1953 Ferrari 166 Mille Miglia/53

In the early 1950s, Ferrari was building a strong reputation for developing racing-cars, and one of the important steps in their evolution was the creation of the Ferrari 166 MM-series.  The MM stands for Mille Miglia, a one thousand mile race that was run from 1927 to-1957 and continued in present days in Italy.

By mentioning the race when naming their car, it was very clear that Ferrari was-designing it to perform well there and it did.  The 166 MM/53 had a 2 litre engine that was-built with a V12 configuration.  It was made of aluminum alloy, and was fed by three Weber-carburetors.  This delivered 154 horsepower which got this small car running in a-hurry.

There was a five speed manual transmission that delivered power to the rear wheels-as was the case with all of the small Ferrari race cars of the day.  All four wheels had-aluminum drum brakes that offered respectable stopping power and helped to reduce the weight. -The chassis of the car was very similar to that of its predecessor, the 166 MM. It was a steel tube-design, and it had an aluminum body over top.

The suspension of this car was excellent, much like the rest of the 166-series.  There was an uneven double wishbone set up in the front that also had an anti-roll bar.  In the back there was a live axle and semi-elliptic leaf springs with twin radius arms.

One of the most important things a manufacturer must consider when building a race-car is the weight because it affects the acceleration, handling and breaking characteristics. -That is one thing that this automobile had going for it; in its racing form, it was a scant 1433-pounds. Mated with the small V12 engine, this performed admirably on the track.- 

There were actually two forms of the 166 MM/53 that were offered.  It came in-a coupe and also in a racing barchetta.  One of the most famous and versions was the Agarth-Spyder, which had a number of additional refinements that reduced weight and further prepare the car-for racing. One of the ingenious things about the body was that the panels were bolted onto the-frame, which allowed them to be easily replaced when they were damaged.  This was a-particularly odd-looking version of the car, with a single headlight in the front.  This car was successful in-winning its class at the Targa Florio, and it was the outright champion at Messina over 10 hours of-racing.

It was very soon that Ferrari racing would start to look to cars that had larger-displacement, but many people will always find the smaller displacement, light weight cars to be-some of the best examples of what the company was doing at the time.

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