Frazer Nash Mille Miglia History

The Mille Miglia was designed by Fritz Fiedler — BMW's pre-war chief engineer brought to England by Aldington — and introduced at the 1948 Geneva Motor Show under the name Fast Tourer. An early prototype had been sent to Touring Superleggera in Milan for bodywork and was sold directly from the Geneva stand to the Shah of Iran. The production version was renamed Mille Miglia for 1949, the name chosen to reflect the Italian origins of its full-enveloping alloy bodywork and its competition aspirations.

Unlike the open-cycle-winged Le Mans Replica, the Mille Miglia wore a streamlined, full-width body with enclosed front wings — arguably the most elegant shape of all post-war Nash models, with curvaceous wings leading to a deeply waisted mid-section ahead of the rear axle. It used the same Bristol 2-litre engine as its siblings, producing up to 125 bhp in competition tune, with the spare wheel carried in the front wing and the fuel tank immediately behind the seats.

Only 11 Mille Miglias were built, making it among the rarest of all post-war Frazer Nash variants. Fritz Fiedler returned to Germany in 1950, and the model was effectively superseded by the Targa Florio from 1952.