Concorso D’Eleganza Villa D’Este

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This year`s edition of Concorso D’Eleganza Villa D’Este has been postponed. The organisation plans to hold the event from 16th to 18th October 2020. Later this month we expect final confirmation. Until then, we are keeping our fingers crossed!

It is Throwback Thursday! The 2018 edition of Concorso d’Eleganza was titled, ‘Hollywood on the Lake’. James Nicholls visited the event for us. He told us about the history of this exclusive event on the shores of Lake Como and showed some fantastic cars in a fantastic setting.

Hollywood on lake Como

The Concorso d’Eleganza held every year at the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este on the shores of Lake Como was first held in 1929. This year it celebrated perhaps two of the 20th Century’s most important socio-historic events – the arrival of the automobile and its relationship with the cinema. Eighty-nine years after the first Concorso when the movie industry was still in its infancy and the Great Depression began after the Wall Street Crash, the 2018 Concorso d’Eleganza was entitled, ‘Hollywood on the Lake’.

Villa d’Este, built in 1568, was originally the summer residence of Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, becoming a hotel in 1873. Since then it has always been a destination for the aristocrats of Europe partaking of the Grand Tour. In the 20th Century, as today, it became the meeting point for the internationally famous, many of them who became so almost overnight by dint of their exploits upon the silver screen. For this reason, the Hotel, to insiders, became known as ‘Hollywood on the Lake’.

The fifty cars featured in the Concorso were divided into a variety of classes according to their style and purpose. Amongst these were pioneering racing cars (‘The Titans’) including venerable Alfa Romeos and Bugattis; opulent automobiles (‘from Manhattan to Mayfair’) of which surely none was more luxurious than the gold-plated 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom seemingly touched by the hand of King Midas or the Ian Fleming character Auric Goldfinger himself; stunning art deco grand routières exemplified by the 18 foot long 1936 Lancia Astura Serie III or the beautiful Bugatti 57 Atalante, from the following year, named after the Amazon hunter from Greek mythology.

Some of the most interesting cars though were in a class entitled, ’80 Years of Automotive Archaeology’. Here were shown cars that have amazingly avoided the ravages of time without the need of restoration. Foremost amongst these was the incredible 1913 SCAT (Socièta Ceirano Automobili Torino) which was in the family of its first owner for 104 years.

It was the ‘Stars of the Silver Screen’ class through which truly encapsulated ‘Hollywood on the Lake’. The 1939 Delage D8-120, which I had last seen earlier in the year in India at the ‘21 Gun Salute International Vintage Car Rally’, appeared in the 1951 movie, ‘An American in Paris’, with Gene Kelly behind the wheel.

Fantastic cars in a fantastic setting. Great fun was had by all, topped off by boat rides on classic Rivas, and a fancy dress ball for ‘the insiders’. The theme was of course, ‘Hollywood on the Lake’, with the inspiration being ‘Casino Royale’, and ‘Star Wars Episode II – Attack of the Clones’. Both were filmed in part at the enigmatic Villa Balbianello (built in 1787 and formerly the home of gentleman explorer Guido Monzino) and not a stone’s through away along the water’s edge. A third film theme for the ball was ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ which for the location of Nightfox’s villa utilised Villa Erba, erstwhile home of film director Luchino Visconti, and on Sunday where the Concorso cars were on show to the public. Let us not forget too, that the protagonist of the Danny Ocean series, George Clooney, also has his own Villa close by on the shores of this, the most glamorous and deepest of all of Europe’s lakes.

Words and photographs by James Nicholls.

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