This weekend an exclusive selection of the world's finest classic cars will gather at the beautiful Villa d'Este hotel for the annual Concorso d'Eleganza. To warm you up for our full report due early next week, we now take a closer look at two Touring bodied machines that were shown at Villa d'Este last year. The recently re-established coach-builder was at its height in the early 1950s when it created the trademark 'Superleggera' bodies for a variety of manufacturers.
The earliest of the two feature cars is the Ferrari 166 MM Le Mans Berlinetta, which won best of show by jury vote in 2008. Exceptionally well restored by expert Paul Russell, it also won an award at Pebble Beach and also the 2008 Louis Vuitton award. More importantly it was the winner of the 1950 Mille Miglia in the hands of Giannino Marzotto. Touring fitted just five of the 166 MM chassis with this style body as most customers favored the easier access of the slightly lighter Barchetta style bodies. In addition to the Mille Miglia winner, our article also features a second Le Mans Berlinetta that we recently saw at Amelia Island.
Even more famous than the Ferrari is the slightly unusual Pegaso Z102 B 'Thrill'. Commissioned by the Pegaso factory, this show car looks similar to Touring's production Z102s but has some distinguishing features. The most obvious are the fabulous flying buttresses behind the cockpit. The car was extensively shown in period but has only rarely been seen in recent years. The rebirth of Touring inspired the owner to bring it out to Villa d'Este last year. We have painstakingly captured every detail in our 12-shot gallery.
Over the last few days we have been following the Tour Auto, so you can also look forward to a full report of that in the coming days as well.
Enjoy the links:
1950 Ferrari 166 MM Touring Le Mans Berlinetta - Images, Specifications and Information
1953 Pegaso Z102 B 2.8 Touring 'Thrill' - Images, Specifications and Information
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