Munich/Cernobbio. The winner of the Trofeo BMW Group has been declared. The Bugatti 57 S is the impressive overall winner of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2022. The convertible built in 1937 owned by Andrew Pisker from Monaco was awarded the honour of “Best of Show” by the Jury of experts. The most important award at the world’s most traditional and exclusive heritage beauty contest for Historic Cars was therefore conferred on a vehicle from Italian and French co-production. Bugatti and the traditional coachbuilder Vanvooren located in Courbevoie near Paris created an ideal symbiosis as an engineering masterpiece defined by impressive aesthetic clarity.
The three-day festival of classic cars on the shores of Lake Como drew to a close today with the gala prize award ceremony. Once again, the festival was a celebration of elegance and timeless beauty on four wheels. The Bugatti 57 S triumphed in a carefully curated field of participating rare jewels from eight decades of automobile history.
The winning car from Class A “The golden Age of Elegance: The Art Deco Era of Motor Car Design” is the first of just four Bugatti Type 57 S automobiles reputed to have been bodied by Vanvooren asconvertibles.
The elegant convertible body and perfectly balanced proportions accentuate calm, knife-edge lines that reject any form of opulence or flamboyant ornamentation. One of the previous ten owners, a Vice President of General Motors, swapped the Bugatti inline eight-cylinder powerhouse for a Buick V8 for test purposes.
Thefact that after four decades of separation the long-sought original engine turned up in an Internet search and found its way back to the car is surely almost a modern-day miracle. 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 51 outstanding classic carsfrom different eras of automobile history were nominated for the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2022. The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2022 provides an impressive array of diverse Historic Cars. They range from rare automobiles created in the golden era of coachbuilding in the 1920s and 1930s, when the automobile was emancipated from being essentially an engineering product to becoming an object of desire and elegance,to sports models with hugely impressive contours.
The list below presents the “Best of Show” and all the class winners alongside those vehicles in eight classes for Historic Cars bestowed with a Mention of Honour. The model, coachwork designer, year of manufacture and owner are provided in each case: TROFEO BMW GROUPBEST OF SHOW BY THE JURYBugatti, 57 S, 1937, Andrew Pisker, MON CLASS WINNERS AND MENTIONS OF HONOURCLASS A:THE GOLDEN AGE OF ELEGANCE:THE ART DECO ERA OF MOTOR CAR DESIGNClass WinnerBugatti, 57 S,
1937, Andrew Pisker, MONMention of HonourCord, 812 Phaeton, 1936, The JBS Collection Jack B. Smith Jr., USA CLASS B:KOMPRESSOR!THE SUPERCHARGED MERCEDES-BENZClass WinnerMercedes-Benz, 540 K Cabriolet A, 1936, Hans Hulsbergen, SUIMention of HonourMercedes-Benz, 540 K Spezial-Roadster, 1936, Richard Workman, USA CLASS C:CELEBRATING 150 SEASONS AT VILLA D’ESTE:HOW GRAND ENTRANCES WERE ONCE MADEClass WinnerChrysler, Boano Coupé Speciale, 1956, Stephen Bruno,
USAMention of HonourSiata, 208 S, 1953, Jan de Reu, BEL CLASS D:THE CAVALLINO AT 75:EIGHT DECADES OF FERRARI REPRESENTED IN EIGHT ICONSClass WinnerFerrari, 365 P Berlinetta Speciale Tre Posti, 1966, RQ Collections, USAMention of HonourFerrari, 250 GT Zagato, 1956, David Sydorick,
USA CLASS E:BORN FOR THE RACETRACK:“WIN ON SUNDAY, SELL ON MONDAY”Class WinnerPorsche, 356 B Carrera Abarth GTL, 1961, Robert A. Ingram, USAMention of HonourMaserati, MC12, 2004, Frank Gelf, GER CLASS F:50 YEARS OF MEAN MACHINERY:BMW’S M CARS AND THEIR ANCESTORSClass WinnerBMW, 3.0 CSL, 1972, Michael Ulbig, GERMention of HonourBMW, 320 Gruppe 5, 1978, Mast-Jägermeister SE, GER CLASS G:
BREAKING THE SPEED BARRIER:PIONEERS THAT CHASED THE MAGIC 300 KPHClass WinnerPorsche, 959 Sport, 1989, Andreas Gundermann, GERMention of HonourCitroёn, SM, 1971, Thierry Dehaeck, BEL CONCORSO D’ELEGANZA DESIGN AWARDFOR CONCEPT CARS & PROTOTYPESBy Public ReferendumBugatti Bolide, 2020, Achim Anscheidt Images and videos of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2022 can be accessed here: www.bmwgroupclassic-downloads.comSHOW ENTIRE TEXT
