A place of absolute significance during Italy's golden age of hillclimbing has to go to the Bologna-Raticosa. As well as the pioneering first event way back in 1926, the hillclimb was at its peak from 1950 until 1969. Its winners included Bracco, Cabianca, Palmieri, Castellotti, Govoni, Herrmann, Moioli or Noris, Ortner and Venturi. And the cars they drove included Ferraris, OSCAs, Maseratis and Abarths. So along its more than 43 km route - it was reduced to not much more than 32 km from 1962 - raced some of the greatest drivers of the period. Then, after a long silence, the Bologna made its comeback in 2001, first as an invitation race and then as a round in the Italian Vintage Car Speed Championship. The man who tells the story of this great classic is Carlo Dolcini, author of a number of books on the Mille Miglia, who covers again this historic event, and Francesco Amante, the tireless organiser and promoter of the most recent Bologna events. So for the first time, the entire story of the Bologna-Raticosa is told in a book that boasts a wealth of historic and modern illustrations as well as the complete results of the hillclimb.

The 24th and final edition of the Mille Miglia, held on the 11th and 12th of May 1957, has passed into history above all due to the tragic circumstances of the accident involving de Portago and Nelson's Ferrari 335S, which crashed in the latter stages of the race near Mantua. It was however, also a race characterised by a bitter struggle amongst the Maranello marque's drivers, a duel that never happened with Moss and Jenkinson's Maserati 450S and the last career win for Piero Taruffi. Behind all this, there was also another story, one equally as fascinating and rich in incident, that of the crews racing in the minor classes: from the Tuned Touring and the 750 classes to the Gran Turismo and Sport 750 and 1000 categories. This previously neglected story of "little" cars and almost unknown drivers is recounted by Carlo Dolcini, a painstaking and accurate historian, who has reconstructed in engrossing detail the "minor" episodes of those days, drawing on a wealth of photographic documentation.