Cernobbio, 3rd October, 2021 |
Eight classes gave quit a variety spanning the history of cars from the 1920s to the Hypercars of the 1990s.
Like some of the big events the Concorso opened it classes more to the race and sports cars in recent years
than only the traditional coachbuilt pre-war cars but in an attempt to attract also a younger public the class of
the poster cars from the 1990s was added and as also a lot of instagram influencers could be seen to spread
the word to their young followers these cars were constantly surrounded by a crowd and probably more
pictures were taken of them than on any other classes. It is not often that a Porsche GT1, a McLaren F1, a
Mercedes CLK-GTR as well as the Ferrari F40 and F50 could be seen on the concours fields of the world.
Star of this class was the Isdera Commendatore 112i that was recently sold to the US and brought over just
for this event. |
On the more common classes the well known British marques of Bentley, Rolls Royce and Lagonda were
shown next to the Alfa Romeo &C 1750 GTC of a duo of Lancia Astura and Dilambda of Italian descent. Show
stopper and class award winner and certainly a contender for the Best of Show was the French Delage
D8-120 Cabriolet Villars, the very same car that won Pebble Beach in 1996, still looking fresh after all these
years. |
On the post war side the sports cars were separated in two different classes, one for German and British cars
as well as one uniquely for Italians. The first class featured on of the very rare Alloy Gullwings by
Mercedes-Benz as well as the rival from Stuttgart and Munich of the late 1950s, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL
Roadster and the BMW 507. |
The Italian class featured a wonderful pair of Alfa Romeo, the one-off Fiat 8V Vignale Coupe that won the
class as well as the smaller Siata and Moretti coming all the way from Greece. |
This brings us to the endurance racers of Class E. Starting with the oldest car, the Osca MT4 Siluro, the
narrow bodied cicle-fendered car built by the Maserati brothers after they lost control of their own company.
Without the financial means to compete with the upcoming Ferrari and Maserati for overall victories the
Siuro was aimed at the smaller capacity race classes. |
While Ferrari always opted for the biggest engine to do the job the next car in the class was the complete
different approach, the Alpine M64. With a light fibreglass body and a tuned 1149 cc engine from Gordini
the Alpine won the index of “Thermal Efficiency” at La Sarthe in 1964. |
This leaves us with the final and certainly most unusual entrant of the concours, the Howmet TX Turbine
Car. Developed in 1968 as an experimental car to investigate the possibility to enter a gas turbine driven car
in racing. Although other companies including Lotus with the Type 56 tried as well it was the Howmet that
should secure a first victory for the technology. Originally designed by Ray Heppenstall the car is based on
a Bob McKee chassis and was sponsored by the Howmet Casting company that supplied turbine castings
to the aero industry. First it was entered in the sports car championship in Sebring as well as in the UK but
minor problems prevented an early victory. So it was back in the US at the SCCA Huntsville race were the
car finally took the checkered flag first. |
Report & images ... Peter Singhof |
|