I'm racing off to Italy

The 1936 Delahaye 135 S Court Competition Teardrop looks fast even when it's standing still. Yours for $3.7 million

As usual, I will get a table at Da William in the via Flavio Gioia, where my old mate, Ferrari and Fiat boss Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, joins me for a tortellini con burro e salvia and a few glasses of Michele Chiarlo Cerequio.

Montezemolo brought Ferrari back from the grave. Under him, the company won its first drivers and constructors championships for 20 years, started making money again and was voted the best place to work in Europe. So successful has Montezemolo been at restoring Ferrari and Fiat (the only car company in the world with the country of origin in the brand) that he was nearly seduced to run for prime minister. However, when he thought about the number of times the Italian government changes leaders, the car industry looked positively stable.

The purpose for my visit is RM Auctions' Ferrari Leggenda E Passione auction and drink-fest, where a legendary 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, the fourth of only 34 made, is expected to set an auction world record. The car was sold new to Piero Drogo, a competent driver who won a few races in South America but achieved more fame in his subsequent role as a coachbuilder.

The highlight of my trip, though, will be a visit to Mario Righini's car collection. Righini has the world's best collection of Italian cars, which is like saying Australia has the world's best Australian rules team. After all, there are Italian cars and there is everything else.

Righini's 15th-century castle houses, amon other beautiful machines, the Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, the first Ferrari fully designed and built by the man himself. It has a 1.5 litre eight-cylinder engine, made by joining two four-cylinder engines together.

If all this classic car talk has made you salivate, then hop over to the Lakewood Yacht Club in Seabrook, Texas, where on May 2 Worldwide Auctioneers will have more than 100 serious vehicles up for sale. My pick is the extraordinarily sexy 1936 Delahaye 135 S Court Competition Teardrop Coupe for a little more than $3.7 million. Designed by Giuseppe Figoni, it was one of 15 made for the road, 10 more were built for the racetrack.

The car on sale next weekend was made to order for Le Mans winner Jean Tremoulet, and has unique bodywork and a unique high-performance engine. Figoni was the Michelangelo of car design. He created the voluptuous teardrop coupe coachwork. His cars looked as if they were going fast even when they were standing still.

But this body was even more voluptuous than any other he designed. First, it was made entirely of aluminium and the slope is longer and more sweeping. Best of all, this Delahaye has had only five owners.

Talking of sexy things, Bonhams has just sold a two-seater Vickers Supermarine Spitfire to Steve Boultbee Brooks for $3.7 million. Steve and his brother Clive make their money from shopping centres, are the 270th richest people in Britain and run the company from a converted cocoa barge moored on the Thames at Cadogan Pier in Chelsea. Steve was the first man to drive a vehicle from the US to Russia; he also hiked barefoot for three days across the Himalayas and trod water for 10 hours in the Antarctic Ocean while he waited to be rescued after his helicopter crashed.

A few glasses of Michele Chiarlo Cerequio in Maranello sound a lot more exciting.



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