It's a small event, parked on the edge of Lake Como in Northern Italy, packed with beautiful cars and bueatiful people.
The F40 was the last Ferrari created with input from Enzo himself. At the time he said he wanted a sports car that was the best in the world. Well, all his sports cars had been the best in the world, but it would be hard to argue that in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the F40 was that and more.
Americans Peter and Merle Mullin brought this from their fantastico museum in Oxnard, Calif., a facility mostly given over to French cars. For the parade, when each car is driven in front of the crowd and given a few minutes of fame, Merle herself took the wheel, with a couple of girlfriends riding along, all three having what looked like the time of their lives. With a 9.4-liter V12, hustling the Vonooren bodywork around the grounds was no problem.
This custom-bodied Benz was actually a race car campaigned in Europe by owner Max von Arco-Zinnberg, who won several hillclimbs with the brutal power of the 7.1-liter six-cylinder engine.
During the 1930s, the big eight-cylinder models manufactured by Mercedes-Benz were an integral part of the genre of the prestige automobile luxury class. The visceral attribute was the car’s driver-controlled supercharger. This boosted output of the 5.4 litre eight-cylinder inline engine by more than 50 percent with power bursts – a truly powerful experience for all the senses. The ultimate car in the model series was undoubtedly the Spezial-Roadster, an elegant, stunningly cosmopolitan boulevard version of the model series. Mercedes-Benz always presented the versions of this series in Paris.This Spezial-Roadster is not simply one of only some two dozen roadsters built. It also embodies an unusual story. The car was once driven by Gisela Josephine Baroness von Krieger, originally in Switzerland and then in New York. She retained ownership of the car for her long and glittering life. However, when she passed away in 1989, she had not driven it for around 40 years. After the car’s second restoration, the roadster now looks exactly the same as it did in 1936 when the mother of the baroness purchased it for her daughter new from the showroom.
Ettore Bugatti was regarded as a visionary traditionalist and an idiosyncratic aesthete, as impressively embodied by this Type 59 Sports. At the same time, the car marked the passing of a unique era as the last grand-prix racing car produced by the automaker based in Alsace.
This racer rolled up to the starting grid with drivers like René Dreyfus at the wheel as part of the works team, competing in the new 750 kilo class during the years 1934 and 1935. However, competition in the form of significantly more powerful cars made life increasingly difficult for the Bugatti racing car, even though it still succeeded in gaining a victory at the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa. In fact, 1938 saw the King of Belgium Leopold III take ownership of this car as a well-known aficionado of Bugatti, now with black livery rather than blue. Only four other owners lined up over the almost 90-year history of this former grand-prix campaigner, which then joined a Swiss collection in 2020. The racecar still bears all the traces of its eventful life, which have never been erased by a restoration. This lends the car an extraordinary authenticity imbued with a magnificent aura.
Ferrari only built four 335 S racing cars. The body and its emotional lines originated from the Scaglietti stable. Design genius Vittorio Jano was responsible for the V12 engine with four overhead camshafts sporting a generous four-litre displacement. The great era of Ferrari racing cars powered by a front-mounted engine came to an end with the 335 S.
This example was presented at the New York Auto Show in April 1959, before lining up on the grid at nine races. 1959 and 1960 yielded two first places. From 1963 onwards, a 250 GT engine was mounted as an alternative, but the original engine was then reunited with the chassis in 1975 by the American owner at the time. This pure-blooded racing sports car is augmented by outstanding and detailed documentation, and it has been in the collection of its present owner since 2013. From 2015 to 2017, the spyder underwent a ground-up restoration at a marque specialist in the United States.
Ferrari kept its glamorous clientele sweet with the 400 Superamerica. These high-flying socialites were more interested in elegance and luxury than the ultimate tenth of a second in speed. Ferrari also supplied Aerodinamica bodies as a version in the style of the Superfast II study presented in 1960. The optimised Series 2 followed with an extended wheelbase in 1962. This car was the last one built out of just 18 units. Furthermore, it is one of only 14 with headlamp covers. In 1967, this Ferrari 400 Superamerica Aerodinamica starred in the main automobile role played out in the feature film Il Tigre (international: The Tiger and The Pussycat).The film follows the adventures of Vittorio Gassman and Ann-Margaret in the midst of a glittering and colourful era. In 1968, the car moved to the United States and changed its livery from silver grey to red. Over nearly half a century, the Ferrari remained in the stewardship of a reclusive collector who put it through a comprehensive restoration in California in 1995. At the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2022, the elegant coupé is making its first celebrity appearance since the car’s debut on the silver screen.
American David Sydorick brought this fabulous Zagato-bodied dream machine to Vill d”este.Ferrari created a model series with the 250 Series models which gained a reputation that extended over generations. The first Ferrari 250 was created in 1952, already equipped with a three litre V12 engine. This endowed the series with its name by virtue of the volume of its cylinders amounting to 250 cubic centimetres. Alongside the 250 GT bodied in the customary Scaglietti cloak, others including Zagato also built a number of bodies for this extremely athletic platform, which had won the hugely challenging Tour de France in 1956 – the year when this example was manufactured. They are inimitable.The typical characteristics are manifested in the flattened, lightweight roof styled in the renowned Double Bubble form, and the fragile C-pillar with exuberantly shaped rear windscreen. These are the result of the idiosyncratic signature of Zagato manufacture. In the first two years of its existence, this vehicle competed in numerous races including the Mille Miglia, the Giro di Calabria and a number of hillclimb sprints. After stays in the United States, Switzerland and Mexico, the car found its way toSouthern California in 1999 and is now in the hands of the current owner.
This car is wide, massively wide: A potpourri of bolt-ons envelops its core, which observers can only identify by looking very carefully – this is the first generation of the BMW 3 Series. The additions to the bodywork provide a source of fascination with a functional, yet brutalist style. In 1978, BMW Motorsport delivered one of 36 kits for the sum of 90,000 marks to GS Tuning in Freiburg, where this example was created as a BMW 320 Gruppe 5 racer.The consistently weight-reduced design weighs in at just 760 kilograms and its two-litre, four-cylinder engine from Formula 2 mobilises around 310 hp at revolutions up to 10,000/min., twice and threefold the power of the series model. After three works campaigns in the German Motor Racing Championship (DRM), which was very popular at that time, today’s owner took over custody at the end of 1978. Over the subsequent three years, he lined up on the grid 59 times, notching up an impressive tally of 33 victories, often in hillclimbs. After the last race in 1982, the car continued showboating at various venues. As part of the 72Stagpower Collection, it is now once more Ready to Race.
Absolutely astonishing that even at the tail-end of the 1980s, Lamborghini was still blowing minds with the radical, sharply-angled wedge shape that originally went into production in 1974. The successful futuristic design penned by the Bertone stylist Marcello Gandini is today still regarded as an unsurpassed beacon of the modern era. The Countach series achieved its apogee in 1985 with capacity increased to almost 5.2 litres and four valves per cylinder head – in other words, a total of 48 valves in all!Its impetuous character was forged by six powerful Weber downdraught carburettors. Indeed, Lamborghini had to modify the engine bonnet to accommodate them, as shown by this vehicle. The series was now even available in the United States, although there it was fitted with fuel injection. Lamborghini produced more than 600 units of the LP5000S Quattrovalvole and the top speed of 300 km/h propelled it to the position of fastest production automobile of its time. Only two cars in this series were factory-finished in Tahiti Blue. Following a full-blown restoration, this Countach will make its debut at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este.
Lamborghini sent the Miura into its final lap with the abbreviation SV for Super Veloce – super fast in English. Around 150 cars were built and this car was specially configured for one of the most glittering customers of all super sports-car manufacturers during that era – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. The ruler in Tehran owned a total of four Miuras and he had ordered this particular P400SV liveried in his favourite colour, a dark blue, combining it with shiny white leather. After the Shah went into exile in 1979, the car remained behind with relatives.An Italian BMW dealer and collector succeeded in purchasing the Miura at the beginning of 1991 and imported it to Italy. Former employees of the Lamborghini plant took care of a comprehensive restoration up until 1993. Later on, the car moved to the United States, where corrections were carried out to a number of specific details around 2004. Since then, it provides an authentic representation of its original condition. The Miura formerly owned by the Shah is now in the stewardship of an ambitious collector from Bahrain
One glance at this one of one reveals that a connoisseur has here fulfilled his dream. The great Giovanni Agnelli commissioned coachbuilder Mario Boano to build a classic coupé in the English style and without any modernist traits, but packing a great deal of power. Boano spent just ten days making sketches and then Agnelli was in a position to make a decision. A Chrysler 300 powered by a 5.8 litre Hemi V8 engine served as the platform and Boano shortened the chassis by 18 centimetres.When the coupé was finished at the end of 1956, it’s understood that Agnelli was very satisfied. The aristocratic coupé was fitted with power windows and sliding roof, upholstered in luxury, light-coloured leather and enhanced by light green woollen carpets and rosewood veneer. However, the tycoon passed it on to his brother Umberto because as future Fiat boss, he didn’t want to be seen driving a vehicle manufactured by another automaker. Umberto Agnelli took the coupé to Paris where it remained quietly in French ownership for 30 years before moving to the United States at the end of the 1980s. The present owner acquired the car in 2018 and after meticulous research had it restored tothe highest level.
In an era of boundless horizons stretching into the future, American designers created a vogue in automobiles that transported the dream of conquering space onto the roads of the New World. Never before had such impressive, fabulous visions been formed in sheet metal as in the twilight years of the 1950s. There really is a moment in which every era achieves its apogee and reaches a truly awesome zenith. This was represented in the automobile genre by the Cadillac models manufactured in 1959.This Sixty-Two Six Window Sedan is the epitome of this era, styled in a colour that conjures up magical images through its name alone – Inverness Green Iridescent is the unusual shade that Cadillac itself selected for the vehicles featured in the manufacturer’s advertising campaign at the time. Cadillac delivered this four-door sedan, more than 5.70 metres in length, to Ontario (Canada) in May 1959, where it was purchased by a prestigious local lawyer. Later on, his daughter took over the car and looked after it with loving care and attention until it was acquired by the present owner in 2012 with just 80,000 miles on the clock.
Maserati again played an important role in motor sport shortly after the Second World War. During this period, Alberto Massimo and Gioacchino Colombo, two brilliant engineers, optimised the small, powerful six-cylinder cars in several development stages. As clearly documented, Maserati had configured this A6 GCS MM as a works car. It debuted in March 1955 at the Dakar Grand Prix in Senegal, before lining up on the starting grid of the Mille Miglia bearing start number 651.
Although it was brought to a halt by technical problems on that particular occasion, this A6 GCS MM – now already in private hands – achieved class victory and took 13th place in the overall standings in the 1956 Mille Miglia. Campaigning in many other races is fully documented, as is the fact that coachbuilder Fantuzzi modernised the bodywork in the aerodynamic style of the new Maserati 200 S in 1958. This upgrade was deliberately retained as the restoration commenced in 1992. The current owner took over his tenure of stewardship at an unusual location in 2015: In order to complete the purchase, he travelled to a Sicilian prison with a notary.
The creation of the new DB4 was indeed an exciting process for niche company Aston Martin. Everything was being developed from the ground up. This was true of the engine, a 3.7 litre inline six-cylinder engine with square bore and stroke dimensions, designed by Tadek Marek, and it also applied to the chassis and the bodywork. The factory wasn’t satisfied with the initial in-house design and therefore commissioned Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni, proprietor of Carrozzeria Touring in Milan and owner of the Superleggera Patent.In 1958, the Anglo-Italian project brought forth an impressive holistic fusion of ideas. This was in turn outclassed by the DB4 GT sports version presented in the following year. Significantly lighter, shorter, and more powerful, this small series was built in an edition of just 75 units. This particular coupé was supplied to Paris as a new vehicle and then ended up in the United States before being taken on by a German collector of Aston Martins in 1967. After a nuts-and-bolts restoration in the mid-1990s and almost two decades spent in a Swiss collection, this DB4 GT came into the custodianship of today’s owner as recently as 2021.
Porsche wrote a long, major chapter of success with the 356 model. The 356 B Carrera GTL Abarth took up an outstanding position with its legendary four-camshaft Boxer engine. The Stuttgart automaker squared up to the increasingly powerful competition coming from Alfa Romeo and Lotus with this compact GT racing car. Porsche made use of its existing contact with Abarth, and the great Franco Scaglione created a leaner, significantly lighter bodywork. The Turinese coachbuilders Viarenzo & Filliponi and Rocco Motto produced a total of 20 bodies, with final assembly being carried out by Porsche’s in-house motor-sport department located in Zuffenhausen.This car is an outstanding example of the small series. Carl-Gunnar Hammarlund from Sweden was the first owner and he won two national GT championship titles – after eleven victories in eleven races. His secret was to have ten kilograms of additional ballast in the front to counteract the rear-engined racer’s slight tendency to skittishness. It enabled him to steer the car round corners with extreme precision and without a single accident. Today, this Carrera Abarth GTL springs a surprise with a unique authenticity.
Here’s the DB4 from the rear. It looks just like the little model car you had as a kid!
This 289 arrived in Birmingham, Alabama as a new car, where first owner Paul Wood, with the help of a local mechanic, immediately converted it into a racing car to meet the regulations of the SCCA (Sport Car Club of America). They ran in a number of class victories before Wood sold his Cobra in 1973. Shortly afterwards, it was lost in obscurity for three decades, until a painstaking restoration was launched in 2006 where cost was no object. It preserved the car’s individual racing heritage – including flared wheel arches and a bulge on the bonnet.
A rear view of the Cobra, which was the view most competitors got. Ha ha.
The uncompromising coupé planned by Alfa Romeo at the beginning of the swinging sixties was styled to be svelte, lightweight and wild. The lines ending in a striking bobtail rear were penned by Ercole Spada, at the time the young head of design at Zagato, the coachwork specialist located close to the Alfa Romeo plant that had recently opened in Arese. The tubular spaceframe chassis and the thin aluminium skin reduced the weight to around 650 kilograms. This was complemented by the high-revving 1.6 litre four-cylinder inline engine from Giulia, tuned to generate 112 hp.
The TZ1 was piloted to some impressive race finishes as a competition car at Le Mans, Sebring, on the Nürburgring and at the Targa Florio. This particular example is number 16 of slightly over 100 cars built, and the coupé started its successful racing career in Southern California in 1964 – fast women like Nadeene Brengle and Phyllis Gaylard were the first to get behind the wheel. The history of this unique TZ1 is documented without a break up to the present day, including a passionately detailed and sensitive restoration over the years 2015 to 2019.
Class E at Villa d’Este was called “Born on the Race Track: in On Sunday, Sell On Monday.” That slogan was actually dreamed up by Sir William Lyons of Jaguar.
Class F was titled: “50 Years of Mean Machinery: BMW’s M Cars and their Ancestors.” You could arguably trace everything back to the original 328, a droptop version of which is shown here.
Precisely according to plan, Maserati manufactured 25 examples of the MC12 – short for Maserati Corse 12-cylinder – in 2004. This would have been enough to meet the regulations for the FIA GT Championship but the huge demand worldwide persuaded Maserati to build an additional 25 cars. The MC12 shared its technical platform with the Ferrari Enzo because both automakers were cooperating closely together at the time. However, Maserati carried out a number of optimisations, not just on the engine but also on the chassis and in the aerodynamics.A two-seater monocoque forms its chassis and the MC12 also has a hard top. Although this can be removed, there’s no space for it to be stowed in the vehicle itself. At the time, this was the fastest Maserati ever built by some way, with a top speed of at least 330 km/h and acceleration from a standing start in the sprint to 200 km/h in less than ten seconds. This example liveried in archetypal white with blue accents originates from the first series and was delivered in December 2004. Since 2016, it has been in the tenure of the third person to own the car.
BMW achieved a magnificent feat with the Model 507 in the late 1950s. Albrecht Graf von Goertz penned the supremely elegant design. He took the daring step of drawing a horizontal twin-kidney grille rather than designing the front with the prescribed vertical style element. At a stroke, Goertz thereby succeeded in creating a sleek, modern sports layout which even today creates enthusiasm with its sheer holistic perfection. As an engine, BMW deployed the automaker’s own V8, which harmonised perfectly with the rather luxurious mien of the open two-seater.The car never really aspired to being a serious athlete and its perennially wellheeled owners preferred driving their 507 to the tennis court on a Sunday rather than campaigning on the race track. This roadster is one of just 34 which were shipped to the United States as new cars. After passing through a number of hands, it formed the centrepiece of a private American BMW collection for nearly 30 years. Meanwhile, this Series II 507, which retains its original engine to this day, is once again in an immaculate condition as new after a comprehensive restoration.Entrants 2022HISTORIC CARSEntrants 2022CONCEPT CARS & PROTOTYPESEntrants 2022
If we could drive away just one car from teh show, it would be this one. Looks like fun.
The compact BMW 700 already started its career in 1959 with an air-cooled twin-cylinder Boxer engine mounted in the tail. The agile, pint-sized car created a sensation not least in motor sport. In 1961, BMW put the 700 to the test in order to see just how much can be packed into its concept if that is taken to an extreme. The chassis was a lightweight tubular frame, the body was a wafer-thin aluminium skin that provided a taut, streamlined cloak with zero attitude. This resulted in a low-slung racing car just 3.47 metres long, with flat contours, just 600 kg kerb weight and truly outstanding handling.The 70 hp racing engine has a complex valve timing with a bevel-drive inlet and chain outlet. Only two BMW 700 RS roadsters were produced and Hans Stuck successfully drove this RS1 to triumph in many hillclimb races, for example Rossfeld and Gaisberg. After a tenure of two decades in American collections, the authentic and always race-ready RS1 has come into the custodianship of a German aficionado. By contrast, RS2 is part of the works collection. There’s absolutely no doubt: finding a rarer BMW is a veritable challenge.
In 1950, Lancia launched its new Aurelia model in the marketplace. Vittorio Jano had designed the model series and many aspects of the Aurelia represented a new departure. An innovative V6 cast in lightweight alloy served as the power plant and the gearbox was housed in a transaxle combination on the rear axle. The Aurelia came in an astonishing range of different guises. Alongside spiders, convertibles and saloons with differing wheelbases, Lancia also offered a series of chassis for bodying by specialist coachbuilders. 783 units are reported to have been produced, 98 of them clothed as the B52 – and one of them is this Aurelia B52 B Junior.
Keyword: Villa d'Este Celebrates Car Life as It Should Be