Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2017: Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS Prototipo awarded as “Best of Show” with the Trofeo BMW Group
A triple success achieved by a unique vehicle. The Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS Prototipo was awarded “Best of Show” on Sunday evening when the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2017 held in Cernobbio, Northern Italy, celebrated its crowning finale. The Jury conferred the most important award of the competition – the Trofeo BMW Group – on the unique special from the year 1957.
Besides being acknowledged as a class winner in die category „Supergioiello – Little Toys for Big Boys“ the coupé contoured with streamlined styling was also rewarded by visitors in the public referendum and won the Trofeo BMW Group Italia. The Jury bestowed the award of “Best of Show” at the seventh Concorso di Motociclette on an endurance touring motorcycle manufactured in Austria.
The Puch 250 Indien-Reise was manufactured in 1933 and the machine impressed the experts with its authentic condition and a fascinating history.
The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este is regarded as being the world’s most exclusive and traditional beauty contests for historic automobiles and motorcycles. Once again this year, the vehicle pageant staged jointly by the BMW Group and the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este lived up to this reputation.
The selection of vehicles, the ambience on the shoreline of Lake Como and the knowledgeable and enthusiastic public audience generated an absolutely unique atmosphere. The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este is also a unique event of its kind that presents modern concept vehicles and prototypes alongside rare historic treasures.
This year, automobile designers were joined for the first time by motorcycle manufacturers who also had the opportunity to present their two-wheeled studies. This unique synthesis enables the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este to create an exciting bridge from the past into the future of mobility
Majestic backdrop for a journey through the history of mobility
Once more, the magnificent ambience of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este and the neighbouring park of Villa Erba formed the backdrop for the pageant of rare beauties. The visitors were intrigued by the elegance of the exhibited vehicles and the especially unusual and illuminating episodes from automobile and motorcycle history. Thousands of visitors embarked on a sublime and fascinating journey in time through the history of mobility, with the benefit of bright sunshine and summer temperatures.
This year’s motto of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2017 is “Around the World in 80 Days – Voyage through an Era of Records”. It comes from the novel by Jules Verne and harks back to the era at the end of the 19th century. This was a time when rapid technological progress enduringly expanded the opportunities for mobility and covering large distances.
The field of participants was also drawn from different parts of the globe with competition vehicles from 16 countries. In their day, a large number of classic vehicles had created sensations with successes in motor sport, speed records or trailblazing technical innovations.
The members of the two Jurys were made up of renowned experts in vehicle history and well-known enthusiasts. They conferred awards on the individual class victors and the winners of numerous special prizes selected from the 51 automobiles and 40 motorcycles being showcased at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2017.
“Here before us, we can see eight wonderful class winners, each of which could also have deservedly earned overall victory,” declared Ulrich Knieps, Head of BMW Group Classic and President of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este at the grand finale with the “Best of Show” for historic automobiles. “The Jury’s selection of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS Prototipo has conferred the award on a particularly fascinating representative of automobile history that is utterly unique. This decision is entirely in the character of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este.”
The “Best of Show” for the year 2017: synthesis of fact and fiction
The victorious Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS Prototipo was designed by Franco Scaglione (1916 – 1993) in 1957. The chief stylist at the time of the great Italian coachbuilder Bertone developed the coupé based on three aerodynamic studies that emerged from the cooperation between Bertone and Alfa Romeo from 1953 to 1955 under his leadership.
To this day, they are known as B.A.T. Mobiles – the acronym stands for Alfa Romeo Berlinetta Aerodinamica Tecnica. The prototype had an equally elegant and streamlined alloy body. A four-cylinder engine generating 100 hp was mounted under the bonnet and this prototype was a precursor for the series model Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale presented in 1959. It can therefore be considered as a synthesis between fact and fiction.
The victorious one-off special is owned by Corrado Lopresto. He registered the vehicle at the beauty contest on the shores of Lake Como in the name of Giovanna Scaglione, the daughter of the famous designer, and accepted the prestigious special prize from the hands of Jury President Lorenzo Ramaciotti.
“We are overjoyed to have received this prize and doubly delighted because this is the first time that the car has been awarded a prize by a Jury,” declared Lopresto. “I feel sure that the Jury has primarily paid tribute to the design because at the time it was very futuristic. Franco Scaglione was a genius and the automobile sector owes a great debt of gratitude to him.”
The overall victory for the Alfa Romeo Giulietta SS Prototipo means that a vehicle from Italian production has won the most important award from the show presenting classic cars on the shores of Lake Como for the fourth time in succession.
The successful home performance of the Alfa was completed by winning the Trofeo BMW Group Italia. This award was the outcome of a public referendum. A majority of the visitors to the park of Villa Erba also voted for this unique special from Bella Italia.
Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este: Historic, record-breaking vehicle becomes darling of the public.
The most traditional prestigious award – the Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este is also conferred by public referendum. This special prize was awarded on Saturday to the Lurani Nibbio record-breaking vehicle built in 1935. The visitors to the park of Villa d’Este were enthused by the pristine condition of the compact, open single-seater and with its fascinating family history.
It is the creation of the Italian journalist, publisher, automobile designer and racing driver Giovanni Lurani Cernuschi, VIIIth Count of Calvenzano (1905 – 1995). He designed and built the vehicle himself and went on to break numerous speed records driving the car.
The car was powered by a 500 cc two-cylinder motorcycle engine from Moto Guzzi that developed 46 hp, and the Lurani Nibbio broke four World Speed Records with its designer at the wheel. Another eight records followed on from optimisation of the body in 1939. Later a 250 cc engine was mounted in the Lurani Nibbio and the car broke six more speed records in the period up to 1947.
The grandson of the constructor, Federico Göttsche Bebert, entered the Lurani Nibbio in the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2017. The vehicle has been in the possession of the family until the present day. He brought his grandfather’s car back to life again and was very proud to accept the Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este. “It is an incredible feeling to be able to celebrate the successes of my grandfather on a stage like this after so many years have passed by,” he declared.
Concorso di Motociclette: Authentically preserved globetrotter is awarded “Best of Show”
Since 2011, the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este has also had a fixed place in the calendar for fans of historic motorcycles. Visitors were once again able to enjoy the atmospheric Street Run of the competition vehicles through the streets of Cernobbio at the seventh edition of the Concorso di Motociclette. The Jury conferred the most prestigious award on a veritable globetrotter as their favourite from a select field of participants.
The Puch 250 Indien-Reise manufactured in 1933 was awarded “Best of Show” and the Trofeo BMW Group went to the Italian owner Peter Reisch. He lives in Bolzano and is the son of journalist, writer and scientist Max Reisch, who made one of his most famous long-distance overland trips riding on the Puch motorcycle.
In the year when the motorcycle was manufactured, Max Reisch – famed as a “pioneer of long-distance travel” – joined forces with his research colleague and pillion passenger Herbert Tichy from Vienna to start out on an epic expedition. The two riders travelled more than 13 000 kilometres across the Balkans, through Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Persia and Baluchistan to Mumbai in faraway India.
This legendary long-distance journey gave the motorcycle its name, and the machine has once again been in the limelight on its outing to Lake Como. The Puch 250 Indien-Reise still fascinates to this day, fully equipped with authentic saddlebags, tools and spare parts. The motorcycle was originally manufactured in Graz, Austria, and it appears to have emerged from a journey through time yet at the same time be ready for a new adventure.
BMW Group presents spectacular concept vehicles
At the launch of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2017, the BMW Group presented two spectacular concept vehicles on the shores of Lake Como. They conveyed fascinating perspectives on the future of individual mobility. The BMW Concept 8 Series is the precursor to a luxurious sports coupé that will already be presented in the marketplace next year.
The BMW Group uses this coupé to give a vision of a sports car combining uncompromising dynamic performance with modern luxury. The study continues the successful tradition of large coupés from BMW and interprets classic design attributes in a new language of form. This is expressed in clear and precise line contours and powerful choreography of surfaces.
The BMW Motorrad Concept Link is presented as a vision for all-electric urban mobility. The study is a means of transport and communication platform powered by an electric motor and inspired stylistically by the BMW Motorrad Vision NEXT 100. The design of the BMW Motorrad Concept Link breaks the bounds of established conventions.
Right from the start, the vehicle concept was based on the technical attributes of the electric motor and it offers ideal enablers for agile handling in urban traffic and contemporary functionality. New opportunities for digital networking between vehicle, driver and the surrounding environment are created with the innovative control concept.
