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Not a single Ferrari, nor even a Lamborghini on the list this time. Instead, behold a pair of very special BMWs, a unique Aston Martin, an unexpected Lancia coupé, and a wild Nissan that’s almost a Jaguar.
2022’s round has only been my second time at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, an event first hosted in 1929 by the prestigious hotel on Lake Como’s shores. My first lucky weekend was back in 2013, and while I wouldn’t consider myself to be any less excited about automobiles these days, what would stay with me after such a high-end show is only getting harder to guess. Not unlike the Goodwood events, Villa d’Este features the very best of coachbuilt collector cars and racing machines, so each year, it is the automotive equivalent of a Roman banquet that could make Bacchus blush. When standing between a Ferrari 288 GTO, a Lamborghini Miura P400SV and a Porsche 959 Sport, it’s hard to make reasonable choices.
With all that in mind, let’s not get bogged down by the fact that the following selection doesn’t include such amazing cars from this year’s Como jam either as former Fiat pope Gianni Agnelli’s three-seater 1966 Ferrari 365 P Berlinetta Speziale Tre Posti, Bristol’s one-off 404 aerodynamic prototype from 1953, or the peppy Porsche 356B Carrera Abarth GTL produced in very limited numbers in 1961. Instead, may I present to you…
At Como, I was told that the team is aiming for a run at Volkswagen’s Ehra-Lessien test track later this year, because back in 1981, that’s where the car was supposed to go beyond its clocked top speed of 191 mph. Hidden headlamps, power gullwing doors and rear clamshell on the outside. Acres of posh leathers, walnut veneer and the cutting-edge LED dashboard inside the left-hand drive cabin. Add the compulsory roof-mounted instruments, and one must remember that the reason why this couldn’t become a Bond car was that at that time, 007 got a deal to drive the Lotus Esprit Turbo instead. Whether or not the team can get the green light from VW’s board to push this unique Aston Martin at Ehra-Lessien to at least 200 mph, 2022 already feels like the Bulldog’s year. It’s just amazing.
BMW has come a long way since the early sixties, yet the 700 designed by Giovanni Michelotti and launched in 1959 was little more than an economy car powered by a two-cylinder boxer engine enlarged to 697 cc based on the R67 motorcycles’s 594 cc unit. With racing on BMW’s mind, in 1961, only two 700 RS hillclimb special roadsters were built, and this wonderful tiny former champion is one of those. The air-cooled engine is good for about 70 horsepower thanks to complex valve timing provided by a bevel-drive inlet and a chain-driven outlet. Weighing in at around 1,322 pounds due to having a very lightweight tubular frame wrapped in thin aluminum panels, this former buddy of driver Hans Stuck is the sole privately owned 700 RS, because the other one remains part of BMW’s collection.
It is 3.47 meters long, and remains road-legal while looking like a toy car while parked next to a regular-sized BMW from the period like a 507 roadster. For me, the 700 RS was the winner of the 2022 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este. Purposefully fragile, highly original, still ready for action, refreshingly different, and as rare as BMWs get.
This piece of Italian Americana, I did not expect at all. I kept circling back to this car, admiring the combination of Lancia’s advanced chassis and Ghia’s stunning early 1950s body design clearly aimed at the American market. This particular version of the Aurelia B52 B Junior coupé was penned by Giano Paulo Boano, and only two examples were produced in aluminum by the Turin coachbuilder. Found in the United States back in 2009 in highly original, yet equally challenging condition, the fully restored Lancia enjoyed its debut at Villa d’Este, following years of hard work.
Lancia invented the series-production V-6 engine, having introduced it with the 1950 Aurelia. This luxurious chassis was available in a surprisingly wide range of body styles. Sedans, coupés, spiders and convertibles, with differing wheelbases and hand-hammered bodies made by the coachbuilding masters of Italy. At the time, Ghia was keen to secure contracts with all of the Big Three, and so it’s no surprise that both this Lancia B52 and certain Alfa Romeo show cars from 1950-52 look somewhat foreign in Europe.
BMW has been the main sponsor of the Concorso for over a decade by now, yet in case you just started wondering why there are two BMWs on my list of just five cars instead of Ferraris and the like, please bear with me on this one. I could start by saying that the 750iL the L7 is based on is a proper Bond car. I could also add that the E38 is arguably the most timeless 7 Series ever produced. However, there’s more going on here.
Parked on the grass a few steps away from the judged classics, this gem from BMW Classic’s warehouse just oozes presence. The L7 was a limited series of 899 cars, stretched 9.8-inches compared to the 750iL for a total length of 131 inches. It’s a luxury car I would take over the current lineup in a heartbeat, and that’s partly down to Karl Lagerfeld’s choice of not only the long-wheelbase flagship, but also the two-tone finish of Canyon Red and Nepal Silver Metallic, picked in collaboration with the Four Seasons Hotel in Hamburg.
Inside, BMW Individual’s pride and joy from 1998 features Karl Lagerfeld’s Cream White Nappa leather upholstery design, as well as a Sony VHS player with an integrated screen, a fax machine, two telephones by Nokia, a cooled mini-bar, a makeup mirror, and of course an integrated tissue dispenser. It’s the full package in the classiest of wrappings.
Motorsport lovers miss GT1 racing for all the right reasons, and while the Nissan R390 designed by Ian Callum isn’t necessarily the first GT1 car that pops into mind, standing next to road-legal one now owned by former NISMO driver Erik Comas is quite the event. On Nissan’s behalf, Tom Walkinshaw Racing produced eight carbon fiber monocoques for the Le Mans effort, one of which became the road car prototype, retained by Nissan ever since. This particular car is the last one made for racing in 1998, the number 30 R390 GT1 with the VIN #780009.
TWR based the R390’s chassis on its Jaguar XJR15’s molds, heavily modified to be competitive in the 1997 season. The 650-horsepower 3.5-liter twin-turbo V8 originated from Group C racing as well, developed by Tony Southgate. 1996’s Porsche stunt may have pointed out the loopholes in the ACO rulebook, yet the trio of R390s failed their inspection at Le Mans, which led to unfortunate modifications on the spot. Nissan came back in 1998 with four “long-tail” chassis that featured some luggage space to comply with the new rules, only to finish 3rd, 5th, 6th and 10th overall. Erik Comas’ road-converted white R390 is the GT1 that crossed the finish line at 5th in 1998, just in time for the rules to change again, making the R390 GT1 obsolete for Nissan’s mission. 24 years later and with a registration, this is a hypercar for the brave, the former drivers from NISMO’s R390 team, or seasoned Gran Turismo champions.