Story and photos by Alessandro Gerelli
2007 celebrates the 60th birthday of Ferrari, of myself and the Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti. The Coppa is held in Cortina d’Ampezzo, a wonderful mountain small city in Italy, 160 kilometers north of Venice.
The first edition was organized on July 20th 1947: 308 kilometers across the Alps and Dolomites with a top altitude of 2239 meters at the Pordoi pass. For this reason the race was immediately nicknamed the “Alpine Mille Miglia”.
118 cars were at the start and only 74 arrived back to at Cortina.
The winner was Salvatore Ammendola with an Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 at an average speed of about 77 kilometers per hour.
The race was stopped in 1957 because all road races in Italy were prohibited after the terrible accident at the Mille Miglia.
The “Coppa d’Oro” was revived in the 1980s as a regularity race for historical cars and since then it has become a very important appointment for owners and fans.
This year to celebrate its 60th anniversary, was also an Elegance Concourse reserved for the participants.
There were 140 cars in the entry list, with drivers coming mainly from Italy, Switzerland, U.K., and even Japan. The event takes two days and is very hard for both drivers and cars: at the arrival, we listened to their exploits of difficult long uphill drives using only first gear, guiding the cars through the many hairpins without power steering and power brakes.
The presence of Alfa Romeo has been very important to the event. This year the factory brought a Touring Disco Volante from the Alfa Museum of Arese and a couple of very elegant Touring 6C 2500s.
Fiat was represented with production cars like the 1100 and Topolino, a few barchetta 1100s and a very elegant Otto Vu.
Include the Lancias, a couple of wonderful Cisitalias, Maserati sports, three Ferraris, a few Oscas, one Ermini, one Bottega and a stunning OM, it is easy to see why the Coppa is so much fun to watch. Despite the wonderful Italian car entries, the winners were Moceri and Baroli with a Porsche Speedster.
For more in depth information on the Coppa d'Oro, read Gerelli's A View from Cortina.
The cars now all arrive in huge trucks, but we wonder if this is keeping things in the proper perspective.
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1952 Fiat 1100 Barchetta.
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OM 665 SSMM 1930
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The engine of th OM.
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Lancia Augusta 3rd series 1936.
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1946 Alfa 6C2500 S.
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Alfa 6C2500 S engine.
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Detail shot of the lovely lights and bumpers of the Alfa.
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1947 Cistitalia 202S Nuvolari spider.
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1948 Fiat 1100S barchetta.
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Modified engine of the Fiat 1100S barchetta.
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Fiat 1100 S Mille Miglia. This was a productin Fiat but built for racing.
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1948 Fiat 1100 B sedan.
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1949 Alfa Romeo 6C2500 SS.
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SS engine, note the three carb setup which dominates the engine bay.
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1950 Bottega 1100.
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1953 Otto Vu Fiat Zagato.
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1953 Cisitalia 303 F.
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1955 Ermini 1100 Sport Competizione
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Ermini engine is built from unique castings.
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1955 750 Ferrari Monza.
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1955 Fiat 1100 TV Vignale "Printemps" (French for "spring").
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The interior of the Fiat Printemps is very sporting yet elegant.
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Fiat 1200 Spider.
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Until next year---
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