Jaguar’s 2013 Mille Miglia adventure – photos & video

Sat, 25 May 2013

David Gandy & Yasmin Le Bon cross the Mille Miglia finishing line in a Jaguar XK120

Jaguar have been off playing at the 2013 Mille Miglia, and we have pictures and video of their outing with a pile of famous faces – and an F-Type or five.

We’re pretty sure the Jaguar entries for the 2013 Mille Miglia were all about celebrating Jaguar’s great history in the original Mille Miglia event. And there’s plenty to celebrate and great historic Jaguars to show off too, like the XK 120 and the C Type.

But with Jaguar’s PR machine involved – and a new sports car to promote – we did get rather more of the new Jaguar F-Type than you’d perhaps expect in a historic race. Not in the Mille Miglia itself, of course, but lurking in the background as a constant presence.

The feeling of a PR jaunt was also evident in the famous faces Jaguar enlisted to drive their historic fleet for 1,000 miles round Italy, from David Gandy and Yasmin Le Bon to Sir Chris Hoy and Daniel Day Lewis.

But all the celebs seemed suitably honoured to be a part of Jaguar’s 2013 Mille Miglia PR jaunt, and they all did the job at hand, seemingly without hissy fits or riders.

So a nice PR gloss on a brilliant event, plenty of coverage thanks to famous faces behind the wheel and beautiful cars and fun for all involved.

Jaguar’s Regional Director for Europe, Bernard Kuhnt, probably summed-up Jaguar’s intention with this year’s Mille Miglia entry when he said:

Our presence at the Mille Miglia was particularly significant this year as we are launching the new F-TYPE sports car across the world. To bring together the finest Jaguar cars ever made, with some remarkable characters behind the wheel, and to have five F-TYPEs chasing them throughout beautiful Italian countryside was a sight to behold.

I am extremely thankful to the drivers in our team for spending their valuable time with Jaguar and I am grateful to the Mille Miglia organisers for allowing us the opportunity to enter this spectacular celebration of classic motorsport.

The glossy PR doesn’t mention Yasmin Le Bon being run off the road and in to a ditch – necessitating running repairs to her (and David Gandy’s) XK120 – and nor is there mention of Chris Harris getting a bollocking or two from Mille Miglia organisers for chasing Ferraris in the middle of the night and hunting down historic Porsches.

But all that demonstrates is that, despite the PR gloss, the Jaguar outing at the Mille Miglia was still a proper outing and the drivers, celebs or not, did the driving – day and night – got soaked, got tired, worked hard – and had the time of their lives.

Mission accomplished.

By Cars UK