The Italian city of Turin played host to a new and important Concours d'Elegance this week when the inaugural Parco Valentino Classic was run in conjunction with the fifth Parco Valentino Motor Show from June 19 to 23, 2019.
Over 700,000 visitors attended during the five days of the event, held along the avenues of what was once the circuit of the Valentino Formula One Grand Prix, where legendary drivers such as Ascari, Villoresi, Farina and Fangio plied their trade.
The Parco Valentino Classic is organized by Auto Classic in collaboration with the communication agency Between and is the first of three events that the collaboration will run annually. The next Concours d'Elegance organized by Auto Classic and Between is set the first weekend of July in Sardinia on the Costa Smeralda, where the fourth edition of Poltu Quatu Classic will be held.
In appropriate fashion, a 1955 Fiat 8V Berlinetta Speciale Pininfarina, from the Righini Collection, returned to the city where it first saw the light of day in 1955, and won "Best in Show" Trophy by GFG Style of Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro. The Trophy is a sculpture of composite materials that will also be used at the Alassio Classic and Poltu Quatu Classic, with a color change for each trophy.
The thirty cars entered in the competition lined up in Piazza Vittorio Veneto on the morning of Saturday June 22, where the public saw the Jury at work.
The cars then paraded into the center of Turin, before going on display in the court of Valentino Castle where the award ceremony took place in front of the crowds from Parco Valentino Motor Show.
The judges had a difficult task in deciding the competition due to a surfeit of authentic pearls of rare beauty such as the Bertone prototypes exhibited by the ASI, the Bertone Registry and by Giorgetto Giugiaro who showed the 1963 Corvair Testudo, taking victory in the class reserved for design icons "Questione di Stile."
The ASI-Bertone Collection also received recognition thanks to the 1976 Ferrari Rainbow, the prototype designed by Marcello Gandini, which received the special Foglizzo Award for the best original interior.
Fresh from an "Honorable Mention" at the 2019 Concorso d'Eleganza of Villa d'Este, Japanese artist Hidetomo Kimura, organizer of the Concorso d'Eleganza in Kyoto, won the "Pilota e Gentiluomo" class with his beautiful 1953 OSCA MT4 barchetta built by Frua.
Victory in the "Art in Motion" class, which was this year dedicated to "magnificent coupes," went to the first automobile to have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, namely the 1947 Cisitalia 202 Berlinetta of 1947 of Gino Coen.
Simone Bertolero presented his 1958 Fiat 500 Spiaggia at the event, which was only natural, because he's the man that organised it. He rolled up complete with three splendid models dressed in vintage summer clothing, recreating the atmosphere of "La Dolce Vita" of the sixties. The car was built in 1958 by Carrozzeria Boano for Giovanni Agnelli.
The name "spiaggia" derives from what can be considered the progenitor of the genus, the car that set the trend for an entire automotive class that flourishes to this day. Built on a Fiat Nuova 500 platform and mechanicals and designed by Mario Boano, only two specimens were ever built. One went to Gianni Agnelli and the other to Aristotle Onassis, both captains of industry.
This car was owned by Gianni Agnelli, the head of Fiat, who at one stage controlled 4.4 percent of Italy's GDP, 3.1 percent of its industrial workforce and 16.5 percent of its industrial investment in research. Onassis was a Greek shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately owned shipping fleet and is best known as the second husband of Jacqueline Kennedy. The paparazzi fed images of both cars and their glamorous owners to the photo magazines of the world during the 1960s.
The judging of the cars was presided over by Paolo Tumminelli (auto historian) and Andrea Levy (President of Parco Valentino Motor Show) and was composed of Paolo Pininfarina (ASI Vice President), David Giudici (Ruoteclassiche Director), Luciano Bertolero (Ferrari expert), Alberto Vassallo (Car & Vintage CEO), Sandro Binelli (auto historian) and Enrico Renaldini (co-Founder Gare d'Epoca).
Below are all the winners of the Valentino Classic Concours d'Elegance.
Best of Show - GFG Style Trophy
Winner | 1955 Fiat 8V Berlinetta Speciale Pininfarina
Owner | Max Stancari
Parco Valentino Trophy - to the female crew
Winner | Fiat Dedica Stola
Owner: Maria Paola Stola Ariusso & Stephanie Stola
ASI Trophy - for history
Winner | Dino 246 GT
Owner | Piermario Cornaglia
Foglizzo Trophy - for the most beautiful interior
Winner | Ferrari Rainbow
Owner | Antonio Verzera (ASI-Bertone collection)
Class winners
Matter of Style - Trophy d'Epoca for the Design Icons Class
Winner | Chevrolet Corvair Testudo
Owner | Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro
Arte in Movimento: Italian Fiat Register Trophy for Le Magnifiche Coupé
Winner | Cisitalia 202 Berlinetta
Owner | Gino Coen
Carrozze a Motore: The Great Cabriolets
Winner | Alfa Romeo 2500 6C Cabriolet Pininfarina
Owner | Nino Manzoni
Italiane Purosangue: Automotoretrò Trophy for Gran Turismo Made in Italy
Winner | 1974 Lancia Stratos HF
Owner | Marcello Delfini
Pilota e Gentiluomo: The Modena Motor Gallery Trophy for Sports Cars for Racing and Grand Soiree
Winner | 1953 OSCA MT4 1450 Frua
Owner | Hidetomo Kimura
La Dolce Vita: Milan Autoclassical Trophy for Spiders
Winner | 1956 Lancia Aurelia B24 Convertible America
Owner | Maximilian Kappa