(05) 1948: Ferrari 166 SC

Photo Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_166_S#/media/File:Ferrari_166_MM_Barchetta.jpg

In the Corsa edition of the 166, also dubbed the Inter because the Besana brothers often raced it, the mudguards were detached from the body and the engine was a two-liter (1995.02 cc). The car will forever be associated with Tazio Nuvolari's 1948 Mille Miglia drive. The Flying Mantuan should never have entered the race, suffering from an illness that would claim his life in 1953.  On the eve of the Brescia marathon, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari were desperately looking for a driver. Enzo Ferrar put Nuvolari behind the wheel of a 166 SC after Igo Troubetzkoy suddenly bowed out: he was ably assisted by Sergio Scapinelli. As he started from Brescia at 4:30 am with number 1049, Nuvolari finished sixth at Padua, third at Forlì and first in Rome. As the race came to Bologna, the Mantuan was 29 minutes ahead of the Ferrari 166 S of Clemente Biondetti. It was only a broken spring after an earlier collision when Nuvolari's 166 SC lost its bonnet thatprevented him from bringing home another memorable victory, one of many in his long and extraordinary career.  It was a competitive car for a pretty long time: it raced through 1948 and most of 1949 in both long and short wheelbases, different radiator grills, and without mudguards, cigar-shaped and wraparound bodies, depending on which circuit you were racing on.