Finest attire at the Como concorso
Italian prototypes and special-order curios dominate the 2017 Villa d’este Concours
The 2017 Concorso d’eleganza Villa d’este appeared resolutely Italian, with domestic
carrozzeria creations taking most of the class awards, as well as a special supercar class attracting plenty of attention on the shores of Lake Como.
Lamborghini Miura P400
The distinctively-striped Miura pictured above made its public show debut following a complete ground-up restoration by Carrozzeria Autosport in Bologna.
‘It was bought new by Adrian Conan Doyle, youngest son of Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,’ says Emanuele Collo of Kidston SA. ‘Adrian and his brother Denis were keen racing drivers, having campaigned a Mercedes-benz SSK and a Ferrari 250 SWB when they were younger. Adrian collected this car from Sant’agata himself in 1968.’
The colour scheme is ‘Special Red’, with the stripes added as a special order. They resulted in a car finished in the Scottish Conan Doyle family’s tartan, with the stag’s-head family crest worked into a shield motif on the front wings. It’s a mid-production Miura P400, using thicker-gauge steel in its chassis than the earlier cars.
This Miura featured prominently in the opening scenes of a 1969 BBC documentary profiling Adrian’s creation of the Conan Doyle Foundation at Vaud in Switzerland. As well as preserving his father’s personal effects and building a replica of the famous 221B Baker Street rooms within his home, the Chateau de Lucens, the notoriously eccentric Adrian also penned The
Exploits of Sherlock Holmes in 1954. The Conan Doyle Miura would prove to be the last car Adrian bought – he succumbed to a heart attack less than a year later in 1970. His widow sold the car to a Geneva garage owner in 1971, where it remained stored in his workshop, unused, until 2008.
Having since passed into a private European collection, it was subjected to a meticulous four-year restoration at Autosport, entailing the input of former Lamborghini factory engineers, many of whom worked on Miuras when they were new.
Alfa Giulietta SS Prototipo
‘I entered this car into the Concorso in homage to Franco Scaglione,’ says architect and collector Corrado Lopresto of his recently-restored Alfa Romeo (right), which took Best in Show, awarded by Ferrari designer and jury president Lorenzo Ramaciotti. ‘Scaglione had studied aeronautical engineering before working with Bertone.’
Dating from 1957 and built on the floorpan of a Giulietta Spider, the Prototipo was the first attempt to further develop and productionise the aerodynamic themes pioneered by Scaglione’s outlandish Alfa Romeo 1900-based BAT (Berlinetta Aerodinamica Technica) series of concept cars, released between 1953 and 1955 and currently residing in the Blackhawk Collection.
This low-drag Alfa succeeded – the prototype broke the 200km/h (125mph) barrier with a 100bhp-tuned version of the standard Giulietta 1290cc four-cylinder engine – a new 1300cc class
Lurani Nibbio
The unusual, futuristic 1935 single-seater pictured at the bottom of the page won Villa d’este’s public-vote Coppa d’oro. It was created by Count Giovanni Lurani, and its design hinted at the future direction of Formula One and the Formula Junior category Lurani would later create.
‘In 1934 my grandfather met Ulisse Guzzi of Moto Guzzi at the Lecco-maggio hillclimb and decided to build a 500cc record-breaker,’ says Federico Gottsche Bebert, Lurani’s grandson. ‘It was built to the same philosophy as the rearengined Auto Unions. The shape of the car was decided by sitting my grandfather on a discarded wooden produce tray and drawing the dimensions around him with the Guzzi engine resting on the floor behind his back. The track had to be exactly 2.42m, the same as his Maserati, for familiarity.
‘The windscreen was hand-shaped by Felice Bianchi Anderloni of Touring Superleggera, the chassis was built by Quadrio of Milan from steel tubes, and the aerodynamic studies were made in Moto Guzzi’s wind tunnel before the body was made in aluminium by Carrozzeria Riva, 600 metres from Lurani’s home. The exhaust had no silencer and when it was first fired up, a nearby café window shattered.
‘Christened Nibbio – ‘kite’ – it became the first 500cc car to break the 100mph barrier, on the Firenze-mare motorway. In 1939 Lurani took it to an autobahn in Dessau, Germany, for further speedrecord attempts where it reached 172km/h.
It was here where he met Major Goldie Gardner of MG. ‘In 1947, nearly obsolete, the Nibbio was fitted with a 250cc engine and set six speed records on the Jabbeke Highway. When Gardner beat them in 1949 Lurani sent a telegram, ‘You pig. Stop. Nevertheless, bitter congratulations. Nibbio.’ record. The design went into production as the Giulietta SS in 1959 with a shortened Kamm-effect tail, bumpers, and a front air intake redesigned to accommodate the traditional Alfa Romeo grille.