OUR REPORTER’S VILLA D’ESTE FAVOURITES

1925 GRÄF & STIFT SR4 SPECIAL

Any Gräf & Stift is a very rare thing, with the Austrian manufacturer only having produced cars from 1902 until 1938, although it did go on to make trucks and buses. Car number 2909, now belonging to Johannes Zieser of Austria, was built in 1925 on a shortened SR4 limousine chassis. The Special was created to compete in the Semmering hillclimb, but the event was cancelled and the car was stored in an attic at the factory until 1980, when it was sold to a private owner who dismantled it and put the parts in his basement. It remained there for another 40 years before being sympathetically restored, retaining most of its original components.

1964 ALPINE M64

The return of French brand Alpine in recent years has placed a spotlight on original cars such as the A110 rally legend, but rather less well-known is the M64. Only three were manufactured and this example, which was acquired by current owner Mitch Mccullough of the USA in 2016, is the car that won its class in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1964, finishing in 17th place overall. It was incredibly lightweight, with a glassfibre body over a chassis made of molybdenum tubing. After the famous enduro it was fitted with distinctive rear fins and repurposed as a test vehicle for the upcoming A210, before being stored away for 50 years.

1949 OSCA MT4 SILURO

After the Maserati brothers sold their eponymous car company in 1937 they were contractually forbidden from making another car for 10 years, but in ’47 they founded Officine Specializzate Costruzioni Automobili Fratelli Maserati, or Osca. The firm only made 40 cars and Elad Shraga owns seven, including the MT4 Siluro that he brought to Como from Israel. He purchased the highly original car in 2016 and undertook a sympathetic restoration. “I love that everything was handmade to the extreme,” says Shraga. “They made everything in-house except the Borrani wheels and the Weber carbs.”