2008 Mille MigliaGiacomo Bretzel Gallery

Every year top Italian art and fashion photographer Giacomo Bretzel follows the historic Mille Miglia, his work often appearing in Chopard’s advertising campaigns. Here we present a selection of his images chronicling the 2008 event, now under new management and of course as colourful and typically Italian as ever.

If you plan to do just one historic driving tour, this is the one: the atmosphere, the scenery and above all the enthusiasm of the crowds make the Mille Miglia a must-do experience. There’s nothing quite like it.

 

• Guernsey-entered ’28 Bugatti Type 37A pressing on
• Lovely ’51 Frazer Nash Le Mans was driven from the UK and back

 

• ’Blown’ Merc SS roars at speed through the Italian countryside
• ’BMW Boys’ Daniel Tasch and board member Ian Robertson enjoying a few days off

 

• Unlucky Mika Hakkinen had to retire when told his house was on fire
• The Cashmere Couple- mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov and his wife, Russia’s wealthiest woman, weren't shy

 

• Ever-enthusiastic Chopard boss Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and his wife Christine aboard their diminutive Aston Martin
• M-B museum boss Michael Bock thunders past smaller entrants in a formidable ’30 Merc SS

 

• Interviewing ex-F1 driver Jan Lammers (in a Porsche 550 Spyder) in front of the crowd outside Rome’s famous Castel Sant’Angelo
• German owned Jaguar SS100 nears the finish line in Brescia at midnight on Saturday

 

• TV presenter Savina Confaloni, new MM president Alessandro Casali, Bond girl Maria-Grazia Cucinotta and speaker Simon Kidston at the finish
• Wet, tired and happy: BMW 328 crew crosses the finish line in Brescia after 1,000 miles

 

Click here to view Giacomo Bretzel's full album on Flickr.com

If you wish to order photographs from the 2008 Mille Miglia, please contact Giacomo Bretzel: gb@giacomobretzel.com

 

©All images: Giacomo Bretzel