IT’S FAR FROM being the biggest, but for many enthusiasts Italy’s Concorso D’Eleganza Villa d’Este, held in the grounds of a Renaissance-style grand villa – now a very upmarket hotel – is one of the best in the world. It accepts a small but outstanding gathering of cars, and its location on the banks of Lake Como is simply breathtaking. This year Italian collector Corrado Lopresto made history by becoming the first person ever to win the Coppa d’Oro (literally Gold Cup, or Best of Show) for the third time.

His black 1942 Alfa 6C 2500 with Bertone coachwork has been scooping awards since it emerged fresh from restoration last year, and no-one was surprised when it took top honours at Villa d’Este too. Every car at Villa d’Este is by definition something special, so it’s hard to single out particular cars for special praise, but Octane’s favourites included Robert Davis’s understated Siata 208S Spider, British entrant Clive Joy’s gorgeously sexy Alfa 33 Stradale, the DAF Museum’s prototype Siluro – styled by Michelotti and based on a DAF 55 – and, in the class for modern concept cars, Aston Martin’s brand new V12 Zagato.

The last of these was accompanied by Aston design chief Marek Reichman, who penned the new car in collaboration with Zagato head stylist Nori Harada. Other big names from the car design world past and present included Tom Tjaarda and Ercole Spada – who designed the original DB4GT Zagato when he was just 23 years old. New additions to this year’s Concours were an auction by Canadian house RM, where the Bertone Stratos Zero prototype sold for €761,600, and a motorcycle concours, held at neighbouring Villa d’Erba.

Event sponsor BMW deserves a mention for continuing to support and develop the concours weekend, which goes from strength to strength and yet still maintains its status of attracting ‘the right crowd, and no crowding’. See next month’s Octane for a full report.