21 of the best from RM Sotheby’s Villa Erba sale

Our favourites from Saturday’s auction

If you’re going to drop £2m on one of the most desirable cars ever made, a 19th century villa on the shore of Lake Como seems like a fitting place to do it.

One such villa forms the venue for RM Sotheby’s next sale, which takes place on Saturday (25 May) to coincide with the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este show.

With 53 cars – and some interesting items of automobilia – set to go under the hammer, it was no easy task to choose our favourites.

But, after much deliberation, we settled on these 21 classics. Click or swipe through the pictures to see them all.

1. 1955 Fiat 8V

Estimate: £1.4-1.6m (€1.6-1.8m)

Ghia, Vignale and Fiat’s own in-house carrozzeria all had a go at dressing Fiat’s 8V, but Zagato’s elegantly understated effort is possibly the prettiest.

A regular at the modern Mille Miglia, this car has spent its entire life in Italy and has covered only 300 miles since the completion of a full restoration, including a repaint in its original emerald green.

2. 1931 Aston Martin International ‘LM5’

Estimate: £900,000-1.2m (€1-1.4m)

The first of 12 Aston works cars built in 1931, this International was good for over 90mph in its day thanks to the 1.5-litre overhead-cam four-cylinder engine slotted under that heavily fluted bonnet.

Following a second-in class at that year’s Brooklands Double Twelve and a less successful outing at Le Mans, it enjoyed its greatest success with a first-in-class finish, and 14th overall, at the RAC Tourist Trophy.

Subsequently converted to the current 2/4-seater bodywork, it goes to auction in wonderfully original condition.

3. 1970 Maserati Ghibli

Estimate: £434-521,000 (€500-600,000)

Maserati added the Ghibli Spyder to its lineup two years after launching the coupé – and you can add this 4.7 example to your collection for around 20% the price of its contemporary Ferrari ‘Daytona’ Spider rival.

This car’s bold Giallo paint is original, but its factory-equipped automatic transmission has been upgraded to a five-speed manual.

4. 1936 Delahaye 135 S Competition Court

Estimate: £900,000-1.1m (€1-1.3m)

Delahaye’s name might conjure up images of flamboyant coachbuilt art deco convertibles such as the incredible 175S Saoutchik Roadster, but they also found success on the track – even beating the legendary German Silver Arrows on occasion.

This 135 S was originally purchased by Irish-American racer and (conveniently) heiress Lucy Schell, and was rebodied by the Chappes Frères coachbuilders before competing in the 1939 Le Mans 24 Hours. It’s subsequently been rebodied, but in the same style as that previous work.

5. 1948 Alfa Romeo 6C-2500SS

Estimate: £564-651,000 (€650-750,000)

Proof that a career in the civil service can be a lucrative business – or at least it was in post-war Argentina – this stunning 6C was originally delivered to the country’s Minister of Industry and Trade.

The triple-carb straight-six under a bonnet crafted by Touring of Milan would make it perfect for a Mille Miglia entry, if you could bear to risk damaging the concours-winning restoration.

6. 1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial

Estimate: £3.7-4.1m (€4.25-4.75m)

Not every classic front-engined Ferrari had a V12 below its bonnet: the 500 Mondial was one of a series of massively successful four-cylinder racing cars from Maranello.

This Ferrari Classiche-certified 500 is a particularly notable car: one of only 13 such Spiders coachbuilt by Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina, it is also one of just five to wear the ‘covered-headlight’ body-style.

What’s more, its first owner was one Antonio ‘Tony’ Parravano – a rich Californian who raced it extensively in the late 1950s before falling foul of the tax man, skipping bail and disappearing for good in the early ’60s.

7. 1980 Renault 5 Turbo 1

Estimate: £87-113,000 (€100-130,000)

Renault’s mid-engined mutant 5 bagged some key rally victories, including wins at Monte Carlo and Corsica, before it had to capitulate to newer four-wheel drive rivals.

Two distinct series were built, both sharing the same 158bhp turbo’d 1.4-litre ‘four’. But only the S1 cars such as this one received special aluminium panels and acid-trip interior.

8. 1955 Maserati A6G/2000 Zagato

Estimate: £2.6-3m (€3-3.5m)

This stunning, Zagato-bodied A6 was driven extensively by Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson in practice for the 1956 Mille Miglia – a year after they’d won the event – and eventually finished 25th in class with a different team behind the wheel.

The 2.0-litre straight-six machine was subsequently sold to a private owner and eventually found its way to the US, where its entire bodyshell, save the roof, was replaced during a restoration in the 1960s.

Despite that lack of originality, though, it’s still expected to make almost £3m – which only goes to show how much history counts for in these circles.

9. 1963 Citroen 2CV Sahara

Estimate: £61-78,000 (€70-90,000)

The least expensive – and surely the slowest – car offered at Villa Erba this year is also one of the most charming.

No standard 2CV, the Sahara was designed to navigate the desert terrain of France’s former colonies and was given an ingenious dual-engine setup akin in which one engine drove the front wheels while another in the back drove the rear.

With each engine able to be operated on its own, or in tandem, to call it merely a ‘4x4’ is to do it a disservice!

10. 1955 Pegaso Z-102

Estimate: £477-608,000 (€550-700,000)

As fascinating below the surface as it is on top, the Pegaso Z-102 was the result of fascist dictator General Franco’s desire to prove Spain’s artistic and technical might.

Even today the spec sounds so impressive – a 32-valve, quad-cam, dry-sump, all-alloy V8 driving the rear wheels through a five-speed transaxle – that the Z-102 ought to be worth more.

11. 1930 Bugatti Type 30 roadster

Estimate: £1.2-1.6m (€1.4-1.8m)

Evolved from the Type 46, the Type 50’s ace was a thumping twin-cam straight-eight also found, in modified form, under the bonnet of the Type 54 grand prix racer.

This particular car was modified almost to 54-spec in the 1950s, with spectacular results: Road & Track magazine recorded 8 secs to 60mph in a 1958 test.

12. 1957 Porsche 550A

Estimate: £3-3.3m (€3.4-3.8m)

Significant for being Porsche’s first purpose-built competition machine, but notorious for being the car in which James Dean lost his life, the 550 Spyder was constructed around a steel spaceframe, making it a radical departure from the contemporary 356.

This particular car’s fascinating history includes multiple successes in Denmark and Africa in the late 1950s and through the 1960s.

13. 1959 Fiat-Abarth 750GT ‘Double Bubble’

Estimate: £87-104,000 (€100-120,000)

Carlo Abarth’s expertise at tuning Fiat’s tiny air-cooled engines found its perfect mate in Zagato’s lightweight, Tarmac-hugging bodywork when the two companies collaborated to create the 750GT.

The ‘double-bubble’ refers to the twin bulges in the delicate roof skin, their shaped echoed by two more in the rear engine cover.

14. 1959 Maserati 3500GT Spyder

Estimate: £543-608,000 (€625-700,000)

While Touring handled the design of the original 3500GT coupé, it was up to Vignale to create the Spyder version the American market had been crying out for.

It arrived in ’59 and enjoyed the same upgrades that year’s coupé received: a five-speed manual transmission and Girling disc brakes.

That €700k estimate too rich for you? A coupé version in the same sale is valued at one third as much.

15. 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Touring

Estimate: £412-456,000 (€475-525,000)

No classic auction is complete without a classic 911, and a blue-over white ’73 RS is about as classic as Porsches come.

One of the last of the more road-biased Touring versions, this 207bhp machine appeared in the pages of Classic & Sports Car in 2017 shortly after undergoing a mammoth 1500-hour restoration.

16. 1963 Mercedes-Benz 300SL

Estimate: £1.2-1.39m (€1.4-1.6m)

It’s always the Gullwing that gets the attention, but the 300SL roadster that followed it was longer lived and sold in far greater numbers.

Unlike the visually similar 190SL, these 300s shared the Gullwing’s spaceframe construction, and being one of the last produced this particular car benefits from disc brakes and an alloy engine block for nimbler handling.

17. 1965 ASA 1000GT

Estimate: £109-152,000 (€125-175,000)

Had things turned out differently, this car could have been wearing a Ferrari badge on its nose – and an estimated price twice as big as the one it comes with today.

Why? Because the 1000GT was borne of Enzo Ferrari’s plans to create a smaller, cheaper sports car.

Ultimately, he decided not to pursue the project, but the car, engineered by Giotto Bizzarrini, clothed by Bertone and sporting a four-cylinder 1032cc engine based on Colombo’s V12 Ferrari unit, was taken on by ASA. Only 90 were built.

18. 1967 Ferrari 330GTC Zagato

Estimate: £369-412,000 (€425-475,000)

Looking at this strikingly controversial Zagato-bodied V12 Ferrari it’s hard to believe it started life as a classically beautiful 330GTC.

Ferrari’s US importer Luigi Chinetti sent it to Zagato to be rebodied in 1972 after it suffered minor bodywork damage – though some might think it sustained more when it got there.

If you prefer your 330s easier on the eye, there’s a standard GTC on offer at Villa Erba, but it’s expected to make a fair bit more than this one.

19. 1967 Lamborghini 400GT

Estimate: £370-410,000 (€425-475,000)

Lamborghini is to supercars what Hoover is to vacuums, but the company’s first cars were fast, front-engined V12s in the mould of the Ferrari 250.

This incredible 400GT – a more powerful continuation of the earlier 350GT – has covered fewer than 39,000 miles and had been in the custody of only one owner until 2018.

20. 1990 Ferrari 348tb Elaborazione

Estimate: £156-191,000 (€180-220,000)

One of only 10 Ferrari 348s converted to Elaborazione spec by Zagato, this car was the prototype for the series and took pride of place on Zagato’s stand at the ’91 Geneva Motor Show.

Notable mods include a lower roofline incorporating Zagato’s trademark double-bubble roof, OZ wheels and cleaner flanks reminiscent of those on Ferrari’s later F355.

21. 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA

Estimate: £217-260,000 (€250-300,000)

Alfa’s Giulia GTA was almost unstoppable on track in the late 1960s, dominating the European Touring Car Championship in the late 1960s, and the sub-2.0-litre class in Trans Am racing on the other side of the Atlantic.

One of two 105-series GTAs in this year’s sale, this example is the rarer 1600cc GTA with the lightweight alloy body (the other is a GTA 1300 Junior).

The Villa Erba sale by RM Sotheby’s takes place on 25 May 2019. Full details here.