Word: taruffi
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Italy's hell-for-rubber Piero Taruffi, 50, the "Old Fox" and winner of the goriest Mille Miglia road race, which brought death to Spain's Marquis de Portage, two other drivers and nine spectators (TIME, May 20), decided to leave his profession alive. "I have sworn to my wife Isabella that I will never race again," said he solemnly. "Roads have become insufficient in the face of mechanical progress. It is impossible to guarantee the safety of spectators...
...race ground through grey dawn and a fine spring day, Fons blazed along in fine style. Coming into the last lap, less than 25 miles from the finish, he was running third. He could not have known, but the Ferrari team had the race won. His grizzled teammate, Piero Taruffi, 50, had already finished in first place. Far back, Britain's Stirling Moss, driving a Maserati, the Ferrari's only strong competitor, had lost his brakes and almost crashed in a roadside cemetery. The other Maserati competitors had also either folded or faded...
Behind them, hard-driven cars were dropping out. The largest car in the race, Chevrolet's highly touted 4.6-liter "Super Sport" Corvette, lasted only 23 laps. Brakes locked, a fuel line broke, the ignition system went haywire-finally Drivers John Fitch and Piero Taruffi quit in despair. Before dark, 32 of the 65 starters were in the pits for good...
...underrate his competition, Dreyfus worries most about 1) a British-built, 3,442-cc. Jaguar entered by Briggs Cunningham, who owned last year's winning Osca, 2) a 2,999-cc. Ferrari to be driven by Italy's aging (48) Piero Taruffi and America's Harry Schell and 3) a 2,660-cc. Austin-Healey, handled by British Champion Stirling Moss and Co-Driver Lance Macklin...
...looked as though it was the Lancias' day, after all. Taruffi's No. 38 was well out in front, nine full laps (46 miles) ahead of the next car. In second place, but hopelessly behind, was Briggs Cunningham's third entry, a little (1.452 cc.) Italian Osca alternately driven during the day by Britain's Stirling Moss and Connecticut's Bill Lloyd. But with only an hour to go, Taruffi's Lancia ground to a halt. In the Cunningham pits, where the Osca driver could see it when he flashed by, they held...