1953 Pinin Farina 250 MM

   The best publicity Ferrari could have imagined was Giovanni Bracco winning the 1952 Mille Miglia. Here was Bracco trouncing the reemergent Mercedes Team with a fifth of brandy and a cigarette constantly smoldering between his lips. It was a feast for the Italian press and Greek drama, with a little comedy, for the world sporting press.
   Mercedes had been in Italy for a month. The entire team driving lap after lap of the course under the demanding direction of Alfred Neubauer. Over five thousand Pounds Sterling had been spent on fuel alone. At the predawn start was the silvered team of futuristic 300SLs.
   Bracco, for his part, wasn’t even a front line driver for the Scuderia; Ascari and the crew were at Indianapolis trying to cast the rampant stallion on the Borg-Warner trophy. An Italian hillclimb champion, Bracco had been handed a 225 that had been sleeved up to three liters the week before. And, with canvas showing on the front tires, wearing a shirt and tie, he climbed from the car in Brescia a national hero.
   The order books were soon filled for the new namesake car, the 250 MM. Pinin designed and fitted bodies of clean understated lines that spoke of speed in the first person.  Just the way every owner wanted to speak of his experience driving one.