1935 Villa Olmo

In 1935, Prince Aimone di Savoia-Aosta, in his capacity as President of the Italian Royal Automobile Club, authorised the organisers of the Villa Olmo Concorso d’Eleganza to introduce a series of prizes named after his own title of Duke of Spoleto. But the supreme prize (awarded every year, inasmuch as it was an ongoing challenge) was still the Coppa Principessa di Piemonte. The series-produced Fiat 1500 saloon won this award in its class while a rather conservative panel overlooked some interesting aerodynamic saloons by Pininfarina and Castagna. A certain reduction in the number of contestants, which fell to eighty in 1935 whereas previous entries had always topped the hundred mark, was perhaps a sign of diminishing interest. The show was held once more on the 12th of September 1937 under the aegis of the Automobile Club of Como and this time the number of entries climbed back to over a hundred. But there were no truly exceptional cars, so much so that the supreme prize for custom built cars went to an ephemeral Pininfarina Convertible built on a Lancia Aprilia chassis, and it should be said that – as had been the case in 1935 – some types of series-produced cars were entered in numerous examples, the only difference being the paintwork.
Category Winner: Lancia Astura Cabriolet Farina