The 8 Best Cars at the Concorso d’Eleganza Varignana 1705
Now in its second year, the Concorso d’Eleganza Varignana 1705 brings the European concours season to a close, and finally gives Italy’s Motor Valley its own high-end car show after decades of providing the eye-candy for events elsewhere. Held at the hilltop Palazzo di Varignana resort near Bologna, a short drive from Ferrari in Maranello and Lamborghini in Sant’Agata, this year’s event attracted an expanded field of 35 cars, up from 23 last year.
The concours comprised examples from world-class collections which have won some of the top prizes in historic motoring, including Best in Show at Villa d’Este. This year also saw an increasingly international entry list, with cars from Germany and Japan in addition to the great Italian collections. The judges included British architect, author, and aesthete Stephen Bayley, Peter Read of the Royal Automobile Club, and Adolfo Orsi, motoring historian and scion of the family which founded Maserati in nearby Modena.
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The event’s popularity with collectors has much to do with the venue. Established in 2013 by fintech entrepreneur Carlo Gheradi, the Varignana estate now encompasses about 1,235 acres of vineyards and olive groves, a 150-room hotel, six private villas, four restaurants, and a spa, among other amenities. But despite its scale, the resort is artfully and subtly integrated into the landscape. And for owners used to displaying their cars at events with a scarcity of places to stay, as well as long traffic queues to get in, the Concorso d’Eleganza Varignana 1705 is a revelation. Everyone can stay at the property, and the cars are displayed a minute’s walk from breakfast. After the scorching temperatures at some summer events this year, the balmy early autumn climate in Emilia Romagna was welcome, as was the wine, olive oil, and even saffron produced on the estate and served at a series of gourmet lunches and dinners over the event’s three days.
Public day tickets cost from just €35 (roughly $39) in order to keep the event accessible, and the resort offers residential packages for enthusiasts who wish to attend but who aren’t displaying a car. Visitor numbers are kept low to ensure the right atmosphere, so we’d advise booking early for next year as the popularity of the event is likely to grow. Until then, here are our favorites from this year’s field, including the Best-in-Show winner.
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1936 Fiat 508 CS Berlinetta Mille Miglia
This automobile is proof—as if it were needed—that Italy can make small cars with the same sprezzatura as its eight- and twelve-cylinder supercars. Fiat’s 508 model—popularly known as the “Ballila”—was among the first small, affordable Italian cars, and thus is historically important as the progenitor of the tens of millions of Fiat 500s, Pandas, and other diminutive, characterful Italian runabouts which followed.
This competition version was designed for racing in events held in colder northern Italian climes, like the Mille Miglia from which it takes its name. Its closed bodywork is one of the earliest examples of wind-tunnel developed aerodynamics, so its teardrop form is both achingly pretty and gives it even greater historical significance. Of the hundred or so made, just a handful survive.
1940 Auto Avio 815
It may not bear the name, but this is the first Ferrari: one of two cars built by Enzo in 1940 for Alberto Ascari and Lotario Rangoni to race in that year’s Mille Miglia. The terms of Enzo Ferrari’s departure as Alfa Romeo’s racing manager prevented him from building cars under his own name for a period. So instead, the Tipo 815 was badged AAC, for Auto Avio Construzione, the company he founded to make aircraft parts for the wartime Italian government. Two were made, and one was tragically crushed by the junkyard where it had ended up.
This one has been in the long-term ownership of 91-year-old Mario Righini, and can be seen by appointment with the rest of his 350-car collection at the Castello di Panzano near Modena. Righini was in the passenger seat as the car was presented with the special Motor Valley Trophy. Determined to keep this national treasure in Italy, he has declined eye-watering sums from Ferrari collectors around the world desperate to have the very first one.
1947 Isotta Fraschini 8C Monterosa Touring
The 8C Monterosa was an attempt by Isotta Fraschini, a prestigious and idiosyncratic Italian marque, to reinvent itself for the postwar era. Sadly, the car never made it beyond the prototype stage. The sophisticated design features a rear-mounted, light-alloy V-8 with hemi heads designed by engine guru Aurelio Lampredi, and hydraulic jacks in each wheel arch. Just five chassis were made, two of which were bodied by coachbuilder Touring.
Only this Touring two-door and a version bodied by Boneschi survive. Both are owned by architect Corrado Lopresto, a former Villa d’Este winner famed for his collection of rare and significant Italian cars, and for his painstaking and sensitive restorations. Lopresto drove the car himself at the event, accompanied by his daughter and grandchildren.
1950 Alfa Romeo 2500 SS Villa D’Este
The Concorso d’Eleganza Varignana 1705 welcomed this glorious big Alfa Romeo coupe despite it bearing the name of its rival concours, held each spring on the shores of Lake Como. But how could you say no to something so elegant yet so muscular too? Its huge tires fill those swage-topped arches and promised impressive, continent-crossing ability just as Europe opened up to such trips after the war.
Only thirty or so were made: this was supplied new to an Italian count in Florence who sold it to a second count for the perfect noble provenance. Bought by the present owner, Fabrizio Livon, in 1998, this Alfa was restored by him, personally, along with his brother, over the next six years. The vehicle travelled to Japan and won the Kyoto Concours d’Elegance in 2018. It also won its class here.
1964 Porsche 904
Despite being held in Italy’s Motor Valley, this automotive contest had an impressive, if outnumbered, selection from German and British marques. This early, four-cylinder Porsche 904 racer immediately stood out to us. It appears the judges agreed, awarding it best in class. In doing so, it overcame both a little understandable home-team bias and the slight disadvantage which race cars face in a concours d’elegance, unless placed in their own category.
These events are generally all about stylish, road-going cars, but this is one of the prettiest racers ever penned, and it was designed to be street-legal and to compete in road races such as the Targa Florio. The example’s long and storied competition history also helped, and Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal is a previous custodian.
1966 Lamborghini Miura prototype
Easily the most striking car at the concours, this important Miura has rarely been seen in public before now. Acquired twenty years ago by Lamborghini collector Dr. Georg Gebhard, it was only when repair work revealed multiple layers of paint that he realized that it was an early prototype, believed to have been lost in a collision with a truck.
The different colors were applied as the car was displayed at successive motor shows. Other details, such as the absence of a Lamborghini badge on the rear, and Gebhard’s own painstaking research, finally revealed his car’s true history and importance in 2021. Gebhard decided to celebrate it with an “art car” finish in which the layers of paint have been selectively buffed away, leaving a unique and ’60s-appropriate psychedelic effect.
1968 Lamborghini Islero
Owned by Lamborghini itself and entered by its Polo Storico historic collection, this Islero appeared at the event in an “out of competition” category, which comprised a handful of cars made after the 1973 cut-off, or factory-owned cars which shouldn’t compete with those owned privately. We were very glad they were showcased.
Launched in 1968 as the more conservative sibling to the Espada, the Islero features styling that marries an airy and geometric glasshouse to a bullet-like lower body with distinctive, high-mounted rear chrome fenders. Subtle, super-rare, stunning, and visually period-perfect in brown, this was the car for wealthy industrialists in a rush, and Ferruccio Lamborghini and his brother both drove examples of the model.
Best in Show: 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB
The Ferrari 275 GTB might not be the rarest of the breed, but it is unquestionably among the best. So it was little surprise that this car not only won its class, The Best of Motor Valley, but also the overall Best in Show award at the 2024 Concorso d’Eleganza Varignana 1705. First delivered to a client in Milan in 1966, and owned by Giuseppe Matildi since 1989, this example has been sensitively restored twice, most recently by the team of marque experts at Bonini.
The judges praised the “concours-quality perfection” of the firm’s work, the car’s engineering significance as one of a small series built to test the new “torque tube” chassis, which would underpin the later 275 GTB/4 and Daytona, and of course its power and elegance.
