New regulations issued by the International Federation of Racing reducing engine capacity in terms of cubic centimeters had caused Italian automobile companies, who were manufacturing cars with much greater potentials, to withdraw from competitive racing. In December 1926, four friends, three car racing enthusiasts and a reporter from the "Sports Gazzette", got together to see what they could dream up in order to save the sport from certain death.

Aymo Maggi, Franco Mazzotti, Renzo Castagneto and Giovanni Canestrini, came up with the idea of a wild round-trip excursion from Brescia to Rome and back to Brescia again.

The round trip totalled one thousand six-hundred kilometers or one thousand miles and so, Franco Mazzotti thought of calling the race "The 1000 MILE Cup", later shortened to 1000 MIGLIA.

The race was such a great success that it was decided to repeat it once a year and it was, (except during World War II), until the late 1950's. It immediately gained fame and notoriety in Italy and, over the years, throughout the entire world. Within no time, the 1000 Miglia had become a tradition involving thousands of people everywhere.

The first drivers to participate in the race looked and acted more like the transaltlantic airplane pilots of the day than like automobile racers. They were the pioneers of road racing where the difficulties and hazards of unpaved streets replete with rocks, dust, and mud when it rained, had to be faced and overcome in regular everyday asssembly line cars.

Once out of Brescia, each team had to face its own destiny: the participants were tried physically and tested as to their mechanical skill.

Many consider the 1000 MIGLIA a determinant in the future technical advances which were to take place in the automobile industry.

Any breakdown which occurred during the race from a flat to a mechanical problem had to be seen to by the racers. (There were always two persons to a car, one was usually a better driver and the other a more skillful mechanic). This meant that they had to be good at improvising repairs on the spot and quite versed in how cars were built and how they ran.

All of this has bestowed the 1000 Miglia with something wonderful and magical completely out of touch with the technological and consumer oriented environment in which modern day automobile competitions are raced. Money was not the driving force to make people want to participate, each person's innate spirit of adventure was. The desire to try oneself against one's own limits and not against an opponent made these drivers go beyond history to become legends: Brilli Peri, Nuvolari, Borzacchini, Fagioli and all the others who raced.

We at SIMULMONDO wanted to recreate the atmosphere which surrounded the 1000 MIGLIA by simulating actual historical situations. It wasn't easy as the photographs of the period aren't very good ones and this made reconstruction difficult.

But we did the best we could and we believe to have succeeded in our intent especially thanks to the support given us by our researchers and by the help afforded us by the Historical Documentation Center of Brescia's "MILLE MIGLIA" company and by Dr. Costantino Franchi who conceded us the rights to the trademark and name.

We believe that with 1000 MIGLIA-VOLUME 1, SIMULMONDO has brought you a totally different version of the automobile simulators on the market today and we hope that it will give you the chance to feel the excitement which was so integral a part of THE ROARING YEARS OF SPORTS CARS.