Listen, you bastards Gentle Readers: there’s little point in my taking a sabbatical when you keep sending me stuff which gets my juices running and such. Here’s one example:
Reader GT3Ted sends me this via email:
Just to make you drool and brighten your day, I thought you might be interested in the following link.
This is the catalogue for the upcoming auction to be held in conjunction with the Villa D’Este Concourso on Lake Como in Italy. Which car would you bid on given a Million $ Budget? (That budget limits you to only about 75% of the cars (230) in the catalogue.)
Broad Arrow Auctions_The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este Auction 2026 – Catalog
Can I resist going there? No. Can I resist paging through the blessed catalogue and drooling over the examples of automotive gorgeousity featured therein? Also no. Would I go there if I could, if only to bask in the warm sunshine of Lake Como? Yes. Is Reader GT3Ted an utter bastard? Goes without saying.
So here are the cars I’d look at (links only, because pics take too long):
65 Maserati Mistral Coupe — possibly my favorite Mazza model, ever. See also the Spider version. Oh, and did I mention the 3500?
56 Lancia Aurelia B24 S and another one — definitely my favorite Lancia, ever, although there is stiff competition from the Integrale HF.
93 BMW 850CSi — V12 Beemer engine, oh my.
73 Dino GTS — okay, on reflection scratch this one. (I just cannot see myself, with any-sized budget, dropping half a mil on an entry-level Dino, even a pretty white one like this.)
Actually, once I’d stripped out all the Ferraris and Lambos (because #Gaudy&Horrible #AlsoWayTooSpendy), as well as all the RHD cars (Aston Martin and Skyline) there weren’t really many that caught my fancy, other than the above.
Feel free to explore and select your choices.