It looked like the time stood still, an Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 GS Zagato (1933) won the famous 1600 km Mille Miglia 2012. The team whose drives were the Argentinian Cladio Scalise and Daniel Claramunt. Last year the legendary car already conquered the 3th place. During this race the souls of Tazio Nuvolari and Giuseppe Campari were present more then before. They wanted us to know that the ‘Mille’ should stay one of the most beautiful races of this world. Even some anti-mafia protests with banners (related to the assessment in Brindisi) couldn’t change that.

The Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 GS ‘Testa Fissa’ of the Scuderia Ferrari who won this years race, is one remarkable Alfa Romeo. This car is unmistakably linked to the Mille Miglia. A special fact is that this car once made it’s debut with a female driver. Anna Maria Peduzzi from Olgiate, part of the province Como. She won the 1933 Coppa Principessa di Piemonte for Scuderia Ferrari. During 1934 she took part in the Mille Miglia and finished 13th, right behind a 8C. The 6C 1500 which is based on the all known 6C 1750. Alfa Romeo has won several competitions (Mille Miglia, Targa Florio, Tourist Trophy of Montlhéry) starting from the year 1929. In this period Alfa Romeo produced a small serie of cars, equipped with a 1500 engine and cylinders with a fixed head (‘Testa Fissa’). The production numer was 6 around 1929 and for the next year it were 12 cars. Those 12 cars were the last of the Alfa Gran Sport series. Just a few of them got the unique bodywork of Zagato, and one of them has won this year.

In 1936 the Swiss baron Jacques de Rham this car, this proves that Alfa Romeo enjoyed a high prestige in the world. He was the owner of the Marremano team. In the same year Vittorio Belamondo bought the 1500 and in 1937 the car changed it’s ownership again to David Vitale. Surviving the second world war, the car was owned by Ermanno Motto in 1946. In 1953 there was a transfer to the American driver Danny Collins, who took the car to the USA (import by Ferrari dealer Chinetti). Collector David Biggs from Missouri bought the 6c 1500 GS Zagato. In the following period the car changed owners three more times, which wasn’t that good for the overall condition of the Alfa. In the end the 6C revived in the possession of Genry Wessells III. He transferred the car back to Italian soil in Milan. He knew the well known Luigi Fusi, who had the inspiration for several documentaries about Alfa Romeo. In the mid eighties the 6c 1500 ‘Testa Fissa’ started a new honourable life. 2009 Mark Gessler became the new owner. He restored the car with information from photos dated 1934 (Museo Storico in Arese), a time Anna Maria Peduzzi drove the car. This year the people who drove the car and the 6C 1500 GS Zagato itself have shown us where they belong.