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2022 Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance Mega Gallery | The show in pictures

COMO, Italy — Held annually, the Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance is, in many ways, Europe's version of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. It takes place in a beautiful location, and it brings together an impressive selection of rare and valuable cars. It's a real treat for the eyes, the ears, and, if you're into champagne, the palate. The 2022 edition of the show was no exception: About 50 cars were shipped to Lake Como from over a dozen countries, and it wasn't just the usual suspects. Sure, there were a lot of pre-war cars (including a couple of one-off models), but some of the icons that younger enthusiasts grew up with (like the Lamborghini Countach) were present as well. This year's event was split into eight categories: The Art Deco Era of Motor Car Design, The Supercharged Mercedes-Benz, How Grand Entrances Were Once Made, Eight Decades of Ferrari Represented in Eight Icons, "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday," BMW's M Cars and Their Ancestors, Pioneers That Chased the Magic 300 KPH, And a design award for concept and prototypes. The jury gave the coveted "best of show" award to a 1937 Bugatti 57 S owned by Andrew Picker of Monaco, while the aforementioned classes were won by, respectively: The Bugatti 57 S, shown below, A 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet, A 1956 Chrysler Boano Coupe Speciale, A 1966 Ferrari 356 P Berlinetta Speciale Tre Posti, A 1961 Porsche 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL, A 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL, A 1989 Porsche 959 Sport, And the Bugatti Bolide concept unveiled in 2020. Winning at Villa d'Este is a big deal: The cars are judged by a panel of highly experienced judges. No one gave me a scoring sheet, presumably out of fear that I'd award points to the late-model Fiat 600 lurking in the parking lot, but several cars that didn't win an award caught my eye. One is a 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports, a grand-prix racer that was once owned by King Leopold III of Belgium and that has never been restored — its patina is inimitable. Another is a 1961 BMW 700 RS. One of two built (the other is in the BMW collection), it's a tiny, ultra-light roadster related to the 700 and powered by a 697-cubic-centimeter air-cooled flat-twin tuned to develop 70 horsepower. It won several hill-climb events during the 1960s, and it's one of the rarest cars ever to wear a BMW roundel. Aston Martin's freshly-restored 1979 Bulldog concept was cool to see as well; check out the cassette player integrated into the headliner!

Aston Martin recalling 6,076 for locking doors

The Basics: Aston Martin is recalling 6,076 cars because of an issue with the vehicles' door locks. The vehicles include: the 2010-2015 Aston Martin DB9, 2010-2012 DBS, 2010-2016 Rapide, 2010-2016 V8 Vantage, 2012 Virage, 2014-2016 Vanquish, 2011-2016 V12 Vantage, and 2012-2013 V12 Zagato. The Problem: The affected cars, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), come with interior door unlocking components that may not function properly when the car is locked from the outside. This may result in an occupant being trapped inside the vehicle. Injuries/Deaths: None reported. The Fix: Aston Martin dealers will disable the vehicles' double locking feature by reprogramming the mechanism's software at no charge. If you own one: Aston Martin will notify owners with the recall expected to begin in August. Related Video: Description of the Noncompliance: The subject vehicles contain a full locking system software, which according to an interpretation letter issued by NHTSA, does not meet certain door lock requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 206, Door locks and door retention components (49 C.F.R §571.206). In the subject vehicles, each door is equipped with a locking mechanism with an operating means from the interior of the vehicle. However, when the full locking system is mobilised (by double locking the vehicle), this disengages the interior operating means for unlocking the door locking mechanism. As such, the full locking system is an effective anti-theft measure. FMVSS 1 : 206 - Door locks and door retention components FMVSS 2 : NR Description of the Safety Risk: In an affected vehicle, where the full locking system has been activated from the exterior, there is a risk that occupants are unable to unlock the doors from the inside of the vehicle. In relation to our 4-door sports cars (Rapide and Rapide S), this risk is the same as if a person were in a vehicle in which the child locks were engaged. However, all our vehicles have an acoustic warning device (i.e. horn), which can still be activated from the interior of the vehicle when the ignition is switched off and the full locking system is activated. Furthermore, some vehicles are fitted with an alarm system with interior detection, which is able to detect an occupant's movement and will activate the vehicle's alarm if the full locking mechanism is activated and occupants are detected inside the vehicle.

Aston Martin DB11 gets back to work at the Nurburgring

The Aston Martin DB9 has been around for over a decade now. Classic though its styling may be, that means it's ripe for replacement. Fortunately that's just what Aston Martin is working on, as you can see from these latest spy shots. Snapped undergoing development at the notoriously grueling Nurburgring, this prototype appears to have ditched the camouflage worn by the last one we saw in favor of the black body cladding from our earlier shots. That makes it tough to tell anything about its final design, but if precedent proves anything, it ought to be pretty striking once the production bodywork is put in place. The new DB11 (or whatever it's ultimately called) is being built on a new platform that's set to replace Aston's long-serving VH architecture that has adapted over the years but essentially dates back to the V12 Vanquish that debuted way back in 2011. Aston is expected to keep using its even longer-serving 6.0-liter V12 engine on certain models, but the new DB11 is more likely to get the new twin-turbo V8 being built for it by Mercedes-AMG.