Concours goes Virtual. A unique and interesting innovation

The Concours Virtual is the virtual transposition of a classic Concours d’Elegance. The idea came from the mind of Geoff Love and David Lillywhite, founders and directors of Magneto magazine. In 2020, because of the global pandemic crisis, virtually all of the global Concours d’Elegance events were either cancelled or postponed. This idea stemmed from the strong desire of great collectors to return to real competitions and show their cars at beauty events. Even in F1, or in other racing competitions such as the 24h Le Mans, virtual races have been organized with real drivers, who had an irrepressible desire to race.

After the great success of virtual auctions, where we have seen some surprising sales successes over the last few months, let's now see what happens with the Virtual Concours d’Elegance. The Concours Virtual, innovative and quite unique, aims to donate all proceeds from sponsorships and participant donations to UNICEF, for the research of a vaccine against Covid19.

Details of some of the cars in competition in the Class A “Pre-War Preservation”.

For this virtual competition, 150 cars have been chosen, among the most important and significant models from the world’s finest collectors. Important collectors, winners of Best of Show and awards around the world, have already requested to participate in the event. Among those already announced we can mention the outrageous 1970 Vauxhall RSV competing in the 70s Concept Cars, or the 1919 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost with coachwork by Barker, which will compete in the "Classic Concours Winners" class. More will be revealed soon.

The cars are divided into 17 different classes, for each category and type of car. The classes are similar to those of a "normal" Concours d’Elegance event, such as the pre-war class, the great Art Deco cars of the 20's and 30's, or the great post-war grand tourers. The organizers have also decided to introduce "extravagant" classes to make the competition more varied, such as the Outlaws class, featuring modified air-cooled models, retaining air-cooled running gear and period-appropriate modifications, or the scale model cars that won the "Isolation Island" competition or the pedal car class for children.

Details of some of the cars in competition in the class B “Hollywood Legends”.

The jury, too, is truly world-class. 44 of the leading experts from the world of classics have been selected. Personalities such as Nick Mason, Derek Bell, Lord Charles March, Wayne Carini were called to judge in the competition, but also top women leaders from this world, such as Pebble Beach CEO Sandra Button. We are delighted and proud that our own team member Duccio Lopresto has also been selected for the jury line up. He will be the youngest member of the jury and will be responsible for judging in three classes.

The event will run digitally from 30th June until 9th August. Each week the winner of the various classes will be announced, and at the end, the Best of Show winner will be revealed.

Stay tuned to receive more insights and info about this event, which we welcome with pleasure, hoping to come to normality soon.

Some 44 international judges have ben selected for this virtual concours. Among them, and we say it with a great deal of satisfaction, our own Duccio Lopresto.