worth noting, however, that we really didn't participate in the Mille Miglia. This is an ultra-modern car amid an entourage of classics. We saw a glorious historical pageant, covering the 1,000 miles in an evening and two days. We had it easy.