It was billed as a celebration of cars, drinks, food, and passion, but most only came to ogle the autos. Staged by the BMW Events Group just down the shore of Lake Como from the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the Villa Erba was the site of Wheels & Weisswürscht, a free-to-attend event.
You could walk from Villa d’Este to Villa Erba in about 15 minutes, but it’s much more enjoyable to arrive by boat.
The show celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the BMW “M” series, and the first car you’d see (if you came by boat) was this “Cosmos Black” Z3 M Coupe.
But Italy being Italy, much of the attention was focused on the wide variety of Italian autos on display in front of the historic facade of the Villa Erba. This red 1971 Ferrari Dino 246 GT looked right at home.
Another red icon is this 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600. Designed by Franco Scaglione for Bertone, this car has a top speed of 200km/h (124mph). Only 1,366 of this SS (“Sprint Speciale”) model were produced.
The blue Alfa on the right is a 1956 Giulietta Spider 1A. With a smaller engine and a Pininfarina body, more than 14,000 were produced between 1956 and ’62. When new, the car was priced at 1,900,000 Italian lira…about 1,000 US dollars.
It looks a bit out of place among all the luxury and sports cars, but the little Fiat Cinquecento outsold them all. Between 1957 and ’75, nearly 4 million Fiat 500s were sold. It was, and will always be, the car of the people and by the people.
And then there’s this. A 1958 Glas “Goggomobile” T3000 Limousine. Yes, Limousine. 70,000 of these microcars were made over a 14 year period, first by Glas and then BMW. Just a few thousand have survived to this day, and few are as nice as this one.
At the end of Wheels & Weisswürscht, some of the attendees clearly had a better time than others.
