Participating in the Concorso d’ Eleganza Villa D’Este

Why did you want to enter the event? What attraction did it hold for you?

It has long been one of my dreams to attend the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este on Lake Como in Northern Italy. For me it always had the image of European sophistication and a magnet for the best cars in the world. After having the good fortune to display our 1948 Alfa 6c2500ss at Pebble Beach in 2005 I couldn’t get my mind off Villa d’Este as the one remaining Concours that could top that experience.

Obviously the first hurdle is to get accepted. How does this happen? How do what people decide who is accepted into the event?

One of my friends had entered the event last year, and told me to send all the details of my car with the application on the Villa d’Este website
(www.concorsodeleganzavilladeste.com). The first requirement is a
FIVA (Federation Internationale des Vehicules Anciens) certificate. FIVA is an organization that certifies vehicles as being authentic and requires documented proof as to its history since new. You also need to send history, ownership from new, photos, specifications, and any modifications from original. Well-known to European vintage car owners and is required to enter any major European event, it is just being established in North America.

Sounds easy, but what happened next?

Applications close in mid January for each year’s Concours. I applied in November 2009 and shortly thereafter received a rather deceiving letter that welcomed me to the competition. I took this to mean I had been accepted and jumped for joy….only to find out I had been accepted for the competition to be accepted. In other words we were in the running but had not completed the course yet. Two days before Christmas we finally received the real letter of acceptance so we could jump for joy with confidence this time.
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So you did the FIVA certificate, filed the application to the selection committee and then was accepted. Who actually is responsible for the final decision and what are their criteria?

The decision is made by a selection committee headed by a very nice gentleman named Urs Ramseier. I assume the selection is made based on a combination of quality, interesting history, aesthetics, novelty, rarity, and historical significance. I was concerned that I wouldn’t be accepted when I saw last year’s entries and there was my exact model, even in the same colour (only the wheels were different) but it didn’t seem to affect their decision in the end.

What was the cost of entry?

The entry cost including 3 nights at the Villa d’Este, dinners Friday, Saturday and. Sunday. (AND one is a Black Tie dinner) breakfast and lunches Saturday through Monday morning is approx 4000 Euros including tax (about US$5500 currently). You can stay elsewhere and just have the meals for 2500Euros including tax (aboutUS$3400) but staying at the grand old hotel is really part of the event, is the height of luxury, and recommended at least the first time you go.

What had to be done to the car to get it ready for the event?

Because I was staying in Europe for 2 ½ months and attending various events, I had the Alfa checked out by a competent shop. I put on new tires and wanted all brakes, belts, hoses, ignition, fuel lines, cooling system, carbs etc. working reliably. While doing this a bad rod bearing was discovered and I had this repaired by changing my rod bearings from the old babbited type to shell bearings! This was an expense and a timing factor I hadn’t counted on. The engine work was completed only two days before the car was scheduled to ship to Europe so there was no time for testing. We delayed the shipping a week to run in the engine a bit.

What about insurance?

A big part of the arrangements was insurance, for shipping and the car while driving in Europe. We learned that since there is very little liability on the container goods as provided by the shippers, separate Marine insurance needs to be arranged based on the real value of what’s inside the container. It’s not wise to under-insure. There are cases of ships having to make containers walk the plank to lower the center of gravity in severe storms. And since cars are a relatively light load for containers they are usually on the top of the container stack. Guess which ones go overboard first! The shipper will quote insurance at $.75 per $1000 of value.($750 for a $100,000 car). Fortunately there is Hagerty. It costs me about one third of that price using Hagerty in the UK. (aforsyth@HAGERTY.com) Road insurance was also arranged with Hagerty and cost about $800 for 3 months. As you’ll read, we made good use of the road insurance.

Tell us about transporting the Alfa to Europe, where it was stored, and problems you had along the way.

A broker arranged the shipping from New Jersey to La Spezia (Genoa), Italy and it was expected to take 5 days for US customs, 23 days on the water and another 5 days for Italian customs. The cost to ship the car over in its own 20 foot container was about $5,000 including all fees. Air shipping is about three times more expensive. (The quote I got for air shipping was $14,000).
The return cost through the US was $7700 mostly due to extra security expenses, and I decided to bring it back straight to my home in Toronto, via England, for $4600. This arranging all took a lot of time and patience.

Then…

We were in Europe a week before the car and picking it up at the warehouse in Milan was a simple task. All fuel was drained so we needed to get fuel for it but that was all. The battery was fine. All import customs arrangements were part of the broker’s fees. The problem here was that Italian customs held up the car longer than expected so we had to spend an extra 560 Euros to truck it from La Spezia to Milan. When undertaking a task like shipping cars, remember those Interstate signs near bridges, “Expect Delays”.

And then….

We planned to drive the Alfa on the Superleggera Register Wine Tour then on to Villa D’Este the following weekend. While on the tour the transmission jammed so we had the car towed to Milan for repairs. On Wednesday, while at the shop someone drove into the Alfa’s door while it was open and bent it back against the fender leaving a big dent and it now wouldn’t close. They told us it couldn’t be repaired in two days for Villa d’Este.

Looks like you were going to miss the big event after all…

Fortunately our good friends in Milan called the organizers who said to come anyway. It was a great relief when we got the door to almost close, held by a rope for the trip to Cernobbio, the town of Villa d’Este.

Anything else….?

When we finally arrived at Villa d’Este the carb was overflowing and the BMW mechanics on hand spent and hour on it and fixed it. But this is the nice part–the whole event is managed by BMW, who provides free shuttle cars (new BMWs) to get you to the town of Como or the airport etc. as well as mechanics for any problems that turn up. They helped a lot of people over the weekend.

It was all worth it…

Oh yes, nothing like this experience. I also liked to attitude of the judges, summed up by Mr. Ramseier who said it was a ‘Concorso d’Eleganza’ not a ‘Concorso d’etat’ Our Alfa is what it is, dented or not. Our final reward was the surprise of receiving the Silver Medal of Honour (2nd) in our class.

Differences, then and now…

The historic (1929-1949) Villa d’Este event took place at the Villa Olmo, about two miles away from the Villa d’Este; the cars were driven to the hotel for the prize giving. Today the Saturday event at Villa D’Este is private for entrants, officials and guests (you need to pay for them…a lot!). The judging is done there, with a parade past the judging stand where the features and history for each car is described. Some special awards are made but not the class winners. On Sunday the cars are driven to Villa Erba (no longer to Villa Olmo), a mile down the street where there is more room for display and for the public to view the cars. Again there is a parade past a viewing stand and the cars features are described for the public. Awards are given to appropriate cars as they have their turn at the podium.