1956 Mille Miglia

Artist: Charles Avalon

Brescia and Back: Eugenio Castellotti in a 3.5-litre 290 MM effortlessly took the honours in the penultimate year of the classic road race. Castellotti’s blisteringly fast drive, single-handed, in torrential rain, was widely admired. The Milanese was followed home by two 850 Monza Ferraris, driven by Collins and Musso. Tall, hot-blooded, and scion of a prosperous northern Italian land-owning family, Castellotti was known as Il Bello (The Beautiful One), hitting the headlines over his romance with stage beauty Delia Scala. A year after his victory, Castellotti, testing a Lancia-Ferrari, crashed at the Esses at Modena with fatal results.