Snapshot, 1950: A glass of Aperol, Signorina...?

While the bar of the venerable Villa d’Este grand hotel resembles a beehive during the Concorso d’Eleganza, the lady in this snapshot from 1950 has her own personal waiter…

Nowhere else in the world is the interplay of light and shadow as glamorous as it is at Villa d’Este, on the shoreline of Lake Como. Here, a waiter serves an Aperol spritz to a woman sat by the window, her attention momentarily drawn away from watching the sun bouncing off the lake’s surface – or perhaps observing a group of industrialists alight from a Riva onto the grand hotel’s private jetty.

This weekend, however, the grounds of the Villa d’Este grand hotel will not be quite so tranquil, as the international classic car scene meets for the Concorso d’Eleganza once again. Classic Driver will be on the ground to examine the most beautiful entries – but don’t worry, we’ll also find time to sample this year’s Aperol spritz…

Photo: Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images

On 21 and 22 May 2016, the glitterati of the international classic car scene convenes on the shores of Lake Como once again for the Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza. Classic Driver will be reporting live from the event in partnership with A. Lange & Söhne, the official watch partner of the world-class automotive beauty pageant.

Snapshot, 1972: One Italian engineer and his dog

It’s 1972, and one of the finest automotive engineers in the world, Giotto Bizzarrini, is taking a rare day off…

“I am not a designer, I am a worker” – that’s the hugely talented Giotto Bizzarrini’s personal motto, by which he has always lived. His design résumé lists of some of the greatest and most technologically advanced cars to have ever been produced, including the sensationally beautiful Ferrari 250 GTO – a car that, in many years time, will be commonly considered as the finest Ferrari of them all (and valued accordingly). We imagine that once he’s finished playing with the dog, Giotto will plump for the Bizzarrini 5300 GT in which to carry out his daily business. After all, if you’d designed your own sensuous supercar, would you want to drive anything else?

Photo: Klemantaski Collection via Getty Images

Relive the good old days with our series of vintage snapshots.

Snapshot, 1950: Rain starts play at Goodwood

It’s the 30 September 1950, and Stan Coldham and George Wicken are engaged in a rain-soaked battle at Goodwood, employing every trick in the racing driver’s handbook – including leaning out of their single-seat Coopers…

Coldham – driving number 6 – and his similarly drenched rival Wicken are demonstrating just how heroic this era’s racing driver are. Despite the high risk of aquaplaning on the greasy asphalt, the daring duo are battling as hard as ever for Goodwood glory. It’s because of scenes like this that the circuit will establish itself as a prime venue for elite racing over the coming decades. And who knows – maybe one day they’ll hold historic race meetings here in celebration of this legendary epoch?

Photo by Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Snapshot, 1967: Why so glum, Herr von Karajan?

It’s July 1967, and the summer sun is glistening over the bay of Saint-Tropez. But Herbert von Karajan and his wife have little time for leisure. They are posing for a ‘Paris Match’ photographer, and the famous conductor does not look amused…

In recent years, Herbert von Karajan became one of the first celebrities to discover the allure of Saint-Tropez, along with Gunter Sachs and Brigitte Bardot. He and his wife spent many summers here, before the international jet set invaded. In fact, it was on a yacht here that Nice-born Eliette von Karajan, who was discovered by Christian Dior at the age of 18, met her future husband. A brilliant conductor, as well as an ambitious racing driver and pilot, Karajan is considered by many to be grumpy and socially awkward. It’s probably with great reluctance, then, that he has brought his boat out for Paris Match photographer Jean-Claude Deutsch – Karajan supposedly hates being photographed from the front, insisting that he be shot only from the left. It seems Deutsch has been lucky enough to catch him off guard... 

Photo: Jean-Claude Deutsch/Paris Match via Getty Images

Snapshot, 1963: The chase is on at Goodwood…

It’s the 24th August 1963, and two Ferrari 250 GTOs and an Aston Martin DP214 are battling for Tourist Trophy supremacy at Goodwood…

As cool as ever, mustachioed Englishman Graham Hill leads the GTO of Mike Parkes and the Aston Martin DP214 of Innes Ireland through the Goodwood chicane during the 28th Tourist Trophy. Also in the chasing pack are such names as Roy Salvadori, David Piper, Roger Penske and Jack Sears. However, there’s no Stirling Moss – after his serious accident here last year, he’s on timekeeping duty in the pit-lane instead. Ultimately, Hill keeps his nerve to take the chequered flag in front of Parkes, while the Aston drops down from 3rd to finish 7th; Roy Salvadori joins the Englishmen on the podium.

Photo: Rex Features

Snapshot, 1956: Cooling down with Sophia Loren

It’s not only the engine of Sophia Loren’s Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’ that needs cooling down after a stage on the Rally del Cinema in 1956. The diva herself also looks ripe for refreshment after an exhausting few hours behind the wheel…

Chaos is sweeping across Italy as the country’s biggest stars contest the Rally del Cinema, organised by television mogul Ezio Radaelli. Onlookers line the route between Rome and San Remo, hoping to catch a glimpse of such famous actors as Rossano Brazzi, Isa Miranda, Sandro Pallavicini, Elena Giusti, Alberto Farnese and Pamela Matthews. Sophia Loren is also present – the Neopolitan diva is piloting a beautiful Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’, but all is not well. It seems she’s overdone it on the previous stage, and the engine needs a timely rest. The short stop is the perfect opportunity for the paparazzi to capture Loren taking a well-earned break herself. Perhaps it was her sex appeal rather than her driving skill that caused the engine to overheat? We certainly know of a talented young British driving instructor with excellent knowledge of the local roads, having won the Mille Miglia just last year, who’d be more than happy to offer his services… 

Photo by Carlo Bavagnoli/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images

Snapshot, 1931: Park life in Paris

In the Parc des Princes in Paris, ‘Miss Paris’ 1931 poses with a tuba alongside the famous Bugatti racing driver Louis Chiron...

The event in question is the Artists’ Automobile Championship, which comprises a traditional road race and a concours d’elegance competition, the latter of which is held in the Parc des Princes. It’s not known whether the Bugatti on which ‘Miss Paris’ 1931 is perched was driven in the aforementioned race by Chiron himself, but he clearly looks happy that she’s been chosen to pose with the car. We wonder whether she’s as an accomplished a tuba player as Chiron is a driver… 

Photo: Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

Relive the good old days with our series of vintage snapshots.

Snapshot, 1959: A bottle of pastis and every Bugatti shines like new

Why invest a fortune in the restoration of an old Bugatti when a bottle of pastis (or two) will remove much of the legwork? The Canadian artist Jean-Paul Riopelle seems to have taken this philosophy in this amusing snapshot…

In Paris in the late 1940s, Jean-Paul Riopelle was regarded as a fun-loving bohemian – the ‘Wild Canadian’. Surrounding himself with other avant-garde artists such as André Breton, Alberto Giacometti and Samuel Beckett, his surrealist paintings were known far beyond the borders of the city. Look past the art and, as with most famed artists, Riopelle had many vices – alcohol and fast cars, among others. Throughout his life he owned many classics, including a number of Bugattis. In 1957, a Canadian journalist wrote about how Riopelle had torn recklessly through the streets of Paris in his Bugatti, helping you to understand the exuberant style of his paintings. Two years later, Life magazine’s photographer Loomis Dean captured this photo of the artist and a rather dilapidated Bugatti Type 57. We wonder if, after the accident, he’d converted it into a bar?

Photo: Loomis Dean/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Snapshot, 1955: Who can refuse a kiss with Sophia Loren?

It’s no secret that Venice is the home of romance. During a visit to the city of 1,000 bridges in 1955, Sophia Loren is clearly so overcome by her feelings that she swoops down unceremoniously on... her sister.

The events leading to this snapshot are, sadly, unknown. Yet we imagine the Mediterranean sun has had something to do with the embrace between Sophia Loren and her sister Anna Maria Villani Scicolone. Incidentally, Scicolone is also a colourful personality. Married to Romano Mussolini, the youngest son of the fascist Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, she is known in Italy as a singer and television personality. 

Photo: Archivio Cameraphoto Epoche/Getty Images

Snapshot, 1967: No rest for the wicked at Daytona

Exhausted, both physically and mentally, after winning the 1967 24 Hours of Daytona, Works Ferrari drivers Chris Amon and Lorenzo Bandini try their best to enjoy the celebrations, with a little welcome help from Miss Firebird…

Despite the overwhelming joy and adrenalin following their win, Amon and Bandini look in no mood to celebrate perched atop their Ferrari 330 P4 prototype, and understandably so. Even the presence of ‘Winkie Louise’, aka Miss Firebird, does little to alleviate the fatigue inflicted by 666 laps of the demanding Daytona circuit, completed at an average speed of 105.7mph. The race was a textbook (and much-needed) 1-2-3 victory for Ferrari, sealed with a spectacular three-abreast photo finish. Though it would only win one more race at Monza in 1967, Ferrari would do just enough to secure victory in the International Championship for Sports-Prototypes.

Photo: ISC Archives via Getty Images

Relive the good old days with our series of vintage snapshots.

Snapshot, 1958: One giant leap for womankind

It’s 1958, and Maria Teresa de Filippis is about to become the first female driver to contend a World Championship Formula 1 Grand Prix…

In her short career – in which she’ll start three Grands Prix in a privately entered Maserati 250F, scoring a best-placed 10th position in Belgium – Italian Maria Teresa de Filippis will face opposition from the sport’s male-dominated authorities, and suffer grief after the death of her team owner Jean Behra, prompting her to retire. But she will make her point, and perpetuate dreams for women around the world. Remarkably, and probably to her subsequent disbelief, De Filippis will be one of only two females (the other being the late Lella Lombardi between 1974 and 1976) ever to start a Formula 1 World Championship Grand Prix race. Sadly, she passed away last weekend, aged 89. 

Photo: Getty

Relive the good old days with our series of vintage snapshots.

Snapshot, 1958: The early hipsters of Aspen, Colorado

This snapshot might look like a scene from the new Wes Anderson film, but the quirkily dressed group posing atop a vintage snowmobile in their colourful skiwear is quite genuine, decades before the term hipster came into existence…

Just another creative agency out for its Christmas party (or something like that)... The caps, sunglasses, ski suits, hairstyles – this bunch wouldn’t look out of place in the trendy neighbourhoods of London or Manhattan today, even if they’re greying a little round the edges. And the image was found not on Instagram, but in the archives of Getty Images, taken in April 1958, in Aspen Colorado – ironically one of the hippest destinations for winter sports today. 

Photo: Ivan Dmitri/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Relive the good old days with our series of vintage snapshots.

Snapshot, 1963: Has anyone seen my Porsche?

The Porsche 356 boasts one of the more memorable silhouettes of automotive history, but would you recognise one buried under a metre of snow? For the men of the Porsche ski meeting in the winter of 1963, there was only one solution – to dig!

While today the average couch potato can easily pilot a modern sports car, in the 1960s, a certain amount of fitness was required to hustle something like a Porsche 356, especially in treacherous conditions. Accordingly, the international Porsche ski meeting in Lech Zürs am Arlberg was a popular event at the time, and somewhere you could prove your athleticism out on the slopes. However, if you arrived in the hotel car park the following morning to find your Porsche buried deep beneath a blanket of snow, you might have needed to exercise some intellectual fitness as well. Now, which one is yours? 

Photo: Porsche Archive

Relive the good old days with our series of vintage snapshots.

Snapshot, 1978: Gunter Sachs touches down in St. Moritz

He might have defined the jet set, but when Gunter Sachs took off for St. Moritz to spend his winter holidays, his preference was for a more traditional propeller-driven plane…

From the 1860s onwards, English gentlemen have travelled to St. Moritz for the winter, but it was gentleman playboy Gunter Sachs who really turned the village into a mecca for the international jet set in the 1950s and '60s. During the day, the men would enjoy the Cresta Run, while in the evenings they enjoyed the hospitality. In the 1970s, Sachs partied alongside the rich and famous in his own legendary nightclub, the ‘Dracula Club’. As he demonstrates after touching down in March, 1978, there’s no such thing as casual travelling in St. Moritz. 

Photo: RexFeatures

Relive the good old days with our series of vintage snapshots.

Snapshot, 1968: How not to cool down a Ferrari 250 LM

Is this really a Ferrari 250 LM sleeping beneath a layer of snow in the Italian city of Aosta? The staff of the restaurant in the background must have plied the car’s owners with some exceptional red wine for them to forget about their precious cargo out in the cold…

Shocking as it seems today, obsolete Ferrari racing cars weren’t exactly treated with care in the 1960s and 1970s, as recently confirmed to us by Alain de Cadenet. He told of his exploits in no fewer than six 250 GTOs that, at the time, were cheaper to replace than to maintain. Making a stopover in the Italian city of Aosta on his way back from Maranello, we imagine the value of the beautiful black Ferrari 250 LM was the last thing on sports car concessionaire Don Parker’s mind. 

Photo: GP Library/UIG via Getty Images

Relive the good old days with our series of vintage snapshots.

Snapshot, 1962: London’s fastest ski lift

It’s 29 December 1962, and the whole of London has awoken under a blanket of snow. So much so, that even Earls Court is proving the ideal ski resort, as this wonderful snapshot shows…

While a heavy snowfall in London today sees the Capital (and in turn the rest of the country) grinding almost to a standstill, in the past it brought out the city-dwellers’ British sportsmanship – take this enthusiastic skier, for example, sliding along the streets of Earls Court. Okay, so it might not be St. Moritz, but there are certainly worse excuses to take the day off work and play with your classic car…

Photo: Terry Fincher & Michael Stroud/Express/Getty Images

Relive the good old days with our series of vintage snapshots.

Snapshot, 1954: There’s snow stopping Gilberte Thirion

It’s 1954, and in the alpine village of Sestriere in Italy, Gilberte Thirion takes a moment in her snow-battered Porsche 356 to regain her composure ahead of the next stint on the female-only ‘Rallye Paris - St. Raphael Féminin’…

A premier women-only motorsport event, the ‘Rallye Paris - St. Raphael Féminin’ ran, on and off, from 1929 until 1974. Its heyday was in the 1950s and '60s, when Works teams and the most famous of female drivers contested the rally, the latter of whom included Belgian Gilberte Thirion. Here, she looks deep in thought having tackled a particularly snowy stretch into the Italian village of Sestriere. Her concentration will pay off ­– Thirion is set to finish third overall, and claim victory in the 2,000cc class. Later in the year, she will be rewarded with her first solo overall win. 

Photo: Porsche Archive

Relive the good old days with our series of vintage snapshots.

Snapshot, 1956: Things are looking up for Moss and Collins

It’s July 1956, and Stirling Moss and Peter Collins relax with their team atop their Aston Martin DB3S, on the grid at Le Mans ahead of the gruelling 24-hour classic. We wonder what’s caught their attention, as the pair gazes upwards into the sky…

Knowing Moss, the subject of the group’s attention could well be an attractive woman up high in the main grandstand but, alas, we’ll never know. What will soon become clear is that, while Moss and Collins will put up a fair fight in their beautiful Aston Martin, they’ll ultimately have to settle for second place, behind Ninian Sanderson and Ron Flockhart’s Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-type. By the end of the year, Moss will have clocked up several wins but the trophy he really lusts after, the Formula 1 World Championship, will once again elude him… by a desperately small three points. 

Photo: LAT Photographic

Relive the good old days with our series of vintage snapshots.

Snapshot, 2015: A Porsche in paradise

Clearly the notoriously rear-biased handling on early Porsche 911s hasn’t deterred this young lady, as she prepares to continue her journey along the sunny coastline…

Judging by our recent story featuring Vincent Perraud’s fabulous photos of a French road-rally, the photographer has an affinity for old Porsche 911s. This gorgeous photograph perfectly showcases the profile of ‘Butzi’ Porsche’s 911 in its most pure form, as it was originally intended, chromework sparkling in the sunshine. We think this young lady’s got the right idea – we can’t think of a better choice of car for a spirited summer jaunt along the coast. We hope it’s got a sunroof...

Photo: Vincent Perraud

Snapshot, 2015: The future is now

Phew, we’ve arrived. We’ve finally made it to Back to the Future Day – 21 October 2015 – the day on which Doc Brown and Marty McFly arrive in the future in the science-fiction film Back to the Future II…

“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads,” says Doc in 1985, as the pair head off into a futuristic 2015. But while Doc and Marty crossed the intervening 30 years almost instantly in their nuclear-powered DeLorean time machine, the rest of us have had to travel through time at a rather more sedate pace. Still, it’s given us a chance to get used to the disappointment that we still need roads because cars still don’t fly. Or run on rubbish. And where are our self-tying shoelaces? But hey, on the bright side, we’re almost there with the hoverboards. 

Photo: Moviestore Collection/Rex Shutterstock