You can read all about the Mercedes GP car elsewhere on Classic Driver, but once Lot 320 was safely despatched to the record books (and an anonymous telephone bidder) there followed more – sometimes record-breaking – prices to come. The previous record price of £2.3m for a historic Maserati was comfortably eclipsed by the £4,033,500 paid for the ex-Briggs Cunningham 1955 300S.

The example shown here is one of only 2,000 factory-produced Rover Mini convertibles. Equipped with everything that a Mini driver desires, the smart Brit has the sort of likeable appearance to make sure it’s always a welcome guest. Its short wheelbase also gives it a priceless advantage in the Festival’s crowded car parks. Who said Mini couldn’t be mighty?

Fear not. While the surrounding countryside seems lifted straight from a BBC HD nature documentary, the latest technological masterpiece from Stuttgart is the kindest yet to the environment. And from the driving seat, the lush green trees, the dark, glittering lakes and circling birds of prey pass by undisturbed and in almost total silence.

Steven Spielberg spends summer vacations here, as does his friend, movie star Tom Hanks – while many internet millionaires whose faces are unknown and unrecognised have large estates in Muskoka. Early in the 19th Century, wealthy industrialists discovered the pristine beauty of this region of eastern Canada, named after the local Indian Chief Muskoka. In later years, American billionaires such as the Rockefellers, Carnegies and Mellons gravitated here, building – along the banks of the magnificent clear lakes – veritable palaces that they humbly called ‘cottages’.

Mercedes has always claimed that the S-Class is the best car in the world, and who are we to take issue with that? In 1972, the W116 was born relatively easily, into a world distinctly lacking in luxury saloon cars, vastly different from today’s intensely competitive market. 

Some 760 lizards contributed their skins to the interior of the striking roadster...

Some 760 lizards contributed their skins to the interior of the striking roadster, originally ordered new by New York tycoon Charles A. Levine. Mr Levine commissioned it – but never took delivery, citing ‘business reversals’ as the reason for cancelling the order. After exhibition at the 1929 New York Auto Salon, and at Mercedes’ New York showroom, it was later sold to its first owner, a director of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company.

Italian tuning specialists Bel’s provided a modular system of tuning and improvement parts for bikes in the 60s and 70s. For example, the blocks of colour on the tank and seat were available from Bel's in red/white, black/gold and blue/light blue. This 1976 Benelli Sei has been given the full ‘Sei Bel's Edition’ treatment: Bel’s black/gold decals and wheels, and a variety of go-faster equipment that includes new Marzocchi dampers, Tarozzi replica racing footrests and Tommasselli bars.

Silver for Germany, white and blue for the USA, green for Great Britain and yellow for Belgium – different colours, and all seen on winners at racetracks worldwide. But there’s always something about a red car – and it does not have to be Italian – that gives it extra appeal.

Ferrari and Maserati dominated racing in the 1950s and early 1960s, yet a red Lagonda won at Le Mans in 1935, a red Ford Mk IV at the same race in 1967 and, pre-War, works Aston Martin Ulsters were painted in the colours of the home country of team principle Bertelli.

Audi built 200 road-going Sport Quattros to homologate its Group B rally car in the 80s, though there’s much debate as to whether that many were actually delivered.

The Sport Quattro looks awkward from whichever angle you look at it...