Cernobbio, 23rd - 25th of May
Last weekend in May saw this year’s edition of the most famous
Concours d´Elegance in Europe, the prestigious Concorso
d´Eleganza in the Grand Hotel Villa D´Este at the shores of Lake
Como.
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First held in 1929 the Coppa d´Oro Best of Show award was the
top honour for the coachbuilder of that era, when wealthy
gentlemen brought their chassis directly from the manufacturers
to the designers of names like Pinin Farina, Touring in Italy or
Saoutchik, Figoni&Falaschi or Gangloff in France to get a one-off
individual car or a small series model. With this variety of designs
and different body styles (Sedanca de Ville, Convertible, Saloon,
Coupé...) concours d´elegance where very popular in this era
enabling the designers to show their latest idea to an interested
clientel in an appropriate ambience apart from the car shows in
the exhibition centres of Paris, London or New York. Few
locations were more suitable than the gardens of the Villa D´Este
where the wealthy owners could enjoy a few days away from daily
routine among like-minded just like today in the modern
interpretation of this concours as a classic car event.
With the end of the coach build era also the era of the concours
came to an end, less and less individual designs were produced
entering the post-war mass production with in house designs.
Early in the 1980s the Concours was reinvented in the current
form as a high profile classic car show, since more than a decade
now under the patronage of the BMW Group as normally events
like this can only survive with a strong partner and financial
background.
The concours is separated in three days starting with the arrival of
the cars and their technical inspection by the FIFA stewards on
Friday. This year saw a rainy first day, those coming from the
north even saw some snow at the Gotthard and the weather
forecast did not sound to good for the following days, fortunately
the two main days proved it wrong with dry weather and even a lot
of sunshine. 51 cars did receive one of the desired invitations for
this year’s show, a small number compared to the big American
shows due to the limitation in space especially in the gardens of
the grand hotel where they are presented on Saturday on the
owners and guests day before being shown on Sunday to the
public in the nearby Villa Erba. Nine different classes ranging from
the pre-war era to the race cars of the 1960s and special classes
dedicated to the round anniversary of Maserati and Rolls-Royce
meant rather small classes with hand-picked cars ensuring a very
high quality of the entries.
Report & Images ... Peter&Wolfgang Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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