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Mille Miglia Partners with Mercedes-Benz

The 1931 Mille Miglia was won by Rudolf Caracciola and his co-driver Wilhelm Sebastian in a Mercedes-Benz SSKL, the first time a foreigner was the overall winner of this famous Italian race.
The 1931 Mille Miglia was won by Rudolf Caracciola and Wilhelm Sebastian in a Mercedes-Benz SSKL, the first foreign overall winners of the Italian race.

Mercedes-Benz has signed on as the main automotive sponsor of Mille Miglia. An agreement was reached between Mercedes-Benz Classic and 1000 Miglia S.R.L. in Brescia (Italy), with the aim of establishing a long-term collaboration. Mercedes-Benz Classic will be represented at the 2013 event with a number of vehicles, as well as five famous faces taking up their position at the starting line.
Marcel Tiemann will also be representing Mercedes-Benz Classic as a brand ambassador at this year’s Mille Miglia, alongside former Formula 1 racing drivers David Coulthard, Jochen Mass and Karl Wendlinger, as well as Bernd Mayländer, the current driver of the Official F1 Safety Car.
One of the major triumphs celebrated by Mercedes-Benz at what is probably the most famous thousand-mile race was the legendary victory by Rudolf Caracciola in April 1931 as the first non-Italian driver, together with his co-driver Wilhelm Sebastian in an SSKL racing car. The second major success from Mercedes-Benz involved the 300 SLR (W 196 S). In 1955, Stirling Moss and his co-driver Denis Jenkinson won the Mille Miglia with the vehicle sporting the starting number 722. Travelling at an average speed of 157.65 km/h, they completed the course in the fastest ever time of ten hours, seven minutes and 48 seconds. Juan Manuel Fangio with starting number 658 took second place, completing the race solo.
Today, the Mille Miglia is promoted as a test of endurance, stretching from the northern Italian town of Brescia to Rome and back. Along the thousand-mile course (around 1600 kilometres), a number of challenges await the participants and their classic cars. The rules state that only vehicle models which were part of the original race line-up (1927 to 1957) are permitted to take part.
Taking place at the same time as this year’s Mille Miglia, there will be an exhibition of the Daimler Art Collection from 7 March to 30 June at the Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia, entitled “Novecento mai visto: From Albers to Warhol to (now)”. Taking centre stage at this event are more than 230 works from around 110 international artists. This exhibition will also be accompanied by a special show in Museo Mille Miglia where three original vehicles from Mercedes-Benz Classic will be exhibited together with corresponding Warhol motifs.
[Source: Daimler AG]