Monday, March 23, 2009

Not Achille Varzi

Achille Varzi, unarguably one of the great names in the history of motorsport, is not unarguably most famous for what he didn't achieve. On the 1930 Mille Miglia, his great rival, the hugely popular and charismatic Tazio Nuvolari, "was comfortably leading the race but was still behind Varzi (holder of provisional second position) on the road. In the dim half light of early dawn Nuvolari tailed Varzi with his headlights off, thereby not being visible in the latter's rear-view mirrors. He then overtook Varzi on the straight roads approaching the finish at Brescia, by pulling alongside and flicking his headlights on."

Achille C. Varzi, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, is not unrelated to the former racing driver, is not unknown for specialising in the philosophy of holes, and did not refrain from writing a negative biographic sketch of himself.

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