Argentina’s equivalent of the Mille Miglia retrospective, the 1000 Millas Sport Argentina, has been running for 20 years. In November, more than 200 historic vehicles built between 1915 and 1981 will again take to the roads of Patagonia, with its lakes, valleys and mountains.

The ‘Argentinean MM’ is special for several reasons, not least the outstanding natural beauty of the landscape and the rare pleasure of springtime in November. But it’s also a far more relaxed affair than the Italian Mille Miglia, as Don Rose reported for Classic Driver after taking part in the event. ‘It accepts a much broader range of cars,’ he wrote. ‘Just about anything sporting built prior to 1980.’



The 1000 Millas route for 2008 includes cities and towns such as San Carlos de Bariloche, San Martín de los Andes, Villa la Angostura, Junín de los Andes, Circuito Chico, Villa Catedral, El Bolsón, and the Puyehue Hot Springs, in Chile. Each stage will start and finish at the magnificent Llao Llao Hotel & Resort where, the organisers tell us, ‘at the end of each day, men and cars will rest’. (But perhaps the ladies – for many are entered – will remain busy? Such is life.) Competitors from previous years confirm that heading out each day from a central base allows for a far less stressful schedule than is imposed by a 1000-mile dash from Brescia to Rome and back to Brescia.

And what competitors there have been: luminaries from Sir Stirling Moss to Jacques Laffite, and from René Arnoux to Carlos Reutemann, all have taken part in Argentina’s Mille Miglia in the years gone by. (Notably, it was also the very last event in which the charismatic Swiss Grand Prix driver Clay Regazzoni participated, before his death in a road accident in Italy the following month.) Informal it might be, but this is no Sunday drive in the country.



The event is run by the Sport Automobiles Club of Argentina (CAS) and is now part of the FIVA world calendar. The entries are grouped into Sport, Grand Touring and Touring categories, with further divisions according to marque and engine capacity, plus awards for ladies, journalists, personalities, newcomers and habitués.

For more details, see www.1000millas.com.ar.

You can download a fact sheet and entry form for the 2008 event HERE




Text: Charis Whitcombe
Photos: 1000 Millas Sport Argentina