Only The Very Best for Villa d’Este
June 13, 2022
We all love a good concours. Whether it’s Festival of the Unexceptional or Salon Prive, they all offer a chance to admire other people’s motors and chat to those who share a passion for our beloved automobile. Internationally there are some concours events that fall very much into the category of exception and one of these is the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este.
Held in the grounds of the famous villa on the shores of Lake Como in Italy it is, to put it mildly, a complete drool-fest and that’s just the location. But we’re all about the cars, which are equally as incredible with some of the rarest machinery from BMW, Bugatti, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Lamborghini and the list goes on. Like most concours events, the owners are with their cars, polishing headlights, wiping a bit of dust off the steer-ing wheel, nervously awaiting the arrival of the panama hat-wearing judges with their clipboards.
Most are happy to chat too, provided they aren’t moments away from having their precious cars judged. Who can blame them, concourses like Villa d’Este and Pebble Beach are a massive deal for the owners, a win can add to the provenance of their car come sale time and many have spent a fortune shipping their car in for the event. There’s real pride at stake here.
There can be only one Best of Show though and this year that award was given to a 1937 Bugatti 57S Van-vooren Cabriolet. Nestled in a corner and frankly dwarfed by a 1939 Lagonda V12 Rapide and a 1936 Cord 812 Phaeton, the Bugatti was easy to miss, but not by the judges. It was one of only four 57S models to be built with a Vanvooren convertible body and like all great classics, it has a story. That story is of how it was once owned by a senior executive at General Motors in the US who removed its engine and replaced it with a Buick V8. Good golly, who pulls out a handmade Bugatti engine and replaces it with a Buick V8, what sac-rilege. Word is that it was to test the engine, but there’s a happy ending to this because forty years after the unacceptable transplant, the original engine turned up after an internet search and the new owner returned it to the car.
I know we said there can only be one Best of Show, but that’s not strictly true, because there’s another, this one voted the best by the public. That accolade went to the dramatically wedge-shaped 1979 Aston Martin Bulldog. Owned by famous US collector Phillip Sarofim, it’s been completely restored and has some unfin-ished business. Originally built to break the 200 mph barrier, it only managed 192 mph so Sarafim plans to try again this year. Good for him.
On the subject of speed chasers, a car that equally grabbed the attention was a Citroen SM. Yes, seriously, a Citroen SM. Renowned more for their comfort than their speed, the 1971 SM has a 3.0-litre V6 and a Gar-rett turbocharger that helped it pass the 200 mph mark. It also has a parachute, which we don’t think was on the dealer options list at the time. It didn’t win its class though, that accolade went to a Porsche 959 Sport.
Competition was tough in the category of ‘Kompressor! The Supercharged Mercedes-Benz’, but in the end it was a 1936 540 K Cabriolet A that took the silverware, even if it was a fuschia pink 630 K Coupe de Ville Saoutchik that kept drawing the eye.
The event also celebrated some big anniversaries. BMW’s M performance and motorsport division turns 50 this year and as the main sponsor of the concours it had a number of significant M models on display in-cluding an M1 ProCar. However, it was a 1972 3.0 CSL that won the ’50 Years of Mean Machinery – BMW’s M Cars and Their Ancestors’ category, resplendent in its original Golf Yellow hue.
Ferrari turns 75 this year and some of its greatest models turned out for the occasion. There was a gor-geous 375 America, a 250 GT Zagato and a 335 S but it was a very rare 1966 365 P Berlinetta Speciale Tre Posti that took the award. We love cars we’ve never heard of and this is definitely one, although Ferrari ac-tually made two. Based on the 365 P2 race car, this was the first road-going model that Enzo Ferrari allowed to be mid-engined and not only features a 4.4-litre V12, but it has a central driving position like a McLaren F1. Ferrari only made two, so it doesn’t get much rare than that.
Other class winners included a 1961 Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL which took the award for ‘Born for the Racetrack – Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday’. A 1956 Chrysler Boano Coupe Speciale won the ‘How Grand Entrances Were Once Made’ category and that 1936 Cord 812 that towered above the Bugatti, it won the award for the most sensitive restoration.
It wasn’t all about the award winners though, there was a stunning collection of older BMW 7 Series models on display, including a pristine E38 750iL. No concours of this stature is complete without a Lamborghini Miura and there was an Athena poster favourite, the Ferrari 288 GTO. One owner actually drove his 1960 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster to the concours from Germany and there was a properly preserved 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports compete with full patina.
There were some more modern machines too, with a Bugatti Bolide from 2020 winning over the public to receive the award for Concept Cars and Prototypes, although it was the phenomenally beautiful 2022 De Tomaso P72 that made us salivate the most, especially when it fired up.
There were over 50 cars in total, so picking a favourite is no easy task, but for you I’ve thought long and hard. Actually, it wasn’t that difficult because I totally fell in love with a 1952 Lancia Aurelia B52 B Junior. It’s one of only 98 B52 versions and was found in terrible condition in the US in 2009 and completely restored by its Italian owner. I mean just look at it, it looks like it should have weasels leaning out of it with tommy guns chasing Roger Rabbit. Not all concours cars need a real story you know.
