2025 1000 Miglia Experience UAE: Automotive Nirvana

Imagine automotive heaven. For me, it looks something like this. A lawn liberally peppered with some of my favourite cars, wide-open desert and mountain roads where these cars can be properly ‘exercised’, and speed limits that, in places, are as high as 160kph.

Welcome to the automotive extravaganza in Dubai, otherwise known as the 1000 Miglia Experience UAE. A static showcase and a 1,000-mile time, speed and distance rally that celebrates the spirit of the original Mille Miglia street race held in Italy from Brescia to Rome and back from 1927 to 1957, this event is fast ramping up to be one of the most alluring automotive spectacles in the region.

Day zero starts with all the cars being displayed at the Emirates Golf Course, an event for which the public was given entry for the first time. It’s worth planning a Dubai trip around this event, just to see the cars on Sunday and hear them take off on the rally the next morning.

Roller derby

What makes this year’s display so special is that the event was headlined by India’s own Yohan Poonawalla and his incredible display of seven Rolls-Royce Phantoms. Done to celebrate 100 years of the Phantom, this stunning line-up took viewers through the evolution of what is widely regarded as the ‘best car in the world,’ a term coined by Autocar in the UK for the earlier Silver Ghost. 

The first car in the line-up here is a special Phantom I. An experimental – EX – worked on personally by Sir Henry Royce, the founder, it was built to exceed the 100mph (160kph) mark. The 17EX had a lighter, more aerodynamic body, inset headlights, compact fenders to reduce drag, and a 7.7-litre engine that was massaged to make more power. The car was later sold to the Maharaja of Kashmir. 

Next, the Phantom II. This one, too, has a compact and aerodynamic body and belonged to Land Speed Record holder and Grand Prix winning driver Sir Malcolm Campbell. The Phantom II was an evolution of the Phantom I, as was regular Rolls-Royce practice, but the next car, the Phantom III – especially its V12 engine – is radically different. 

Rolls-Royce was at the time working on multiple V12 aero engines, and the advances in metallurgy, machining precision, and cooling systems are said to have made their way to the automobile engine. There is no Phantom IV in the line-up; only 18 were built during the war years, and the car was only delivered to royalty. 

Up next is the Phantom V that once belonged to the Emir of Qatar. A proper limo; its upright stance, high, throne-like seating position, roomy sofa-clad rear cabin, and glass partition set the tone for the next car, the Phantom VI. Very similar in stance and outlook, this one actually belonged to the Queen of England. Immaculately finished in two tones with red velvet rear seats, it was incredibly driven over several competitive stages of the rally by owner Yohan Poonawalla, even venturing as far as Oman – the car sweeping through the mountain roads along the coast, keeping up and even going ahead of much faster cars. 

Sitting on the right of the Phantom VI are the BMW-era modern-day Phantoms, the VII and the VIII, some of the finest luxury cars around, cars we’ve often tested at Autocar India.

Eyes wide

On to a lawn full of surprises and double takes. Walking in and amongst the cars on display, I see everything from rare Ferraris like the 275GTB and Testarossa to a whole line-up of iconic Porsches, such as 365s, early 911, the first 930 turbo and even a modern-day TechArt covered in gold foil – very Dubai. 

Other rarities included a road-going version of a Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix car (the forerunner of Formula 1), an early Koenigsegg prototype, an Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, the 25th Anniversary Lamborghini Countach and the first BMW M3, among dozens of others.

The G.O.A.T

The one that really gets all the attention, and deservedly so, is Mercedes’ 300 SLR, a car very similar to the one that still holds the record for the fastest time in the Mille Miglia. Based on a straight eight-powered Grand Prix-winning car, the W196, the 300 SLR is widely considered to be one of the greatest race cars ever produced. 

Engineered by Rudolf Uhlenhaut, and using a lightweight magnesium-rich body, the car had a phenomenal power-to-weight ratio of 340hp per tonne, similar to many modern supercars but with none of the aero, chassis, suspension or tyre chops. That driver Stirling Moss did roughly 1,000 miles in 10 hours and seven minutes on regular roads at average speeds of 157.65kph still sounds unbelievable. And the amazing bit linking it all is that the car on display is the same car he drove on that epic drive.

Mercedes even drove the car on private sections of road during the UAE rally. Remember, Moss called this car unbreakable, exceptionally balanced, and as fast as a Grand Prix car. And just to hear the bark of those side exhausts, the straight eight on song – what a treat.

Rallying a Phantom

We at Autocar India also got the unique experience of competing in the TSD rally in two iconic cars, Yohan Poonawalla's Rolls-Royce Phantom VII and the first Mercedes S-Class, the W116 450 SEL with the massive 6.9-litre V8 under the hood. Running the Phantom on Dubai’s wide open stretches was no sweat. This car has plenty of oomph and huge reserves of power from the bespoke 6.75-litre V12 engine. This naturally aspirated engine was a derivative of the BMW N73 and was specifically tuned for refinement and high torque. 

Making 460hp and 720Nm, the two-and-a-half tonne ‘broad-bottom luxury liner’ steamed past many a surprised competitor, the engine barely turning over in its midrange, the hush from under the bonnet still stupefying. Where we could feel the weight and mass of the Phantom more was on Dubai’s mountain roads, some with tight turns. Still, the Phantom never really felt like a double-decker in tight turns. Sure, there is plenty of body roll, but the air suspension is well in control of the mass.  The best bit of the driving experience? The light but super-precise and accurate steering that has zero lag or latency.

Summer of 6.9

The next day, I jumped into an even larger-engined car, the W116 S-Class with the 6.9-litre M100 engine. A study in restrained aggression, here is a car that was the fastest sedan in the world, the most technologically sophisticated (it pioneered anti-lock braking system in cars, among others) and the new ‘best car in the world’ – all at the same time. It even elevated the passenger safety cell concept enough to make it much safer in a crash. Beautifully prepared by Gargash Mercedes-Benz, the dealer in Dubai, this particular example ran like it was only a dozen or so years old. The engine, however, is central to the appeal of this car. It’s as smooth and refined as a modern-day large-capacity engine. 

Remember, the M100 engine was made for the 600 Grosser that was built to take on Rolls-Royce. And it isn’t just smooth at low and medium speeds, it stays well balanced and hushed even close to maximum revs. That’s a big wow immediately. And while it isn’t the most responsive motor around and needs patience, power builds continuously and constantly – in a thrilling manner. And then, before you know it, the torque comes in a tidal wave, the engine still sewing-machine smooth, and the car feeling like it’s being pushed hard down the road by an invisible hand. 

The manner in which it effortlessly hit 160kph on the faster sections was just mad for a 50-year-old car. What it must have felt like back in the day when 80kph was very fast. Something I also thoroughly enjoyed getting used to was the massive steering wheel, the metallic clack-clack of the door locks, and the fact that it had a car phone and power-adjusted rear seats.

What a thrill

The Mercedes was driven by Hormazd Sorabjee and Perseus Bandrawalla on day one, and I jumped in when Hormazd had to leave. While we skipped some sections for shooting opportunities and made some silly errors, we finished inside the top 20; not bad among a field of roughly 120 cars, many of them much ‘younger’ than our 50-year-old W116. What a car and what an event. The best part, it is so close and accessible from India; plan your next cool-weather Dubai trip around it. And add in the Grand Prix weekend in Abu Dhabi after this for more oomph.

Bugatti Type 35; post dinner pit stop

At dinner on day one of the rally, Steve Brooks, in a Bugatti Type 35, announced that his rally was over due to a busted water pump drive. Enter Peter Gerbsch from Switzerland, also competing (in a Porsche Techart), who cried… 'only a water pump’, we can fix this. The post-dinner repair of this near-100-year-old race car in the lobby of our hotel was simply epic. The water pump’s mechanical drive, the problem area, was sealed up, and the unit was shifted to the electric motor. 

How did Peter do this without a workshop or parts? He borrowed some hoses and clamps from a crew working on a Rolls-Royce nearby, insulating foil and mayonnaise (for lubrication) came from a sandwich box, and Peter pulled the belt off his trousers and used it to hold the water pump in place.

The biggest surprise: the ‘jugaad’ worked! The Bugatti Type 35 rallied hard for 1,000 miles, a few water stops along the way were all it needed. Steve and Peter deservedly won the Jochen Mass trophy as Heroes of the race.