The Alfa Romeo Tipo B (P3) from the Aurigo Collection took the Trofeo BMW Group – Best of Show award at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on the shores of Lake Como over the weekend.
The Vittorio Jano-designed Alfa Romeo racing car is powered by a twin supercharged straight eight and offers a huge for the day 265bhp. The example at Villa d’Este was built in 1933 and raced by Enzo Ferrari’s fledgling Scuderia the following season. With Achille Varzi at the wheel it triumphed in the Nice and Tripoli Grands Prix while Guy Moll took the honours at AVUS for the Berlin Grand Prix in it.
The car was awarded the honour by a panel that included Adolfo Orsi, Octane’s Massimo Delbo, Jay ward, Ed Welburn, Madan Mohan and more after a two day event that transferred to neighbouring Villa Erba for Sunday (25 May) when it is fully open to the public.
It was noticeable but unsurprising that the crowds were drawn to the more modern Italian supercars, but the sports racers were also getting huge attention, as well as some of the more quirky looking cars such as the OSI Silver Fox and the BMW 328 streamliner from 1937, ordered by industrialist Hans Klepper and predating the factory Mille Miglia Coupés.
Two cars seeming to attract a lot of cognoscenti attention were Tom McGough’s 1965 Serenissima 308V and Hans-Jörg Hübner’s fourth series long-wheelbase Lancia Astura.
The Serenissima is the only survivor of two Fantuzzi Spiders built for Count Volpi’s rebel equipe and ran at Le Mans in 1965 before being put in storage in the family castle, only retasting freedom in 2020 when it was bought by the current owner.
The delectable Lancia was crafted by Pinin Farina to special order by Lancia dealers the Bocca brothers. The art deco beauty is wonderfully finished and has a distinctive interior made up strips of woven leather.
There were of course multiple other curiosities and beauties on show throughout the weekend including a couple of sensational Siatas.
On Saturday (24 May) the Coppa d’Oro public vote favoured the BMW 507 of Dirk de Groen from the USA.
Host BMW also showcased two new cars before their official launches. They were the new M2 CS and the Skytop shooting break concept (below) that design boss Adrian van Hooydonk pledged would go into limited production.
Villa Erba also hosted two Broad Arrow auctions, a 16-lot all-BMW sale on the Saturday and an impressive multimarque sale on the Sunday. Top-sellers respectively were the €602,500 paid for a BMW M1 factory uprated to Procar spec for a German record producer and a very early Ferrari racer, a 1948 1 Spyder Corsa by Ansaloni that made an estimate-busting €7,543,750 with taxes and premiums.
