Taizo Nuvolari is one of those drivers whose name has become legendary in certain circles. Ferdinand Porsche considered the best racing driver, period and Enzo Ferrari championed him as the inventor of the four-wheel drift. This was a driver that walked out on Ferrari’s racing team, a grievous insult in the eyes of Ferrari, but was so talented and frankly damn good that he was brought back to the team by Enzo himself. (Whether dictator Benito Mussolini influenced that decision is debatable, though probable.) A skilled motorcycle racer, Nuvolari switched over to cars in 1930 and proceeded to rack up the trophies: twenty-four Grand Prix titles, five Coppa Cianos, two Mille Miglias, two Targa Florios, two RAC Tourist Trophies, one 24 Hours of LeMans, and an European Championship in Grand Prix. And this was in the early days of racing, where death, serious injury, vehicle breakdowns, and more plauged racers from start to finish. Yeah, Nuvolari was damn good.

But arguably, his biggest achievement, winning the German Grand Prix in 1935, should be counted as his greatest achievement. The race was run at the Nurburgring and the deck was solidly stacked against Nuvolari and his 265 horsepower Alfa Romeo P3. Most of that was due to German manufacturers, German race cars, German drivers and the German government…see a pattern? Five Mercedes-Benz W25s packing 375 horsepower and four Auto Union B race cars, making just as much power, were the predicted favorites to win, and among the German drivers was Hans Stuck, the father of the famous rally driver. Nuvolari shouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance in Hell of making the winner’s circle, but he drove smart and took advantage of the Germans when they pitted. He botched a pit stop and lost six minutes of time, but that only seemed to be the trigger he needed: driving on the razor edge of the limit, he managed to enter second place by the start of the final lap, second to Manfred von Brauchitsch and his Mercedes. Von Brauchitsch was running on extremely worn tires, having taken a beating on the race course, and Nuvolari, an Italian, took first place and the checkered flag in front of 350,000 spectators…and the German High Command, including Adolf Hitler himself. For a few moments, the silence was deafening…then the crowd erupted into cheers. The same could not be said for the VIPs at the event…it’s reported that in a rage, a member of the High Council shredded a victory speech. Not only did the Nazis have to watch as the Italian flag was hoisted on the pole, but just to really add some salt, Nuvolari found a record of the Italian national anthem that was played.