The famous Mille Miglia (meaning a thousand miles) is a very popular open road race in Italy, which had originally taken place 24 times, from 1927 till 1957. Much like the earlier Italian races of Carrera Panamericana and the Targa Florio, Mille Miglia has made many sports car makers world-famous such as Porsche, Maserati, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo.

In all modern rally races, the cars are released at one minute intervals, with the large and professional cars released before the smaller cars. However in the Mille Miglia, the slower cars were allowed to start first, before the faster cars. This has made the race much simpler for the organizers since the marshals did not have to be on duty for a very log time and the roads only remained closed for a short time.