Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021 Tour – 30 Minutes of Classic Car Bliss

The Ferrari 250 GT TDF is overall winner of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021. The endurance racing car made in 1956 and owned by American Brian Ross was awarded the honour of “Best of Show” by the Jury of experts. For the seventh time in succession, the most important award at the world’s most traditional and most exclusive heritage beauty contest for Historic Cars was conferred on a car from Italian production. The three-day festival of classic cars on the shores of Lake Como drew to a close on Sunday with the gala prize award ceremony. Once again, the festival was a celebration of elegance and timeless beauty on four wheels.

The 250 GT TDF reigned supreme in a carefully curated field of participating rare treasures gathered from eight decades of automobile history. In the afternoon, the sports car had already been selected as class winner in Class E, featured under the motto “Big Band ’40s to awesome ’80s – Five Decades of Endurance Racing”. The victorious car bears the moniker “TDF” as a mark of respect for the Tour de France. This was a stage race for automobiles held on French roads, and a Ferrari 250 GT was victorious in 1956.

The vehicle presented at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021 was the second Tour de France built in the series that Ferrari went on to produce. On the very day it was registered, the car competed in a different endurance race, the Mille Miglia in Italy. Over the following years, the lightweight coupé powered by a 3.0 litre twelve-cylinder engine achieved a number of victories in hillclimbs. Today, its perfectly restored condition means that we can only imagine the challenges this automobile survived in the course of its campaigns.

The Jury had already provided an eagerly awaited highlight for participants and guests alike when it announced the Class Winners and Mentions of Honour in the course of the afternoon. A total of almost 50 outstanding classic cars from different eras of automobile history were nominated for the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021. The bandwidth of entrants ranged from rarities built in the 1920s, influenced for the first time by aesthetic aspects of automobile design alongside functional attributes, through to spectacularly designed hypercars from the 1990s. Each car is marked out in a unique way by its immaculate condition, historic significance and individual history, conveying the fascination and timeless beauty that have defined the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este since its very beginnings.

The “Best of Show” and class winners:

Trofeo BMW Group:
▪ Best of Show by the Jury – Ferrari 250 GT TDF, Coupé, Pinin Farina, 1956, Brian Ross (US)

Class Winners and Mentions of Honour:
CLASS A: TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLE: FROM TOURING TORPEDO TO RACY ROADSTER
▪ Class Winner – Lancia Astura Torpedo GS, Open Tourer, Viotti, 1934, Anthony MacLean (CH)
▪ Mention of Honour – Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GTC, Spider, Zagato, 1931, Maria Cristina Trevisani (IT)

CLASS B: DEVELOPING THE THEME: SPACE, PACE AND GRACE
▪ Class Winner – Delage D8-120 S, Cabriolet, De Villars, 1938, Fritz Burkard (CH)
▪ Mention of Honour – Lancia Dilambda Serie I, Drop Head Coupé, Carlton Carriage, 1930, Filippo Sole (IT)

CLASS C: SHOWROOM SHOWDOWN: BRITAIN AND GERMANY BATTLE FOR LUXURY SUPREMACY
▪ Class Winner – Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Alloy, Coupé Gullwing, Mercedes-Benz, 1955, David MacNeil (US)
▪ Mention of Honour – Aston Martin DB5, Convertible, Touring Superleggera, 1965, Ian Maxwell-Scott (GB)

CLASS D: GRANTURISMO ALL’ITALIANA: FINDING THE PERFECT GT FORMULA
▪ Class Winner – FIAT 8V, Coupé, Vignale, 1953, Jan de Reu (BE)
▪ Mention of Honour – Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Supergioiello, Coupé, Ghia, 1950, Jonathan & Wendy Segal (US)

CLASS E: BIG BAND ’40S TO AWESOME ’80S: FIVE DECADES OF ENDURANCE RACING
▪ Class Winner – Ferrari 250 GT TDF, Coupé, Pinin Farina, 1956, Brian Ross (US)
▪ Mention of Honour – OSCA MT4 Siluro, Torpedo, OSCA, 1949, Elad Shraga (IL)

CLASS F: A PASSION FOR PERFECTION: CELEBRATING 90 YEARS OF PININFARINA
▪ Class Winner – Ferrari 250 GT California SWB, Spyder, Pininfarina, 1960, Destriero Collection (MC)
▪ Mention of Honour – Ferrari 275 GTB/4, Berlinetta, Pininfarina, 1967, Andrea Recordati (IT)

CLASS G: THE BIRTH OF THE SUPERCAR: LATIN STYLE LANDMARKS
▪ Class Winner – Lamborghini Countach LP 400 S Prototype Walter Wolf Special, Coupé, Bertone, 1978, Shinjiro Fukuda (JP)
▪ Mention of Honour – Ferrari F40, Coupé, Pininfarina, 1989, Christiano Michelotto (IT)

CLASS H: THE NEXT GENERATION: HYPERCARS OF THE 1990S
▪ Class Winner – Isdera Commendatore 112i, Coupé, Isdera, 1993, Phillip Sarofim (US)
▪ Mention of Honour – McLaren F1, Coupé, McLaren, 1995, Ahmad Gozal (AE)

___

Video Timeline
0:00 – Friday (BMW Group Opening Ceremony)
3:16 – Saturday (General Show)
5:00 – Saturday (Coppa d'Oro)
10:07 – Saturday (Rolls-Royce Boat Tail Reveal)
11:25 – Sunday (Concept Cars and Prototypes)
16:50 – Sunday (General Show)
25:49 – Sunday (Best of Show)