The birth of this very special model was in 1949, when Italian styling house Touring showed a new coupé at the Villa d’Este Concours, a car designed by Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni and built on the 6C 2500 Super Sport chassis. It won the Gran Premio Referendum (People’s Choice) and another 24 were built – and named ‘Coupé Villa d’Este’ in honour of that concours victory.

Says Marco Makaus, “Chatting with the hotel management [at Villa d’Este] a couple of years ago, I underlined how this must be a unique situation: one of the best ever Italian motor cars was named after one of the best Italian resorts. From this, the idea of searching for and purchasing one of these cars came naturally, and this is what we did: with the help of Hall & Hall we found a very good example, which is now part of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este’s art collection.

“One idea brings another, and we are now trying to pull together all Villa d’Estes, creating a Register and generally making sure that any of these cars (and their custodians, of course) consider Villa d’Este their home.”

Hence Makaus is attempting to contact all the owners of these cars, to invite them to a very exclusive event – “a kind of Villa d’Este Homecoming” – taking place on 10 June 2012. “We would like to run this event annually,” adds Makaus, “so that, over the years, every owner has the chance of participating, and every car will have the possibility of coming to the place which gave it its name at least one time.”

If you are an owner who has not yet been contacted, but is interested in learning more about this special event, please email Marco Makaus at [email protected].

Photos: The Organisers