When the smallest is the biggest ... and an E-Type at a record price
05/28/2017
Yesterday, the coveted Coppa d'Oro was awarded by the public at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este and for once it did not go to a famous Ferrari or a noble pre-war classic, but to a largely unknown record-breaking vehicle called the Lurani Nibbio from 1935, whose bodywork was built by Riva.
The lightweight single-seater with motorcycle engines of up to 0.5 liters displacement had once set various high-speed records with Count Lurani at the wheel.
The car still belongs to the family and was demonstrated by Lurani's grandson. This obviously aroused a lot of sympathy, and the audience certainly enjoyed the blue little car.
There was another surprise in the evening when a 1961 Jaguar E-Type Roadster went under the hammer at the RM/Sotheby's auction in the park of Villa Erba.
The estimate was already not modest at EUR 250,000 to 320,000, but the bidders were even more generous. The highest bidder (on the phone) only won the auction at EUR 520,000, which, including a 12% bidder's premium, means a purchase price of at least EUR 580,000 or CHF 635,000 for the early open-top E-Type. You could almost have bought a Lamborghini Countach Periscopo for that ...
As usual, detailed reports on the auction and the Concorso will follow shortly.
