Inspiration Friday: Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021 Special Edition

Welcome our 3rd year of Inspiration Friday! Our Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021 Special Edition is especially for the gear heads out there. Engines, power, torque, speed, specifications, style, class, you know it and love it and the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este at Lake Como is the Dom Perignon and Krug Clos d’Ambonnay of motor events. Rare and collector motorcycles, cars and prototypes grace the land. Special classes for 2021 will be: Twentieth Century Style: From Touring Torpedo to Racy Roadster, Developing the Theme: Space, Pace and Grace, Showroom Showdown: Britain and Germany Battle for Luxury Supremacy, Granturismo all´Italiana: Finding the Perfect GT Formula, Big Band ´40s to Awesome ´80s: Five Decades of Endurance Racing, A Passion for Perfection: Celebrating 90 Years of Pininfarina, The Birth of the Supercar: Latin Style Landmarks and The Next Generation: Hypercars of the 1990s.

From 1934 to 2022, Total Motorcycle has 88 years covered of motorcycle models, stats, photos and more to appease and Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este fan.

Also check out our previous incredible Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este event coverage of previous years as well:

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Total Motorcycle would like to thank our review staff for inspiring us to bring you this week’s Inspiration Friday: Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. Each week we bring you another Inspiring Motorcycle story to inspire you to get out and ride!

Special Edition of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este from 1st to 3rd October 2021.

It’s virtually impossible to make reliable plans for anything during these unusual times. Large international events like the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este constitute a particularly fraught endeavour under these conditions. Participants and guests travel to the event from all over the world and there is also a big public audience.

After careful consideration and in agreement with all the partners involved, we decided to rise to the challenges of these times with a Special Edition of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. From 1st to 3rd October 2021, we will be holding a feasible event but will not be attempting to achieve the impossible. As a consequence, there will be no Public Days on the grounds of Villa Erba this year. This very unusual situation leaves us no choice but to withdraw the spectacular exhibition of participants’ vehicles in the park and the magnificent public parade, along with the Concorso di Motociclette. Uniquely, the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021 will be limited to the grounds of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este.

From 1st to 3rd October 2021, BMW Group Classic and the Grand Hotel Villa d´Este present impressive technical and aesthetic automobile concepts from eight decades in eight classes +++ Jeff Koons will also be present as the artist for the edition of the BMW M850i xDrive Gran Coupé +++ Presentation of a pioneering concept for sustainable urban mobility with the BMW i Vision Circular +++ Lake Como is the perfect backdrop for the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, presented for the first time in public.

Munich/Cernobbio.The most exclusive edition of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este so far is being held in Cernobbio on the shores of Lake Como at the Villa d‘Este from 1st to 3rd October 2021. The hallmark of the beauty contest is passion for elegant coachworks and timelessly beautiful designs. For organizational reasons and due to attendance limits dictated by the rules the public event in the parkland of Villa Erba and the Concorso di Motociclette are not being held in 2021.

The organisers ask for understanding in relation to the unusual form of the event this year and will enable the loyal public to follow the legendary parade of cars from 2.00 to 4.00 p.m. on Saturday 2nd October 2021 in a livestream on the website https://www.concorsodeleganzavilladeste.com/

Jeff Koons will give initial insights into his project with BMW at a Closed Room presentation of THE 8X JEFF KOONS, his limited edition of the M850i xDrive Gran Coupé. The result of this collaboration embodies precision, refinement and craft artistry, and it is a perfect match with the atmosphere of the Renaissance residence on the shores of Lake Como. Jeff Koons will join together with the Head of BMW Group Design, Adrian van Hooydonk, to talk about the connection between art and mobility, inspiration and creativity, and interaction between these different areas.

This year, the Head of BMW Group Classic, Helmut Käs, is taking over the Presidency of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este from Ulrich Knieps, who defined the prestigious event from 2014 to 2020, and who will also be present at this year’s edition.

About 50 exclusively selected Historic Cars will be shown in eight classes at this edition of the Concorso d´Eleganza. The evocative titles of the classes highlight the most exciting and most attractive interpretations in the history of the automobile:

Class A – Twentieth Century Style: From Touring Torpedo to Racy Roadster

Class B – Developing the Theme: Space, Pace and Grace

Class C – Showroom Showdown: Britain and Germany Battle for Luxury Supremacy

Class D – Granturismo all´Italiana: Finding the Perfect GT Formula

Class E – Big Band ´40s to Awesome ´80s: Five Decades of Endurance Racing

Class F – A Passion for Perfection: Celebrating 90 Years of Pininfarina

Class G – The Birth of the Supercar: Latin Style Landmarks

Class H – The Next Generation: Hypercars of the 1990s

In addition, the participating Concept Cars & Prototypes will provide a global highlight. Five visionary one-of-a-kind specials will be presented alongside each other for the first time in a unique showing.

The BMW Group will also present a pioneering concept for sustainable mobility at this year’s Concorso d´Eleganza Villa d´Este: the BMW i Vision Circular. The vision car has been consistently designed on the basis of the principles of the circular economy. The aim is to achieve 100 percent use of recycled materials and 100 percent recyclability. The BMW Group intends to become the most successful and most sustainable premium manufacturer for individual mobility. That’s why the company is adopting a responsible approach and placing these issues at the centre of its strategy. The BMW i Vision Circular also demonstrates that a premium aspiration need not be a contradiction with sustainability.

The worldwide debut of the Rolls-Royce Boat Tail in the Mosaic Garden of Villa d’Este will undoubtedly create a sensation. This is an initial apogee of a coachbuilding project over four years with three unusual Rolls-Royce clients. A personalised automobile of superlative excellence has been designed for each one. The convertible has a length of 5.80 m and comes from the British luxury marque with a long “Boat Tail” designed like a yacht to provide a perfect accompaniment for the journey along the fabulous winding road on the banks of Lake Como.

This year, the programme of the Concorso d´Eleganza will once again be defined by the exhibition of participating cars, the exquisite aesthetics of their styling and contours, and the crowning of the most elegant and technically excellent winners of the beauty contest by the Jury. The winners of the Coppa d´Oro Villa d´Este will receive their award on Saturday and the winners of the various vehicle classes, the Concorso d’Eleganza Design Award and the Best of Show Award for the overall winner of all classes will be presented on Sunday.

Once again this year, we would like to extend our thanks to our loyal partners A. Lange & Söhne and Vranken Pommery, both of whom have accompanied us over many years.

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH, THE 1971 LP 500, IS UNVEILED AT VILLA D’ESTE. 25,000 HOURS OF WORK BY LAMBORGHINI POLO STORICO

Cernobbio/Sant’Agata Bolognese, 1 October 2021 – The countach LP 500 has returned, entered in the class reserved for concept cars at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. It is a passionate reconstruction carried out by Automobili Lamborghini’s Polo Storico that required over 25,000 hours of work on behalf of an important collector. The contribution of the lamborghini Centro Stile was fundamental in the reconstruction of the bodywork and supervision of the styling.

“The countach reinvented high-performance cars,” said Stephan Winkelmann, Chairman and CEO of Automobili lamborghini, “and it became an icon in terms of stylistic language that even today, after decades, still inspires contemporary Lamborghinis. Bringing the reconstruction of the first countach to the concept class of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, in the year we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of this model, is something extraordinary because it allows us to admire the legendary 1971 LP 500 in person for the first time in so many years.”

At the Geneva Motor Show in March 1971, Automobili lamborghini presented its “idea car”, the LP 500 countach. The car immediately became the star of the show, and the photographs of it, which went viral, were published in major magazines around the world. This new model was conceived to replace the legendary Miura and wrote a new page in the history of the automobile, both for its technology and design. After three years of development, the LP 500 was sacrificed in crash tests in March 1974 and then disappeared.

At the end of 2017, a classic car aficionado and important lamborghini customer asked Polo Storico if there was any possibility of creating a reconstruction of the countach LP 500, a legendary model known only through photographs of the time.

The first months were spent acquiring all the material available and undertaking an in-depth analysis. “The collection of documents was crucial,” underscored Giuliano Cassataro, Head of Service and Polo Storico. “There had been so much attention paid to all the details of the car, to their overall consistency and to the technical specifications.” Photographs, documents, meeting reports, original drawings, and the memories of some the protagonists of the time: all this contributed to establishing the form and function of every single detail as accurately as possible. The support of Fondazione Pirelli was also fundamental in providing historical archive material to recreate the tires mounted on the original LP500 model.

The work began on the platform chassis, completely different from the tubular frame of the countach models that would follow. In addition to physically redesigning it, Polo Storico had to decide which work system to use for building it in order to respect the production methods of the time. The same procedure was used for the bodywork, with various modern technological instruments employed for its analysis and definition. Once the sheet metal beating phase was reached, technology gave way to the traditional Italian system, carried out by the “battilastra” with his creativity and tools. A similar process was followed for the interior, which included the lighted diagnostic instruments, as shown on the 1971 prototype.

For all the mechanical components, as in 1971, original lamborghini spare parts or restored components of the time were used, or failing that, parts were completely rebuilt.

For the historical reconstruction part of the original design, Polo Storico turned to the lamborghini Centro Stile where the team led by Mitja Borkert, Head of Design, set to work on a very challenging project. “The LP 500 is of paramount importance to lamborghini because it gave rise to the design DNA of all subsequent models.” said Mitja Borkert. “To arrive at the car that debuted in Geneva in 1971, a 1:1 scale styling model was developed, which along with the car itself was lost over time, but extensive photographic evidence of it remains. This is the same approach with which we decided to tackle the project. Starting from publications of the time, from images on homologation sheets and other material recovered from Polo Storico, we were able to reconstruct the mathematics necessary for creating the first 1:1 scale model. The biggest challenge was to create the exact volume of the car, and for this we used the opportunity to take a 3D scan of our LP 400 (chassis 001), which was an enormous source of information. It took us 2000 hours of work altogether to arrive at the final model, with lines that satisfied us. The exact same procedure was followed for the interior.”

The collaboration with Pirelli – in existence since 1963 – to reconstruct the tires mounted on the LP 500 prototype proved to be invaluable. Thanks to the images and materials preserved in the archives of Fondazione Pirelli, it was possible to use the original plans of the Cinturato CN12 tire fitted on the LP 500 for its Geneva debut. From these documents, the Milanese company’s technicians set out to create the Cinturato CN12 of the Pirelli Collezione range, today’s line of tires dedicated to the most iconic cars built between 1930 and 2000, which preserve the originality of the rubber by combining a vintage image with modern technology. Specifically, the Pirelli Cinturato CN12 tires for the lamborghini countach LP 500 were supplied in the sizes 245/60R14 for the front and 265/60R14 for the rear, and are now fitted with the same tread pattern and aesthetics as in the 1970s, but with a modern compound and structure.

When it came to choosing the color, the PPG archives proved to be crucial, making it possible to identify, after careful analysis, the exact composition for producing the yellow color used, identified as “Giallo Fly Speciale”.

Lamborghini Polo Storico

Lamborghini Polo Storico, inaugurated in 2015, is the division of Automobili lamborghini responsible for preserving the historic identity of the company from Sant’Agata Bolognese. Its main tasks include the certification and restoration of all lamborghini cars produced up to 2001. To this end, Polo Storico oversees the preservation and acquisition of new sources for the company archives, which makes it possible to establish and preserve the value of all classic Lamborghinis. Because of the requests made by classic lamborghini enthusiasts, particular attention is given to producing spare parts that are no longer available on the market.

COACHBUILT MASTERPIECE ‘BOAT TAIL’ MAKES GLOBAL DEBUT AT VILLA D’ESTE

Rolls-Royce’s coachbuilt masterpiece Boat Tail makes its global public debut at the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on 2 October 2021. The car will be unveiled at 11.30 local time on the Mosaic Lawn by Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

Unique coachbuilt ‘Boat Tail’ makes its first-ever public appearance at the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on 2 & 3 October 2021
Boat Tail on view to guests and media for two days only on the Mosaic Lawn within the grounds of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este, on the shores of Lake Como, Italy
Exhibited four years after the first coachbuilt Rolls-Royce of the modern era, Sweptail, was launched at the same event in 2017

“It is a wonderful privilege to reveal this unique Rolls-Royce to the world for the very first time. Although images have been widely shared, the car itself has not been displayed in public before. The Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza is the perfect occasion, bringing together leading international media alongside knowledgeable motoring experts and discerning luxury aficionados, on the glamorous shores of Lake Como. There is also a pleasing symmetry in that we launched the first coachbuilt Rolls-Royce of the modern era, Sweptail, at the 2017 event.

“It is a truly historic moment for the marque. We are leading a modern coachbuilding movement that takes the wider luxury industry into an entirely different space, where hyper-personalisation and contemporary patronage provide essentially limitless possibilities.”
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Rolls-Royce’s coachbuilt masterpiece Boat Tail makes its global public debut at the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on 2 October 2021. The car will be unveiled at 11.30 local time on the Mosaic Lawn by Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. It will then be available for guests and journalists to view for two days only, before returning to the privacy and seclusion that have surrounded it since it was formally revealed in May 2021.

Images of the car have been shared and admired around the world; however, this is the first time Boat Tail itself has been displayed in public. It is a unique opportunity for guests and journalists to examine the car’s remarkable coachbuilt construction and extraordinary Bespoke detailing, which were designed and hand-built at the Home of Rolls-Royce in a highly demanding technical and creative project lasting almost four years.

Boat Tail marks a seminal moment in the annals of Rolls-Royce, demonstrating the marque’s commitment to coachbuilding as a central part of its future direction and portfolio. It continues and accelerates a contemporary coachbuilding movement that began with Sweptail, the first coachbuilt Rolls-Royce of the modern era, which also made its first public appearance at Villa d’Este back in 2017.

Boat Tail represents a pivotal moment for the wider luxury goods sector. As a truly hand-built, one-of-a-kind creation, in which both the bodywork and interior are designed and produced to the client’s specification, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild redraws the boundaries of luxury and opens vast new possibilities for patrons of contemporary design and fine craftsmanship.

First staged in 1929 on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy, the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este is one of the most important and glamorous occasions on the international lifestyle calendar. Normally held in May, the 2021 event takes place from 1-3 October 2021, with Boat Tail presented to the world, for the first time, on 2 & 3 October only.

NINETY YEARS OF CONCORSO D‘ELEGANZA

1929
The “Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este”, the international Concours d’élégance for motor cars, was held for the first time on the 1st of September 1929 following a joint initiative undertaken by the Automobile Club of Como, the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este and the Comitato di Cura di Como. The fame of the venues, the logistically impeccable choices that brought into play the inimitable backcloth provided by the gardens of Villa Olmo and Villa d’Este, immediately raised this event head and shoulders above numerous similar shows held at other well-known venues.

With over eighty entries and cars of the highest quality right from the first event, the Concorso di Villa d’Este was on a par with prestigious concours events held in Paris and Monte Carlo. In what was soon to prove the marque’s swan song, the top prize was awarded to an Isotta Fraschini bodied by Sala.

This was a mere two months before the Wall Street Crash: it was to be the beginning of a three-year crisis that was to lead to a reassessment of values, and an acceleration of the rationalisation of car production that was to result – in continental Europe at least – in the demise of automotive gigantism. Despite this, however, the coachbuilding business managed to stay afloat and coachbuilders enjoyed a twenty-year reprieve during which they reached heights of creative expression that have perhaps remained unmatched ever since.

1930
The 1930 Concorso di Villa d’Este was marked by the institution of the Gran Premio Referendum, which was awarded on the basis of a secret vote cast by the spectators: both public and panel were unanimous in awarding the victor’s laurels to a Lancia Dilambda clothed with classic elegance by Stabilimenti Farina.

1931
The 1931 concours was memorable for the appearance of Touring’s “Flying Star” versions of an Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 GS and an Isotta Fraschini 8ASS, a pair of dream two-seaters both painted in an unusual ivory-white. The former car, thanks partly to the likeable personality of its lady driver, Josette Pozzo, won over the public after having already conquered the panel. The sleek 1750 (still treasured today in an American collection) therefore carried off two grand prizes, an unusual achievment and a sign of the great interest aroused by the design produced by the Milanese coachworks.

1932
The 1932 show marked the end of the first cycle of concours events sponsored by Villa d’Este, whose organisational formula (the one that has inspired the 1999 revival event) had reached its fullest development by that time. In particular, given its importance and popularity, the Gran Premio Referendum was offered explicitly by the Chairman of Villa d’Este spa after a vote to be cast on the terrace of the Grand Hotel during the closing stages of the event.

A refined model by Touring (in 1932 this was an austere but very sleek Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 coupé spider) once more convinced both panel and public alike. On another level altogether, no less interest was aroused by the little Fiat Balillas on their debut appearance in saloon and numerous special versions; a sign of the contradictory predilection – typically Italian – for luxury utility cars. Nor was there any shortage of anachronistic oddities such as the Isotta Fraschini with art déco styling entered by the Hartmann Coachworks of Lausanne.

By that time the consolidated success of the concours had attracted the attention of the regime, represented at the prize giving ceremony by Attilio Teruzzi, then chief of general staff of the militia and later to become a cabinet minister.

1933–1934
In 1933 a split whose causes are unknown caused the Villa d’Este company to withdraw from the organization of the event, responsibility for which was wholly assumed by the Automobile Club of Como. Having obtained the support of Princess Maria José, the event was renamed the “Coppa d’Oro Principessa di Piemonte” and was held entirely at Villa Olmo, including the prize giving ceremony, albeit without the referendum, which was discontinued.

The lines of the cars became steadily more fluid during the three-year spell in which government policy was leading Italy towards the sanctions and isolationism that followed. But the event’s cosmopolitan nature and popularity remained at excellent levels: by then Como had become the Autumn showcase for the latest in coachbuilding fashion. From 1934 onwards the event featured a minor innovation in the form of a women’s fashion show with clothes presented by mannequins from Milan’s most important fashion houses.

1935
In 1935, Prince Aimone di Savoia-Aosta, in his capacity as President of the Italian Royal Automobile Club, authorised the organisers to introduce a series of prizes named after his own title of Duke of Spoleto. But the supreme prize (awarded every year, inasmuch as it was an ongoing challenge) was still the Coppa Principessa di Piemonte. The series-produced Fiat 1500 saloon won this award in its class while a rather conservative panel overlooked some interesting aerodynamic saloons by Pininfarina and Castagna. A certain reduction in the number of contestants, which fell to eighty in 1935 whereas previous entries had always topped the hundred mark, was perhaps a sign of diminishing interest, but we do not know the nature of the difficulties that led to the axing of the 1936 event. The show was held once more on the 12th of September 1937 under the aegis of the Automobile Club of Como and this time the number of entries climbed back to over a hundred. But there were no truly exceptional cars, so much so that the supreme prize for custom built cars went to an ephemeral Pininfarina Convertible built over a Lancia Aprilia chassis, and it should be said that – as had been the case in 1935 – some types of series-produced cars were entered in numerous examples, the only difference being the paintwork.

1937–1940
By September 1940 Italy had been at war for three months and civilian car production had already been suspended, as was the Concours. Recovery was long and difficult, and the Concorso d’Eleganza di Villa d’Este, which reverted to the original name and organisational structure for the event held on 27-28 September 1947, provided clear evidence of the automotive sector’s renewed desire to return to life. More agile and relatively less badly hit by the consequences of war damage, the coachbuilders were the first to set up promotional events and it was the same sector that inaugurated – in the absence of the manufacturers – an authentic mini Motor Show held in Milan’s Palazzo dell’Arte the following November. A new generation of stylists – with Giovanni Michelotti in the forefront – waited impatiently in the wings, while a febrile, contradictory wealth of design proposals competed for the centre stage at Villa Olmo.

The panel gave its vote to an extravagant Lancia Astura convertible bodied by Stabilimenti Farina, while the Gran Premio Referendum went to an avant-garde aerodynamic saloon built by the same coachbuilder over an Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport chassis: it was not the first time that the public had shown itself manifestly more mature than the experts. Another injustice on the part of the panel was the decision to fetter the sensational Cisitalia berlinetta – the car that decades afterwards was to become the very symbol of Pininfarina’s creative genius – with a mere first equal award in its class.

The sober designs proposed by Touring met with even less comprehension. Leaving aside the controversies sparked off by the work of the panel, the event was a success, but the scarcity of resources prompted the organizers to make it biennial. Having skipped 1948, the 1949 show had everything that it takes to make a memorable occasion, including the – to modern eyes, at least – nostalgic distinction of being the event that marked the end of an era, one in which the Italian coachworks were all working to full capacity. Once again more than one hundred cars were entered, featuring very balanced and classically orientated styling proposals from the most important names, those who had been the first to recover from the innovative fever of 1947.

1949
The 1949 event witnessed a flat contradiction between the opinions of the panel, which voted for a distinguished but unexciting three-light saloon by Ghia, and the result of the referendum by which a far more intuitive public adjudged Touring’s coupé version of the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 SS an absolute masterpiece. This was the model that from the moment it won the prize was baptized by popular acclaim as the “Villa d’Este”, thus making a considerable contribution to the spread of the fame of this princely residence in the world of motoring.

1951
The show originally planned for the September of 1951 never took place: the governing body of Italian motorsport issued a communiqué on the 24th of July announcing that it had been postponed indefinitely. The specialist press opined that a new triennial concours might be inaugurated in 1952, but by that time the crisis affecting the coachbuilding industry had become so severe that only those very few businesses able to convert to industrialised production avoided having to close.

REVIVAL FROM 1995
After the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este was last held in its original form with the first new post-war vehicles in 1949, the event was forgotten for almost 40 years.

The Italian historian and author Tito Anselmi revived the Consorso and joined forces with the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este to establish the Concorso d’Eleganza once more. The first attempt at revival was made in 1986, although this event featured classics from yesteryear rather than new automobiles. Unfortunately, this was to remain a beacon event because a further nine years elapsed before the next Concorso was held in 1995. Two other Concorsos then followed in 1996 and 1997. However, the Concorso was abandoned yet again in 1998 and there was a risk of the event being consigned to the annals of history.
At the end of the 1990s, the event in Cernobbio attracted the attention of the BMW Group with its brands BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce. The BMW Group took sole responsibility as the patron of the Concorso d’Eleganza for the years 1999 to 2001, under the management of the Director of BMW Group Mobile Tradition at that time, Christian Eich. Now, the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este and the BMW Group are celebrating the fourteenth anniversary of their cooperation.

After rather modest beginnings, the Concorso has been on a trajectory of continuous improvement and expansion. The selection and high quality of the automobiles, the strong international presence, the smooth organisation, the exclusive standard of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este, the fabulous landscape of Lake Como and the numerous participants and visitors have transformed the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este into one of the most important Concours worldwide.

The return to the roots of the Concorso represented a milestone in 2002. An award for the latest design studies for Concept Cars & Prototypes was established to complement the competition for the classics.

The event is held on the last weekend in May. While the Saturday is reserved as a closed event at the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este for participants, the media and invited guests, the Concours of Historic Cars is open to the public on Sunday in the park of the Villa Erba located close to the hotel. More than 50 of the world’s most beautiful classics from the 1920s to the early 1980s and around a dozen of the latest Concept Cars & Prototypes make the hearts of the visitors to the exhibition and at the automobile parade beat a little faster. The Motorcycle Concours is also judged by an international Jury and this event is open to public visitors in the Grounds of Villa Erba on Saturday and Sunday. An exhibition on a dedicated subject each year is held in the Villa Erba to complete the event. Special shows usually celebrate anniversaries of famous designers and exhibitions of the BMW and Rolls-Royce brands have augmented this premium social event celebrating historic automobiles for a number of years. The BMW Group and the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este are looking forward to a continuing relationship of cooperation during the years to come.