“Best of Show”: Ferrari 250 GT TDF wins the Trofeo BMW Group at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021


E62 Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta TdF s/n 0507GT 1956 Coupé Pinin Farina  Brian Ross (US)

E62 Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta TdF s/n 0507GT 1956 Coupé Pinin Farina Brian Ross (US)

 

Cernobbio, 3rd October, 2021

The Trofeo BMW Group remains firmly in Italian hands. The Ferrari 250 GT TDF is overall winner of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021. The endurance racing car made in 1956 and owned by American Brian Ross was awarded the honor of “Best of Show” by the Jury of experts. For the seventh time in succession, the most important award at the world’s most traditional and most exclusive heritage beauty contest for Historic Cars was conferred on a car from Italian production. Today, the three-day festival of classic cars on the shores of Lake Como drew to a close with the gala prize award ceremony. Once again, the festival was a celebration of elegance and timeless beauty on four wheels.



The victorious car is an outstanding exemplar of the exceptionally elegant, exclusive and historically important automobiles traditionally represented at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. The design of the car stood out as particularly innovative owing to its four-litre V8 engine combined with the compact construction and the cylinder-bank angle reduced to 24 degrees. It delivered more than adequate power for a luxury automobile of that era with a peak output of 100 hp. The motor car presented at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021 was styled at London-based coachbuilder Carlton Carriage as a unique one-of-one drop head coupé.

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The 250 GT TDF reigned supreme in a carefully curated field of participating rare treasures gathered from eight decades of automobile history. In the afternoon, the sports car had already been selected as class winner in Class E, featured under the motto “Big Band ’40s to awesome ’80s – Five Decades of Endurance Racing”. The victorious car bears the moniker “TDF” as a mark of respect for the Tour de France. This was a stage race for automobiles held on French roads, and a Ferrari 250 GT was victorious in 1956.

The vehicle presented at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021 was the second Tour de France built in the series that Ferrari went on to produce. On the very day it was registered, the car competed in a different endurance race, the Mille Miglia in Italy. Over the following years, the lightweight coupé powered by a 3.0 litre twelve-cylinder engine achieved a number of victories in hillclimbs. Today, its perfectly restored condition means that we can only imagine the challenges this automobile survived in the course of its campaigns.

The Jury had already provided an eagerly awaited highlight for participants and guests alike when it announced the Class Winners and Mentions of Honor in the course of the afternoon. A total of almost 50 outstanding classic cars from different eras of automobile history were nominated for the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021. The bandwidth of entrants ranged from rarities built in the 1920s, influenced for the first time by aesthetic aspects of automobile design alongside functional attributes, through to spectacularly designed hypercars from the 1990s. Each car is marked out in a unique way by its immaculate condition, historic significance and individual history, conveying the fascination and timeless beauty that have defined the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este since its very beginnings.



TROFEO BMW GROUP - Best of Show
Ferrari, 250 GT TDF, Coupé, Pinin Farina, 1956 Brian Ross, United States

COPPA D’ORO VILLA D’ESTE (Perpetual Challenge) - Best of Show by Public Referendum
Lancia, Dilambda Serie I, Drop Head Coupé, Carlton Carriage, 1930 Filippo Sole, Italy

CONCORSOD’ELEGANZA DESIGNAWARD FOR CONCEPTCARS & PROTOTYPES
By Public Referendum
Automobili Pininfarina, Battista, Hyper GT, Automobili Pininfarina GmbH, 2019



Special Prizes

Trofeo FIVA -
For the best preserved pre-war car
Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost 40/50 High Speed, Open Tourer, Barker, 1920, Jürg Haas, CH

Trofeo ASI - For the best preserved post-war car
Howmet TX, Coupé, Bob McKnee, 1968, Egon Zweimüller, AT

Trofeo Automobile Club Como - For the car driven from farthest away
Aston Martin DB5, Convertible, Touring Superleggera, 1965, Ian Maxwell-Scott, GB


Special Prizes by the Jury

Trofeo BMW Group Classic
- For the most sensitive restoration
Fiat 508 CS ”Balilla Aerodinamica“, Coupé, Fiat, 1935, Mark Geessink, NL

Trofeo Vranken Pommery - For the best iconic car
Ferrari F40, Coupé, Pininfarina, 1989, Christiano Michelotto, IT

Trofeo Auto & Design
- For the most exciting design
McLaren F1, Coupé, McLaren, 1995, Ahmad Gozal, AE


CLASS A | TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLE: FROM TOURING TORPEDO TO RACY ROADSTER
Class Winner

Lancia, Astura Torpedo GS, Open Tourer, Viotti, 1934 Anthony MacLean, Switzerland

Mention of Honor
Alfa Romeo, 6C 1750 GTC, Spider, Zagato, 1931 Gianluigi Trevisani, Italy


CLASS B | DEVELOPING THE THEME: SPACE, PACE AND GRACE
Class Winner

Delage, D8-120 S, Cabriolet, de Villars, 1938 Fritz Burkard, Switzerland

Mention of Honor
Lancia, Dilambda Serie I, Drop Head Coupé, Carlton Carriage, 1930 Filippo Sole, Italy


CLASS C | SHOWROOM SHOWDOWN: BRITAIN AND GERMANY BATTLE FOR LUXURY SUPREMACY
Class Winner

Mercedes-Benz, 300 SL Alloy, Coupé Gullwing, Mercedes-Benz, 1955 David MacNeil, United States

Mention of Honor
Aston Martin, DB5, Convertible, Touring Superleggera, 1965 Ian Maxwell-Scott, Great Britain


CLASS D | GRANTURISMO ALL’ITALIANA: FINDING THE PERFECT GT FORMULA Class Winner
Fiat, 8V, Coupé, Vignale, 1953 Jan De Reu, Belgium

Mention of Honor
Alfa Romeo, 6C 2500 Supergioiello, Coupé, Ghia, 1950 Jonathan Segal, United States


CLASS E | BIG BAND ’40s TO AWESOME ’80s: FIVE DECADES OF ENDURANCE RACING
Class Winner

Ferrari, 250 GT TDF, Coupé, Pinin Farina, 1956 Brian Ross, United States

Mention of Honor
Osca, MT4 Siluro, Torpedo, Osca, 1949 Elad Shraga, Israel


CLASS F | A PASSION FOR PERFECTION: CELEBRATING 90 YEARS OF PININFARINA Class Winner
Ferrari, 250 GT California SWB, Spyder, Pininfarina, 1960 Timm Bergold, Monaco

Mention of Honor
Ferrari, 275 GTB/4, Berlinetta, Pininfarina, 1967 Andrea Recordati, Italy


CLASS G | THE BIRTH OF THE SUPERCAR: LATIN STYLE LANDMARKS
Class Winner

Lamborghini, Countach LP 400 S Prototype Walter Wolf Special, Coupé, Bertone, 1978 Shinjiro Fukuda, Japan

Mention of Honor
Ferrari, F40, Coupé, Pininfarina, 1989 Cristiano Michelotto, Italy


CLASS H | THE NEXT GENERATION: HYPERCARS OF THE 1990s
Class Winner

Isdera, Commendatore 112i, Coupé, Isdera, 1993 Phillip Sarofim, United States

Mention of Honor
McLaren, F1, Coupé, McLaren, 1995 Ahmad Gozal, United Arab Emirates


This year, the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este is being held from 1st to 3rd October 2021 for the first time as a particularly exclusive edition. Owing to the course of the pandemic, the activities are concentrated in the grounds of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este. In parallel with the Public Referendum held today and the decisions about the award of the “Special Prizes”, the Jury also appraised nearly 50 exhibited classic cars presented and nominated in eight award classes from a period of more than eight decades of automobile history. This year, the distinguished Jury of experts was once again headed by the former Chief Designer of the FIAT Group, Lorenz Ramaciotti – indeed for the 25th year in succession. The Jury will announce the results of its deliberations on the winners of the individual vehicle classes on Sunday. The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este will conclude with its apogee when the Trofeo BMW Group is bestowed and the winning automobile has the honor of being crowned as “Best of Show”.