The five best races that are no longer run

Targa Florio – 1906-1977

The oldest sports car racing event, and perhaps the longest running, the Targa Florio took place in many guises during its 71-year history.

Created in 1906 by the wealthy racer, Vincenzo Florio, (who had already started a similar event – the Coppa Florio – in Brescia, Lombardy in 1900), the Targia Florio was launched with a luxurious lifestyle surrounding it, complete with artist-designed medals, a magazine, and then-novel photograph posters.

The earliest races comprised a circuit of treacherous mountain roads through the island of Sicily, crossing through many microclimates owing to the altitude. Such terrain was unprecedented in motorsport, and drivers were forced to adapt their cars and their style to suit. The original ‘Grande’ 146km (91-mile) circuit had around 2,000 corners per lap, and drivers would complete dozens of laps on open public roads while learning the course.

The inaugural race was won by Alessandro Cagno, held in May 1906, with an average speed of just 30mph owing to the convoluted course.

The race grew in popularity, and soon famous names, including none other than Enzo Ferrari, were appearing on the entry list. Ferrari first piloted a Milan-built CMN during the 1919 race, before entering the consecutive four editions in an Alfa Romeo, taking a best finish of second overall, and first in his class, in 1920. From 1948, Ferrari’s name would return to the Mediterranean island, the time adorning the bonnet of his racing cars, which would go on to achieve 23 class wins and seven overall victories at the prestigious event.

After numerous course changes and lap lengths varying from 45-miles to 670-miles, in 1953, the Targa Florio became part of the newly-established FIA World Sports Car Championship. It continued on the 45-mile Circuito Piccolo delle Madonie circuit – lapped 11 times – until 1973, when it reverted to a national sports car event, eventually being discontinued in 1977 due to safety concerns.

Peking to Paris – 1907

The idea of racing from Peking to Paris – a distance of almost 10,000-miles – is enough to make even the most modern of racing cars shake in its shadow. But more than a century ago, the overland epic commanded the respect of the hardiest of drivers, with just five crews brave enough to attempt the feat.

Reportedly the seed was planted by Parisian newspaper Le Matin, in which the following challenge was published in January 1907: “What needs to be proved today is that as long as a man has a car, he can do anything and go anywhere. Is there anyone who will undertake to travel this summer from Peking to Paris by automobile?”

With the grand prize of a case of Mumm Champagne waiting at the finish line, and despite the race committee cancelling the event shortly before it was due to begin, those five cars set off from the French embassy in Peking (now Beijing) on June 10^th, 1907.

There were no checkpoints or roadmaps, only 9,317-miles of inhospitable, untravelled terrain and the occasional strategically placed fuel-laden camel. There was a dinner hosted for the competitors in St. Petersburg, Russia, ahead of their ultimate arrival in Paris on the 7^th July.

The winner was Italy’s Prince Scipione Borghese, accompanied by the journalist Luigi Barzini and mechanic Ettore Guizzardi in a 40PS four-cylinder Itala. In second place was a 15PS four-cylinder Dutch Spÿker, driven by Charles Godard and Jean du Taillis, one of Le Matins chief journalists. Third went to Georges Cormier and Edgardo Longoni in a 10PS two-cylinder De Dion-Bouton, while an identical model driven by Victor Collignon with Jean Bizac as mechanic crossed the finish line soon after.

Of the five entrants, the only car not to finish the race was the 6PS one-cylinder Contal Cyclecar, driven by Auguste Pons with Oscar Foucault as mechanic, which became bogged down in the Gobi desert and was not recovered, with the crew rescued by locals.

Mille Miglia – 1927-1957

Perhaps one of the most famous endurance races of the 20^th century, the Mille Miglia (meaning 1,000-miles) was founded in 1927 by the young Italian Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi. Rumour has it, they were so enraged at the Italian Grand Prix being moved from their hometown of Brescia to Monza, they devised the thousand-mile race from Brescia to Rome and back.

Taking place on open public roads through Italy, 77 Italian entrants took part the first year in unmodified production cars, with winner Giuseppe Morandi completing the course in just shy of 21 hours 5 minutes, averaging nearly 48mph in his 2.0-litre Officine Meccaniche.

Before long, the Mille Miglia caught the attention of European manufacturers, including Alfa Romeo, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes Benz and Porsche, who created high-powered grand tourers to take part. While the standing remained dominated by Italians, in 1931 German driver Rudolf Caracciola and mechanic Wilhelm Sebastian became the first foreigners to win in their supercharged Mercedes-Benz SSKL, also making history as the first team to average time more than 100km/h (63mph) in the race.

With millions of spectators lining the route each year, it was only a matter of time before an accident happened. When several were killed in 1938 Mussolini put a stop to the action, allowing it to return only once before World War II, albeit under the guise of the 1940 Grand Prix of Brescia, held over nine laps of a 100km (62 mile) course.

The race returned after the war, and once again proved to be an Italian-dominated event, with slight inroads made by Mercedes-Benz and its 300 SL Gullwing.

From 1953 until 1957, the Mille Miglia formed part of the World Sports Car Championship, including the 1955 edition when Sir Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson piloted their 310PS, 2.9-litre, straight-eight SLR to an incredible 1-2 finish for Mercedes-Benz, maintaining an average speed of 97.96mph and completing the challenge in 10 hours, 7 minutes and 48 seconds, thirty-two minutes ahead of runner-up, Juan Manuel Fangio.

After two crashes, which took the lives of three competitors and nine spectators, the race was banned in 1957. Since 1977, the Mille Miglia has returned for classic and vintage cars, which had attended the original race.

The original Paris-Dakar – 1978-2007

Okay, so this one is a little debatable. The Dakar Rally does still take place, albeit no longer on its namesake route, after terrorist threats forced the cancellation of the 2008 edition.

And while the varied terrain of South America – and now Saudi Arabia – has more than lived up to the challenge, there remains a tinge of sadness among Dakar purists that the rally no longer traverses the Sahara.

Rally raids rose to popularity during the late 1970s, with intrepid motorists venturing into the wilds in search of adventure and – if they were lucky – the finish line. Aboard vaguely modified road-going vehicles, they tackled tough terrain with varying levels of success…

The inaugural African rally, the Côte-Côte Rally (Cote d’Ivoire to Cote d’Azur), was held in December-January 1976 after being concocted by the founding father of rally raids, Jean-Claude Bertrand. The following year, it became the Abidjan-Nice Rally and it was during the gruelling adventure that 28-year-old motorcyclist Thierry Sabine strayed from the course. After several days lost in the Libyan desert and almost dying from exposure, the Frenchman came to the unlikely conclusion that the arid and unforgiving Sahara would be the perfect place to stage a rally raid.

And so, the following year, the first Paris-Dakar rally was held. Departing from the French capital on 26^th December 1979, the route wound to the south, before entrants crossed to Algeria. Over the next two weeks, 182 competitors, comprising 80 cars, 90 motorcycles and 12 trucks made their way through Niger, Mali and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), before finishing in Dakar, on the coast of Senegal, on 14^th January.

Despite a success rate of just 40 per cent (74 finishers) – a quarter of competitors found themselves lost on stage three between Arlit and Agadez, while many others suffered mechanical breakdown and injury – the Dakar Rally was declared a huge success. It had delivered adventure, and the competitors, and spectators sat at home, were hooked. Soon, manufacturers recognised the appeal of the rally and got onboard, and by the mid-1980s, factory support was prevalent in the bivouac.

To many, those early editions represented the truest form of Dakar – an age when success was determined by not only riding/driving ability and navigational skills, but on mechanical nous too. With no support in the bivouac, the pilots worked tirelessly into the night, maintaining the vehicles at the expense of their bodies.

But with manufacturer support came international renown, and soon the Dakar was broadcast on the world stage. The vehicles developed from modified production models to prototypes, and the Dakar became more race than adventure.

With different classes for cars, trucks, motorcycles (Quads and UTVS were introduced post-Africa), the rally continued to attract huge numbers of entrants. The most successful Dakar pilot ever is the Frenchman Stéphane Peterhansel, who took six motorcycle titles in the ‘90s, followed by seven car wins since 2004. Other famous names to compete in the ‘true Dakar’ include Ari Vatanen, René Metge, Jacky Ickx, Cyril Neveu and Richard Sainct.

The rally was marred by countless accidents, deaths, and disappearances – including that of Margaret Thatcher’s son Mark during the 1982 edition – but to many adventurers the risk formed much of its appeal.

Camel Trophy – 1980-2000

There’s just something about ‘80’s overlanding… While famous for its Land Rover associations, the Camel Trophy actually began in 1980 with three Jeep-mounted German teams exploring the Amazon basin as part of a publicity stunt for the Camel cigarette brand.

The stunt caught the attention of adventurous vehicle manufacturers worldwide, and it was Land Rover that jumped in on the action, providing identical factory-supplied V8 Range Rovers, finished in a recognisable Sand Glow yellow, the following year. From a field of 1,000 applicants, 10 German men and women were chosen to compete in 1981, taking on a 1,600km route along the Trans-Amazonian Highway, through the Sumatran rainforests. A team from West Germany won that year, before the event was opened up to allow entrants from other nations to compete.

The rally grew in popularity, and over the next decade was held in various far flung locations across the globe, from Siberia to Mongolia. Competitors driving various Land Rovers, including the Range Rover, Series III, Defender, Discovery and Freelander, were faced with ‘Special Tasks’ including winching, orienteering, and timed rally stage sections, kayaking and mountain biking. With its arduous nature and physical and mental challenges, it became known as the ‘Olympics of 4x4’ and reportedly, a million people applied to take part in 1989. With the exception of 1999, when it was not held, the event then took place every year thereafter until 2000, when the 4x4s were swapped for boats. Perhaps unsurprisingly the Camel Trophy ceased to exist thereafter.

Images one to four courtesy of Motorsport Images.