| AAll day Saturday the 23rd of April, the air felt close. It hadall the makings of final soggy two-day rain before brilliant
springtime weather would arrive at last. The humid haze
obscured the shores of Italy’s Lake Como until nearly noon
when the sun burnt through for the last time before the water
fell. Three hours of good light to better see the grand display
of cars gathered around the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este. During
the parade past the judges on the lakefront parterre of the
hotel, the wash of midday light contrasted with the rumbling
storm clouds to the north.
I speak so much of weather only because, when it is bad
and you have an outdoor concours, it can create complications.
Funnily, I found the poor weather an opportunity to
see the cars in an entirely different (lack of) light. It served
to demonstrate that auto painting prior to World War II was
chemically and industrially confined to a broad range of
blacks and browns and grays. All of which in the dark and
rain turn to one deep shadowy hue. It could have been a
mafia funeral on a sad Hollywood set if it weren’t for the
bright Grand Hotel in the background.
It was only a shame since marvels such as the 1926 Isotta
Fraschini 8A Coupé de Ville with body by Cesare Sala or
1931 Bentley Speed Six Coupé record car with Gurney-
Nutting coachwork became relatively featureless in the
moody clime. That, and then the spider models and showcars
Pininfarina had brought, to celebrate its 75th anniversary,
ended up covered in clear plastic tarps all day Sunday.
The sun did shine long enough to make sure many went
home with awards.
It seems remarkable now that Alfa Romeo just handed
Nuccio Bertone TZ2 chassis number 101 and told him to
create a car for his stand at the 1964 Paris Motor Show.
Giorgio Giugiaro, with Bertone at that time, was put in
charge of the job. The TZ2 already stood just 41 inches tall,
but Giugiaro’s pen took another six inches off of that for the
Canguro and used a dry sump version of the 1570cc fourcylinder.
I stood before this long lost masterpiece for a good
fifteen minutes. It then carried off the jury’s Trofeo BMW
Group for Best in Show, the Trofeo Corrado Millanta for
best car voted by the press and the class win for all cars
from 1960-1970.
The stunning Canguro (kangaroo in Italian) had an accident
during a journalist’s test drive some thirty years ago.
Afterward the fiberglass front end was thought lost and the
Alfa TZ2 chassis number 101 ("Tubolare Zagato") sold off
indiscriminately. In reality, the body and chassis were not
entirely lost. The wreck was bought for less than a song
from Bertone’s backyard junk heap at the end of the 1970s.
A Japanese collector later bought it, and here before us
was one of the finest complete restorations of a significant
post-war car.
The Coppa d’Oro di Villa d’Este is chosen by votes from
the invited guests. They selected the 1951 Ferrari 212
Spider with body by Vignale, another one-off, that also
earned a win in the 1940-1959 Open Car Class. After spending
much of its life in the 1950s and 1960s being used hard
in various sports car races and hillclimb events in Italy, it
vanished until a Florida collection scooped it up and organized
this two-tone restoration in the spirit of Vignale.
The Peugeot 907 V-12 showcar from last September’s
Paris auto show won two design awards, each by vote from
among invited guests: the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este
Design Award and Trofeo BMW Group Design Award. The
French SLR McLaren seemed to me mostly an overdesigned
styling knock-off.
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