Coppa Florio

The Coppa Florio (or Florio Cup) was a motorsport race for automobiles first held in Italy in 1900. It was renamed in 1905 when Vincenzo Florio offered the initial 50,000 Lira prize money and a cup designed by Polak of Paris. The cup was to be awarded to the car maker who gained the most wins in the first seven races, beginning with the race held in 1905. In the event, the first seven races were all won by different manufacturers, but Peugeot won the eighth race in 1925 and thus secured the cup with its second win. However, the competition for the cup continued after Lucien Rosengart, then a director of Peugeot, offered to make it available again.

1907 poster showing the Coppa Florio on 1 September and Coppa di Velocità on 2 September.

The Brescia race ran along the route Brescia-Cremona-Mantua-Brescia. In 1908, the race used the Circuito di Bologna: Bologna-Castelfranco Emilia-Sant'Agata Bolognese-San Giovanni in Persiceto-Bologna.[1] After 1914, most of the Coppa Florio races were co-organized with the Targa Florio at the Circuito delle Madonie circuit outside Palermo, Sicily, running four or five laps, 108 km each. Only in 1927 did the race move to Saint-Brieuc, in honour of Peugeot's second win in 1925.[2][3] The race attracted teams from around Europe as well as the 1921 Grand Prix Sunbeams from England [4] and saw such luminaries as Sir Henry Segrave and Jean Chassagne competing.[5] The winners were:[6][7][8]

Edition Date Circuit Winner Vehicle Time
-- 10 September 1900 Brescia Alberto Franchetti[9] Panhard & Levassor 12 HP n/a
-- 5 September 1904 Brescia Vincenzo Lancia Fiat 75 HP 2*167 km=372.2 km in 3h12m
I 4 September 1905 Brescia Giovanni Battista Raggio Itala 112 HP 3*167 km=500.7 km in 4h46m
II 1 September 1907 Brescia Ferdinando Minoia Isotta Fraschini 8*60 km=485.7 km in 4h39m
III 6 September 1908 Bologna Felice Nazzaro Fiat 10*52 km=528.1 km in 4h25m[1]
IV 31 May 1914 Madonie Felice Nazzaro Nazzaro 3*148 km=446.5 km in 8h11m
V 4 September 1921 Brescia Jules Goux Ballot 3L 519 km in 3h35m
VI 19 November 1922 Madonie André Boillot Peugeot 432 km in 7h09m
VII 27 April 1924 Madonie Christian Werner Mercedes-Benz TF 432 km in 6h32m
VIII 3 May 1925 Madonie André Boillot Peugeot 540 km in 7h32m
IX 25 April 1926 Madonie Bartolomeo Costantini Bugatti Type 35 T 540 km in 7h20m
X 17 July 1927 Saint-Brieuc Robert Laly Ariès n/a
XI 6 May 1928 Madonie Albert Divo Bugatti Type 35 B n/a
XII 5 May 1929 Madonie Albert Divo Bugatti Type 35 C n/a

References
  1. Ricorda del circuito di Bologna 1908 Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Coppa Florio 1927 discussion
  3. 1927 Coppa Florio
  4. Targa Florio, W F Bradley P82-83
  5. Rapiditas Vol.5 1922-1923 P.60
  6. GP Winners 1894-2007 from forix.com
  7. Coppa Florio from targaflorio.info
  8. Grand Prix winners 1895 - 1949
  9. "GRAND PRIX WINNERS 1895-1949". kolumbus.fi/leif.snellman. Retrieved 2008-01-02.
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