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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!

Odell Beckham Jr.'s custom Rolls-Royce hood ornament catches the true Spirit of Ecstasy

Odell Beckham Jr. hasn't even played a single game for his new team, yet he's already making a splash in Cleveland. Not for his play, but for his car. Images and video of OBJ's custom Rolls-Royce Cullinan hit the web this week, and it suits his larger-than-life personality perfectly. The Browns orange wrap is a minor piece in a grand package that includes a custom hood ornament that replicates his famous one-handed behind-his-head catch. Sorry, Spirit of Ecstasy. OBJ's career has been too impressive to be defined by a single play, but his 2014 catch against the Dallas Cowboys (seen below) is certainly a top highlight. Widely considered one of the greatest catches in all of NFL history, it has now been immortalized in a hood ornament of all things. But not just any hood ornament. It takes the place of the sacred Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy on his custom Cleveland-themed Cullinan SUV. And yes, it can still be hidden within the grille. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. NFL players, and athletes in general, have been known to create some of the wildest custom vehicles we've seen, and OBJ's Double-R is no exception. Built by Dreamworks Motorsports in Roxboro, North Carolina, the Cullinan has an orange wrap, dark 26-inch Forgiato wheels with floating RR center caps, gloss black accents, and Suntek Films window tint. That's just the basic stuff. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Cementing his car as a truly unique piece are the sound system and the interior. Dreamworks built a subwoofer box to mimic the iconic Rolls-Royce grille, and the one-off starlight headliner was constructed just for this vehicle with a custom pattern. Plus there's that Spirit of Hubris up front. Whether it's a no from you, dawg, or it's a resounding yes, there's no doubt this thing will get people talking. Inspect the details in the gallery above. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

New Rolls-Royce Boat Tail shows off coachbuilding chops of the Phantom platform

Rolls-Royce is flexing the coachbuilding muscles of its highly versatile new Phantom platform with this gorgeous Boat Tail commission. Rolls-Royce claims the build required the fabrication of more than 1,800 unique parts and 20 years of combined man-hours to complete.  Even by Rolls-Royce standards, this is pretty ambitious stuff. The commission was inspired by a 1932 Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, and like the original, it was inspired by, well, boats. Shocking, right? The trim elements both inside and out (Caleidolegno veneer, if you're curious) were designed to be reminiscent of the teak decking you'd see on a wooden yacht. "Today marks a seminal moment for the House of Rolls-Royce. We are proud to unveil Rolls-Royce Boat Tail to the world, and with it, the confirmation of coachbuilding as a permanent fixture within our future portfolio," said Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos in the Boat Tail announcement.  "We have formally re-established our Coachbuild department for those patrons who wish to go beyond the existing restraints, and explore the almost limitless possibilities this opens up for them," Muller-Otvos said previously. "We are able to offer our customers the opportunity to create a motor car in which every single element is hand-built to their precise individual requirements, as befits our status as a true luxury house." There are quite a few bespoke accessories as well, though apart from the full picnic service shown in some of the pics (there doesn't appear to be much of a trunk — sorry, boot), most of it was left out of the promotional materials. Most notably absent are the custom his-and-hers Bovet 1822 timepieces that were commissioned alongside the car. They can be either mounted in the dash or worn on the wrist (of course), but we see only a glimpse of one in the top-down image Rolls-Royce provided.