You too would feel special if you were present in Florence at the end of September for the Unique Cars International Concours, put together for the first time by the Italian Mac Group – organizers of the legendary Mille Miglia road race in its current form.

The concours featured not only a select group of cars that were chosen based on their exclusivity – which is to say that they were either one-offs, prototypes, concepts, rare models from extremely limited production runs, race winning machines, or cars with famous owners – but also rare works of art from the 17th and 18th century, contemporary art by Christina Oiticica, wife of Brazilian author Paolo Coelho, a special jewellery collection from Van Cleef & Arpels, and a one-off pair of cufflinks from Stefano Ricci that was valued at one million dollars.

Over 100 cars from 12 different countries were featured. Among them was the Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Pininfarina originally owned by Alexander Onassis – son of Greek shipping magnet, Aristotle Onassis, who was married to Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of JFK – a 1953 Aston Martin DB2 Vantage, owned by ex-President of the United States, Gerald Ford, and a 1963 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III ‘two-door saloon’ owned by Sammy Davis Jr.

Race winning machinery included a 1939 BMW 328 Mille Miglia that won the famous endurance race for which it was built in the hands of German racing drive Huschke von Hanstein – who later went on to become Chief of Porsche’s extremely successful racing division. Another Mille Miglia winning machine was the Ferrari 340 America coupe that won in 1951.

There were also a number of cars that had previously participated at the Pebble Beach and Villa d’Este Concours – such as a 1927 Duesenberg Model X Boat Roadster with a one-off body, and one of only 13 Model X Deusenberg’s produced, a 1936 Bugatti Type 57 Atalante, which also participated in the Monte Carlo and the Liege-Rome-Liege rallies, a 1938 Bentley 4 ¼ litre drophead coupé, which was first shown at the Earls Court Motor Show by coachbuilder Carlton Carriage Co.

Best of show went to a 1967 Ferrari 330 GTC Speciale, which was one of just two 330 GTCs built by Pininfarina with this special body. This particular car was built for Princess Liliane de Rethy – second wife of King Leopold III.