Article about the Ferrari 166 Mille Miglia Coupe
By: Bob Hagendijk

The 166 series was the first series to have real road-going cars. Ferrari realized in order to keep racing, he needed more money. And you get money by selling cars. It was not the way Ferrari wanted to go, since he was only interested in racing. Despite all this, the road-models would become a very important aspect in the coming years. All the money from the sales went to the racing projects. The knowledge that was gained with racing was used again in the next series of street cars, since those were basically tuned down race engines.

The first model was the 166 Sport. The old engine from the 159 S was enlarged to 1995cc. The bore and stroke became 60x58.8mm. This resulted in 90 hp at 5600 rpm. Only three were ever built, 2 by Allemano, and 1 by Touring. The first Allemano body was a Spyder, and the second a Berlinetta. This already gave an indication of how diverse the 166 series was. Only three cars were built and all three were different.

After the Sport came the Spyder Corsa model. The wheelbase was 200mm shorter (2420mm instead of 2620mm), this was for better handling in sharp corners. The engine was the same as found in the Sport, but because it was very light (basically a cigar on wheels), it was much faster.

The 166 Mille Miglia was the third racing version of the 166 series. This car was mainly used by private teams. People who had money and wanted to race. Because production became quite large now, Ferrari had problems of equipping the cars with bodies. This is the part were the coachbuilders came in. They designed the bodies for the cars, and the customers could choose between them. Ferrari basically delivered the chassis, and let the customer choose who would build the body. For the 166 Mille Miglia, almost all were bodied by Touring, 30 of the 32, of which were 4 Berlinettas and 26 Barchettas. One was created by Vignale, and one by Zagato. The Zagato car was originally built as a Berlinetta, but was later returned to Zagato and rebodied as a Spyder. This model had 125 hp at 7000 rpm.

Finally there was the street version, the 166 Inter. The compression of the engine was lower, and that reflected in the power of the engine. This version only put out 110 hp at 6000 rpm. 37 were built, and 7 different kinds of bodies were fitted to it. Most of those bodies came from Touring. Enzo choose Touring because they used very light aluminium panels instead of steel for the body. They called this superleggera.

Last but not least, the 166 Mille Miglia/53 was introduced. The updated version of the normal Mille Miglia drove on a 2250 mm wheelbase. The engine was upgraded to 160 hp at 7200 rpm. The engine also ran smoother because of a few years extra development. One Abarth Spyder was created for this model, which was later rebodied. It is a shame, because this was the only one built, and quite special as the body was very easy to remove.

With a total of 88 victories this was a very succesful model. It also set the trend for the coming years of Ferrari. They built a racing version, and of that car they tuned down the engine, sent the chassis to a coachbuiler and sold it to customers. This way Enzo Ferrari could ensure he had enough money to keep his racecars going.

166 Sport 3 1947
166 Spyder Corsa 8 1947 - '48
166 Mille Miglia Touring Barchetta 26 1948 - '51
166 Mille Miglia Zagato Berlinetta* 1 1949 / '50
166 Mille Miglia Touring Berlinetta 4 1949 - '50
166 Mille Miglia Vignale Berlinetta 1 1950
166 Inter Touring Coupe 9 1949 - '50
166 Inter Stabilimenti Farina Berlinetta 5 1949 - '50
166 Inter Stabilimenti Farina Cabriolet 3 1949 - '50
166 Inter Touring Berlinetta 10 1949 - '50
166 Inter Vignale Berlinetta 6 1950
166 Inter Vignale Coupe 2 1950
166 Inter Ghia Berlinetta 1 1950
166 Inter Touring Barchetta 1 1950
166 Mille Miglia / 53 Vignale Berlinetta 3 1952 - '53
166 Mille Miglia / 53 Abarth Spyder 1 1952
166 Mille Miglia / 53 Ferrari Spyder 2 1952 - '53
166 Mille Miglia / 53 Vignale Spyder 6 1952 - '53
166 Mille Miglia / 53 Pinin Farina Berlinetta 1 1953

Spec sheet for the 166 Mille Miglia Coupe

Labels: Ferrari Dealerships