Couldn’t get to the 2016 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este? We’ve got the story!

17 October, 2016

Villa d’Este is not only home to beautiful people, it has also been home to the world of beautiful motor cars since 1929, when the first Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este took place.

Originally the event demonstrated the latest vehicles built by the great coachbuilders of the time, but since the 1990s it has become the pre-eminent celebration of classic cars.

The 2016 Concorso once again displayed the very best of the best in the automobile world, with just 52 classic cars, six prototypes and concept cars, and 30 motorbikes, all divided into appropriate groups to be judged by the jury, which included Charles Lord March — organizer of the Goodwood Revival, Adolfo Orsi — the Maserati expert, and a host of top car designers led by Lorenzo Ramaciotti, formerly head of design at Pininfarina, chief design officer of the Fiat Group, and now special advisor to the CEO of the Fiat Chrysler Automobile Group.

We’ve put together a gallery from the event for you to explore to try to evoke the feeling of being in amongst the action!

Check out our full story in the November issue of New Zealand Classic Car (Issue No. 311).

Grab a print copy of the mag now!

Lunch with … Cary Taylor

11 September, 2024

Many years ago — in June 1995 to be more precise — I was being wowed with yet another terrific tale from Geoff Manning who had worked spanners on all types of racing cars. We were chatting at Bruce McLaren Intermediate school on the 25th anniversary of the death of the extraordinary Kiwi for whom the school was named. Geoff, who had been part of Ford’s Le Mans programme in the ’60s, and also Graham Hill’s chief mechanic — clearly realising that he had me in the palm of his hand — offered a piece of advice that I’ve never forgotten: “If you want the really good stories, talk to the mechanics.”
Without doubt the top mechanics, those involved in the highest echelons of motor racing, have stories galore — after all, they had relationships with their drivers so intimate that, to quote Geoff all those years ago, “Mechanics know what really happened.”

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”

Couldn’t get to the 2016 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este? We’ve got the story!

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