Italian event celebrates the Spirit of Ecstasy

(February 24, 2014) CERNOBBIO, Italy — The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2014 will be staged on the weekend of May 23-25 over the grounds of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este and neighboring Villa Erba on Lake Como in Cernobbio, Italy. The 2014 edition will again see an intimate selection of 50 historic automobiles displayed against the incomparable backdrop of Lake Como.

For 85 years now, the parkland of the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este in Cernobbio, northern Italy, has been the gathering point for all the automotive masterpieces that vie for the favor of the public and good marks from the expert jury.

For the 2014 event, to which BMW Group Classic and the Grand Hotel Villa d’Este jointly invite fans of historic cars and motorcycles, around 50 select vehicles will once again take part in the beauty contest. In parallel with this, the Concorso d’Eleganza Design Award for concept cars and prototypes will also be staged.

First held at the same location in 1929, this year’s Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance will celebrate the 110th anniversary of the Rolls-Royce brand. It was in December 1904 that the company — founded just a few months earlier — debuted its models at the Paris Auto Salon under the brand name which to this day remains a global byword for automotive luxury.

An exhibition in the rotunda at Villa Erba will be dedicated to the Spirit of Ecstasy, the winged radiator figurine that has accompanied Rolls-Royce since 1911 and quickly became the emblem of Britain’s motoring heritage. One of the ways in which the 2014 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este will pay tribute to the 110-year anniversary of the brand is with a presentation of select rarities from the Rolls-Royce past.

The automobiles on display from the various eras all, in their own individual way, embody the “striving for perfection” which company founders Charles Rolls and Henry Royce made their guiding principle early on.

Sources: Sports Car Digest, BMW