Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 wins at 2024 Villa d’Este concours
This year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este saw the coveted BMW Group trophy for Best of Show go to a 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300. One of ten built by coachbuilders Figoni in the Spider body style, the significance of the Alfa Romeo’s win is that it’s claimed to be the first unrestored car to take the top award at a world-class concours event.

Held this past 24-26 May on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy, Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, saw the usual array of high-quality, rare and expensive automobiles entered. Along with eight themed concours classes, including two marking anniversaries for Rolls-Royce and Maserati, there were additional awards for restoration, design, furthest distance travelled and even engine sound.

While most of the concours classes were judged by an international panel of experts, there were public awards for Concepts Cars & Prototypes, the Ragazzi (a ‘young guys’ award for late model cars) and the Coppa d’Oro, which is the highest publicly-voted award.
Of this group, the concept award went to a 2023 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, a 1999 Lamborghini Diablo GT won the Ragazzi award and the Coppa d’Oro was won by a 1995 McLaren F1.

The ‘Forgotten’ Alfa
The Alfa Romeo that won the Best of Show was entered in ‘Time Capsules: Cars the Outside World Forgot’. This class was devoted to production cars, racers and one-offs that remain largely original and unrestored. In the case of the Alfa, it spent almost 80 years with one owner, including close to 40 years in storage, leading many to think it had disappeared.
Spending almost all its life in France, this particular car is one of only ten 8C 2300s to be bodied as a Spider by Figoni. It’s believed to have been sold new to a Parisian who campaigned it in numerous events, including the Paris-Nice Rally of 1933 and 1934. The second owner, a French nobleman continued to use the car in competition, while Luigi Chinetti, better known for importing Ferraris into the USA after World War II, brokered the Alfa’s sale to its third owner, who in turn gifted it to his son.
Henri d’Autichamp received the Alfa from his father for his 21st birthday in 1937

A newly commissioned officer in the French Navy, d’Autichamp used the car sparingly before serving in the Pacific during World War II. Usage was just as infrequent after the war and it was parked up permanently in the early 1970s, although the engine was turned over and components greased regularly. The Alfa remained locked away until 2014, when d’Autichamp was 98 years old. It subsequently came into the possession of Thibault De Meester of the ‘HM Collection’ in Belgium, who entered it into the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este.
In addition to winning this year’s BMW Group trophy for Best of Show, the Alfa also won its class, beating out the likes of the one-off Fiat Dino ‘Aerodinamica’ that was displayed at the Paris and Geneva Motor Shows, an ex-Works 1928 Bugatti Type 35C, an Abarth-Simca 1300 GT, a low-mileage 1960 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and the Serenissima Agena; another one-off, powered by a mid-mounted V8. The thread uniting all entrants in this class was that they were maintained and preserved, rather than restored.

A Rare Achievement
Why the concours judges selected an unrestored, 92-year-old Alfa Romeo over some of the exceptional, fully-restored vehicles entered at Villa d’Este this year is unrecorded, but FIVA, the International Federation of Historic Vehicles, see it as an important milestone.
“The huge significance of this moment is that a car which has been largely preserved, rather than restored, took the highest accolade,” says Tiddo Bresters, President of FIVA. “It clearly highlights the trend towards preservation over restoration, a shift that FIVA has long championed.
“Looking ‘brand new’ isn’t the point – the importance of a car is in its history; its authenticity; its place in our automotive heritage. It’s extremely encouraging to see this appreciation of a well-preserved car spreading through the highest echelons of the historic vehicle world.”