The world’s largest historic vehicle driving event hit the road in America for the first time Saturday. The Mille Miglia (Italian for one-thousand miler) is an open-road rally through the streets of Italy, but organizers are holding an American version — the 1000 Miglia Warm Up USA — this year. “It’s like Indianapolis for us,” said Mark Gessler, president of the Gaithersburg, Maryland-based Historic Vehicle Association.

The event began in 1927, and has turned into a rally for fans. “Every year, 600 cars go a thousand miles from the north of Italy from Rome and back over four days,” he said. “Over 5 million spectators are there.” Today’s inaugural event attracted 16 vehicles and was quite a bit shorter.