Giuliano Cané, Italy’s vintage motor racing hero, has done it again. In September he won the 2013 Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti regularity race on the twisting roads of the famous Italian mountains—for the eighth time! Once again supported by his navigator wife Lucia Galliani, he led much of the event in his stunningly restored 1938 Lancia Aprillia.
Cané has won the other internationally famous regularity re-run, the Mille Miglia, an astounding 10 times since 1992, driving BMWs and Lancias.
When they weren’t leading the 2013 Coppa d’Oro, Cané/Galliani were battling for the lead against Andrea Vesco and his co-driver Andrea Guerini, who eventually came 2nd in their 1934 Fiat 508 S Balilla. Third went to Giordano Mozzi and Stefania Biacca driving a 1955 Triumph TR2.
Supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Development, the event started from Cortina d’Ampezzo and covered 500 kilometers through the Veneto, Trentino and Alto Adige areas of northeast Italy, spending its overnight stop at the historic alpine town of Merano. The following day, competitors chased back to Cortina through the Pordoi and Fedaia mountain passes, rising to an altitude of almost 7,000 feet.
Born in Bologna in 1946, Giuliano is an electronic engineering graduate. He has been in love with motoring since kindergarten, where he used to play with his toy cars. He first took to the road on a scooter, which his father Armando gave him for his 16th birthday, and then graduated to an Austin A40 when he was 18—often driving the family Fiat 1400 when nobody was looking! A lifetime fan of the Mille Miglia, in the days when traffic on Italian roads was lighter, Giuliano used to race his A40 over the Futa Pass and along the Via Emilia for the fun of it.
Quiet, methodical and thoughtful, Giuliano has complete faith in his navigator wife, who warns him in advance of every corner and detail of the special tests. As well as his record 18 victories in two of the world’s premiere regularity races, Cané has also competed in other countries, and has won similar events in Japan and Argentina.
