Madonie, Sicily · Italy
Targa Florio, Collesano Descent
SP9Collesano to Campofelice di Roccella
The closing miles of the world’s oldest road race, Collesano to the sea.
For seventy years the Targa Florio, the world’s oldest sports car race, tore around the Madonie on public roads, and this is its celebrated closing leg: the SP9 out of Collesano, past the corner every period photograph shows Porsches and Ferraris squeezing through the town’s walls, then down 400 vertical metres of open bends to Campofelice and the coastal straight that was longer than the Mulsanne. The Museo Targa Florio in Collesano keeps the story. The tarmac is patched and worn in places, the walls are close in town, and the drops are real; it is a pilgrimage first and a smooth drive second, and all the better for it.
You drive it slowly, windows down, and it still feels fast. The greatest road race of them all finished down this hill.
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Targa Florio, Collesano Descent on the map7.1 mi · point to point
Navigate to the start: Apple Maps · Google Maps
Character
Corners
busiest around mile 1Elevation
under 4%4 to 8%over 8%57 to 505 mFrom the road
Points of interest2 stops
- Museo Targa FlorioLandmarkat the start
- Collesano cornerLandmarkat the start
Hazards
- Broken, patched tarmac with badly worn stretches
- Narrow walled streets and a very tight corner through Collesano
- Landslide and rockfall history, check the road is open before travelling
- Exposed drops on the corners above the coast
Sources
“Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event.”
“The counter-clockwise lap lead from Caltavuturo and Collesano from an altitude over 600 metres (1,970 ft) down to sea level, where the cars raced from Campofelice di Roccella on the Buonfornello straight along the coast”
Route traced from OpenStreetMap, with its stats measured from that line. How the roads are mapped
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