The BMW Group Mobile Tradition at the Mille Miglia 2005

The BMW Group Mobile Tradition at the Mille Miglia 2005 Into the Mille
Miglia with 12 horsepower: Reichle/Lapp line up in a BMW Isetta
250+++Isetta and BMW 507 celebrate their 50th birthday+++Alexander
Zanardi competes in a BMW 507+++22 BMW teams at the start +++
Boni/Barzizza in a BMW 328 vie for the Ladies' Trophy Munich/Brescia.
It's that time of year again. On 19th May, dream cars from past eras
will converge on Brescia. What happens then is an Italian phenomenon
without which the classic car scene would be much the poorer: hundreds
of thousands of spectators line the roads to cheer on the powerful
racers along the 1,000-mile route from Brescia via Ferrara to Rome and
back again. Swept on by the unbridled enthusiasm of jubilant fans, a
caravan of gems from the automotive past wends its way through
landscapes that are hard to match. It is the ideal stage on which to
celebrate two very special anniversaries: both the BMW 507 and the BMW
Isetta turn 50 this year. And although the two cars could hardly be
more different in character, they are united by a rather special
privilege: both are entitled to enter the Mille Miglia by virtue of
having competed in the classic edition of the race through northern and
central Italy in the 1950s. For BMW Group Mobile Tradition, the team
of Jörg Reichle/Holger Lapp in a BMW Isetta 250 will be baring
their teeth to the high-powered competition. The head of BMW Group
Mobile Tradition, Holger Lapp, and the journalist Jörg Reichle
will be driving the blue-and-white "bubble car" in unmodified
condition - there will be no tuning of the engine or chassis. The
second team fielded by BMW's heritage division bears a resonant name -
Giorgia and Luca Ferrari will be driving a BMW Isetta 300. While the
involvement of the Isettas is a novel experience for BMW Group Mobile
Tradition, the Isetta Mercandanti/Mercandanti has already been
conquering the hearts of the crowd for some years, adding a third,
private "bubble car" to the field of participants alongside
the works Isettas. As President of the Italian subsidiary of the BMW
Group, Marco Saltalamaccia will be contesting the new edition of the
classic event in a BMW 507. His team-mate looks back on plenty of motor
racing experience at the highest level: former Formula One driver and
current WTCC competitor Alexander Zanardi will be joining Saltalamaccia
in the V8 roadster, which for many ranks as one of the most beautiful
cars in existence. Zanardi has drawn attention to himself in recent
years through his comeback with BMW touring cars. A second BMW 507
(Trucco/Domenico - Italdesign) completes the line-up of 50-year-olds.
As ever, BMW Mobile Tradition will be showcasing treasures from the
1930s. Michael Ramstätter, PR chief of Europe's biggest automobile
club, ADAC, will be manning a classic beauty - the BMW 327 Cabriolet -
alongside Richard Gaul, PR director of the BMW Group. The
extraordinarily successful history of the BMW 328 will be reflected in
four competition vehicles: Franca Boni and Monica Barziza have set
their sights firmly on the Ladies' Trophy again this year and have
every chance of making it into the first 15. All the way from the USA,
Kurt Liedtke (CEO Bosch USA) and Michael Klein (CEO Murray's Discount
Auto Parts) will be at the wheel of a BMW 328 production version. Two
further cars will be paying homage to BMW's overall victory and team
win in the 1940 Mille Miglia: the BMW 328 Mille Miglia Coupé -
the original winning car of the 1940 Mille Miglia - will be driven by
Professor Burkhard Göschel, BMW AG Board Member for Development
and Purchasing, who with co-driver Jürgen Kübler forms an
experienced team; and Prince Leopold of Bavaria will share the cockpit
with Chris Bangle, head of design at the BMW Group. Their car, the BMW
328 Mille Miglia Roadster, played a crucial role in the 1940 team
victory, finishing third overall. The team entered by BMW Group Mobile
Tradition will again be complemented by numerous private teams,
ensuring that the field of participating BMWs once again makes for a
fascinating spectrum of motoring history - across a performance range
of 12 to 150 horsepower. Further information on the current edition of
the Mille Miglia is available at http://www.millemiglia.it The Isetta
at Mille Miglia. It was the sensation of the 1954 Mille Miglia. On May
1st, the 70 entrants in the Turismo Serie Speziale class included seven
Iso Isettas. The field of starters - not surprisingly - was dominated
by more then 30 FIAT 500s, and the Renault 4 CV with a displacement of
747 cc was also well represented with 20 cars. The Iso Isetta with its
diminutive 236 cc engine could pin its hopes on just one thing -
endurance. In fact, the best-placed Isetta came 30th in its class. It
wasn't so much its sprinting prowess as the numerous retirements among
the competition that ensured such a good result. But the gap to the
winner, Ascari, is graphically indicated by a time comparison: Ascari
crossed the finish line after 11 hours, 26 minutes and 10 seconds,
while the Isetta took almost twice as long, covering the route through
northern and central Italy in a time of 22 hours, 4 minutes and 52
seconds. That placed the team of M. Cipolla/L. Brioschi 175th overall -
four entrants (including another three Isettas) were slower than that.
The 22nd Mille Miglia of 1955 saw just four Iso Isettas at the start.
The quartet set off in radiant sunshine with the aim of reaching their
destination in Brescia in best times compared to the previous year.
Once again Mario Cipolla set the pace for the field of Isetta drivers.
An improvement to 20 hours, 4 minutes and 52 seconds was partly due to
the fact that Cipolla had decided to remove his co-driver from the car
in the interests of an improved power/weight ratio. By way of
comparison, the winners of the 1955 Mille Miglia - Moss/Jenkinson - had
crossed the finishing line a full ten hours earlier... The 1955 Mille
Miglia also signalled the end of this heroic chapter in motor sport.
Later involvements of the Isetta in the Milla Miglia, at any rate, are
not documented. Nevertheless, the Isetta left a distinctly positive
impression. Giovanni Lurani wrote: "The little Isetta 'bubble car'
and its capable driver Mario Cipolla achieved and extremely interesting
result. Their average speed was around 2 km/h over the average that
Minoja recorded on his winning ride in the first ever Mille Miglia of 1927."