CHASING CHAMPIONS OF YESTERYEAR

The Targa Florio was a famous open road endurance race held in the mountains near Palermo in Sicily from 1906-1977. Marnus Hattingh pays tribute to this historic race – on a red Vespa.

The rusty Fiat Uno ahead of me crawls up the narrow road. I wait patiently for the twisting stretch of tarmac to uncurl like a strand of spaghetti hanging from a fork.

On my right a sheer rock face, cut away by dynamite and bulldozed to vertical perfection, makes room for the mountain pass. On the left, green trees sprawl down into a deep ravine.you do not want to make an error here, left nor right.

I yank the Vespa’s ear and with a swing of the hips we move to the left, and accelerate. I zip past the Uno, just in time as well, as a flashy Lancia thunders towards us in a cloud of exhaust fumes.‘vlam’, my little red Italian Vespa with its Afrikaans nickname (meaning ‘flame’) feels nervous, I can tell.the speedo wobbles past 60 km/h. Indeed, fun on the twisty mountain roads of Sicily come in the shape of many engine sizes.

If Italy resembles a boot on a map, Sicily would be the ball it is kicking. And it has been known as such through the years. Today we know that Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean. But it lays claim to additional historic greatness: For petrolheads like me, Sicily is synonymous with the oldest and most feared open road race of them all – the Targa Florio.

The Targa celebrated a remarkable birthday of 110 years in 2016. Considering that Karl Benz invented the very first motor car only 20 years prior, in 1886, the idea to have a bunch of new mechanical contraptions with virtually no brakes and less handling chase each other at full tilt on narrow dirt tracks in 1906 was quite extreme.