Mille Miglia 2010

Following its total restoration by DK Engineering, the Ferrari 166MM chassis 0314 successfully took part in the Mille Miglia retrospective event in Italy this year (2010). The car was admired by all and ran faultlessly throughout finishing a highly commendable 148th out of roughly 375 competitors.

The Ferrari 166MM was originally found in pieces, lying among piles of abandoned washing machines and broken refrigerators after police smashed an organised-crime ring and swooped on a scrapyard in the sleepy municipality of Besenzone in northern Italy. It would be several days before David Cottingham would receive the news.

The discovered body, missing for eight years, was that of a Ferrari motor car, hand-built half a century earlier to take part in a race that bills itself, with good reason, as La Corsa Piu Bella del Mondo ("The most beautiful course in the world"). This Vignale Spyder 166 MM took its initials from the Mille Miglia, the "Thousand Miles" race which, for more than 80 years, has obsessed the world of motorsport with its irresistibly heady mix of social glamour, stylish design and unrelenting speed – a dangerous combination that has claimed dozens of lives.

From a verdant site in rural Hertfordshire, Cottingham, a 66-year-old physicist, nurtures vintage Ferraris back to life. He has dedicated a good portion of his existence to this particular Vignale Spyder, bringing the car back from the dead not once but twice, after it had passed through the hands of multiple owners, from Italian gangsters to eccentric German collectors. When it was found in the scrap yard at the end of 2007, he was informed by a German-based Ferrari historian and immediately set about his greatest challenge.

For more details see this article printed in the Independent newspaper..