1947 Villa d'Este

Introduce

By September 1940 Italy had been at war for three months and civilian car production had already been suspended, as was the Concours. Recovery was long and difficult, and the Concorso d’Eleganza di Villa d’Este, which reverted to the original name and organisational structure for the event held on 27-28 September 1947, provided clear evidence of the automotive sector’s renewed desire to return to life. More agile and relatively less badly hit by the consequences of war damage, the coachbuilders were the first to set up promotional events and it was the same sector that inaugurated – in the absence of the manufacturers – an authentic mini Motor Show held in Milan’s Triennale the following November. A new generation of stylists – with Giovanni Michelotti in the forefront – waited impatiently in the wings, while a febrile, contradictory wealth of design proposals competed for the centre stage at Villa Olmo. The panel gave its vote to the extravagant Lancia Astura convertible bodied in flamboyant style by Stabilimenti Farina, while the Gran Premio Referendum went to an avant-garde aerodynamic saloon built by the same coachbuilder on an Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport chassis: it was not the first time that the public had shown itself manifestly more mature than the experts. Another injustice on the part of the panel was the decision to fetter the sensational Cisitalia berlinetta – the car that decades afterwards was to become the very symbol of Pininfarina’s creative genius – with a mere first equal award in its class