Villa d'Este and Lake Como Ready to Surprise on the 16th and 17th of May

Just reading through the 8 Classes announced for the 2026 edition of Villa d'Este is enough to set the excitement rising. The famous Concorso d'Eleganza, today curated with great expertise by the BMW Group, has in fact arranged the entered cars according to themes that pair the era of each model with a defining trait of its period. It is easy to imagine the magnificence of the 1924–1934 cars gathered under the heading "Automotive Tailoring: The Decade of Opulence" — and even more so the thrill that the sport Ferraris of the Class "They Earned Their Names: Enzo's Endurance Legends" are bound to deliver.
Harder to picture, instead, are the British cars — and not only British — that will likely take centre stage in the Class "From Carnaby Street To The Autostrada: The Swinging GT Driver," and in those magnificent years when everything changed.
The Coppa d'Oro, the award assigned by public vote, has often favoured more recent models — such as the McLaren F1, winner in 2024 — over pre-war cars.
Villa d'Este is more than a Concorso: it is a plunge into the culture and the history of the automobile, one that can be lived in full on Sunday the 17th of May at the adjoining Villa Erba, where the cars will parade to gather the votes of the public. It is interesting to note how, over the last five years, the public has preferred relatively more recent models — the McLaren F1, the BMW 507, the Aston Martin Bulldog — to the pre-war cars.
The international Jury, on the other hand, has in the same span privileged the pre-war machines, with the sole exception of the 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France, awarded Best of Show. Last year that prize went to the 1934 Alfa Romeo Tipo B, known as the P3 — a true legend.
The Best of Show award, assigned by the Jury of the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, last year went to the 1934 Alfa Romeo Tipo B (P3), part of the Auriga Collection in Germany.
In short, the ingredients for enjoyment are many. Between Villa d'Este, Villa Erba and FuoriConcorso — spread across a series of magnificent villas opened to the public — visitors will be able to live a weekend filled with fascinating things. Among these, particularly meaningful at a moment in which the automobile is seeking its future in dialogue with the environment, is the "KraftMeister" exhibition by FuoriConcorso, dedicated to the excellence of German engineering. A direct tribute to German automotive culture, understood not merely as the production of cars but as a genuine engineering language made of precision, performance and functionality. The event unfolds between the historic Villa del Grumello and Villa Sucola, with an important cultural component also at Villa Olmo, hosting the exhibition "Helmut Newton – Cars," which gathers photographs by Helmut Newton from 1956 to 2001 and tells the story of the automobile in a key entirely different from that of the Concorso d'Eleganza.
The 16th and 17th of May, to be marked in your diary: the charm of Lake Como and the extraordinary world of the automobile await us.
FuoriConcorso celebrates the German automobile with "KraftMeister," turning the historic villas of Lake Como into exceptional exhibition settings.