Coppa della Toscana
Coppa della Toscana was a sports car race held on the roads of Tuscany, through Livorno and Florence, between 1949 and 1954.
History
For the 1949 season of the Mille Miglia race, it was decided that this years edition would bypass the city of Florence. As a direct consequence of this decision, the Automobile Club of Florence decided to organize an alternative race that would run in Tuscany. The new event would enable sports cars and touring cars to compete through the streets of the Tuscan cities and on the roads around the region.The main organizer of this race was the director of the Florence Automobile Club, Amos Pampaloni who also negotiated with a neighboring automobile clubs to receive their support. In the end the event crossed ten Tuscan provinces: Arezzo, Florence, Grosseto, Livorno, Lucca, Massa, Pisa, Pistoia, Siena and Viterbo.
The race ran from 1949 to 1954 as a non-championship race, circling around the Tuscany region. The first two editions ran on a circuit with a starting point and finish in Livorno, and from 1951 the start and finish was moved to Florence. The distance and course of each race changed with almost every edition, but was much shorter than the Mille Miglia. Contestants had to finish a single lap of the race.
For each race numerous categories were prepared, covering sport, grand touring and touring cars, later expanded by series-produced sports car classes. Each category was further subdivided into engine capacity classes, even as small as 350 cc.
1949
The first edition, I. Coppa della Toscana, was held in July 1949. The start of the race around Tuscany was at Livorno. The course had a total distance of 604 km. Out of 80 teams that entered in the race, only 44 had managed to finish back in Livorno.The overall winner of the race was Ugo Bormioli in the Ermini 1100 Siluro, that managed an average speed of 113.8 km/h. He competed in a smaller 'Sport 1.1' class. The Lancia Aprilia and Alfa Romeo 6C, on second and third places respectively, were from a bigger 'Sport +1.1' category.
Giovanni Lurani, aided by Cortese won the 'T+1.5' class in a Bristol. Danzi and Bracco in the Lancia Aprilia won the 'T1.5' category. Leonardi/Rosati team in a rare Fiat-Patriarca were first in the 'Sport 750' class.
Top results of the 1949 Coppa della Toscana:
| Class | No. | Drivers | Car | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1st | 1st | S1.1 | 1210 |  1950The second edition, II. Coppa della Toscana, followed a longer circuit route that was 680 km long, with, the start and finish was still in Livorno. Popularity of the race grew and now 152 teams had entered.Two Ferrari 195 S' scored first two places, the very same cars that placed first and second at the Mille Miglia, earlier that year, but in a reverse order. The winning barchetta's average speed was 127.7 km/h. Third was Ermini only three seconds behind but securing a victory in class. Its Fiat-based engine was half the size of the Ferrari 195. Schwelm Cruz with Datisi in the Alfa Romeo 6C won the GT class. "Ippocampo" and Mori in the Lancia Aprilia won the 'T+1.1' category. Top results of the 1950 Coppa della Toscana:
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