Concorso Italiano 2023, the countdown starts in Milan

It's time to learn about events and news from the 38th edition of the prestigious show dedicated to Italy's iconic #automotive brands, scheduled for Aug. 19th at Monterey Car Week in California. To pay homage to Italy, home of the world's most famous manufacturers and coachbuilders, organizer Tom McDowell has decided to present this year's #event in Milan, in one of the symbolic places of passion for the four wheels: the headquarters of the Automobile Club Milano, in Corso Venezia.

Milan, March 1, 2023 - The 38th edition of Concorso Italiano, the strictly Made in Italy motoring festival, an exclusive pillar of the annual Monterey Car Week, wanted to pay homage to the country to which it owes its great success. That is why President Tom McDowell decided to hold in Italy, and for the first time ever, the press conference to present the #event scheduled for August 19 on the greens of the Bayonet & Black Horse Golf Course in Seaside, California. It is no coincidence that the headquarter of the Automobile Club Milano, the home of motorists where the passion for engines and #automotive history can be felt in every corner, was chosen as the prestigious location to illustrate the program for the 2023 #event.

With President Tom McDowell, speakers included AC Milano President Geronimo la Russa, who opened the press conference; Angelo Sticchi Damiani Automobile Club d’Italia President, Raffaello Porro, #event Ambassador of #concorsoitaliano; Roberto Giolito, Fiat/Alfa Romeo/Lancia Abarth #heritage; and Valentino Balboni, Lamborghini Test Driver.

Concorso Italiano 2023 will take place in August in Seaside, California. The #event will consist of two days of appointments: the first, on Wednesday, August 16 at 8 a.m., during which Connect2Cars will be held at the Black Horse Golf Course Clubhouse. The panel discussion now in its sixth year will host prominent personalities and industry experts, who will participate in a thematic meeting on engines, led by Wade Kawasaki, Chairman of the Board of SEMA, and Nicholas Bergeron, Host of podcast Rain City Supercars, exploring various topics of strategic importance. As with every year, at the end, all participants will get behind the wheel of their historic Italian cars and have the opportunity to take a scenic tour along Monterey County roads. Connect2Cars, supports Habitat for Humanity Monterey Bay habitatmontereybay.com, Concorso Italiano's chosen charity. Habitat for Humanity's mission is to build housing and provide homeownership opportunities for families living and working in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.

The highlight of the #event will be held on Saturday, August 19, with the participation of about 1,000 cars and motorcycles, an expression of Italian savoir-faire: thanks to the membership of numerous clubs and collectors, we will see the iconic models of prestigious brands, including Ferrari, Maserati, Pagani, Lamborghini, and Alfa Romeo: from historic to road-going, from sports cars to supercars and hypercars.

10,000 visitors are expected this year. The public will have the opportunity to visit the stands of brands and clubs present within the exclusive atmosphere of the Bayonet & Black Horse Golf Course and admire the cars and motorcycles that will also parade to be awarded by a selected jury. Matt Stone, journalist, television host and former editor of Motor Trend Classic magazine, along with Steve Kittrell founder of Veloce Valuations, will lead the #event, and #raffaelloporro who will be on stage for the Italian guests, while Gary Bobileff, founder of Bobileff Motorcar Company, and his team of judges will select the ten Best of Marque winners.

Attendees will enjoy interviews with legendary car collectors and well-known designers in the industry.

The 2023 edition includes an evening concert to close the #event.

The day will also feature important events and anniversaries: 60 years of Lamborghini, 60 years of Maserati Quattroporte, 60 years of the Autodelta division, 70 years of Lancia Appia, and 100 years since the release of the first Alfa Romeo bearing the iconic Quadrifoglio emblem. Among the cars on display will be the Fiat X1/9, the small and eccentric Turinese sports car with a removable roof that was born from the pencil of Marcello Gandini and that, thanks to its low weight and mid-engine, offered driving dynamics of a true supercar; the Maserati Merak, the Trident's 2+2 sports car stylized by Giorgetto Giugiaro: like its big sister Bora, it boasted Citroën-derived hydraulic solutions such as power brakes and pop-up headlights. A special exhibit will be dedicated to the Citroën SM and its special history. The flagship-coupé, designed by Robert Opron, was powered by a generous Maserati V6 that allowed it to travel at 200 km/h in comfort even over long distances. Unveiled in 1970 at the Geneva Motor Show, nearly 13,000 were built over a five-year period, and of these, just over two thousand units were sold in Italy, while the others were purchased in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa; it went out of production in 1975.

The day will be the occasion for the presentation of the 2023 awards:

Best in Show Award
Born from the creativity of #robertogiolito, a celebrated car designer who joined the Fiat Style Center in 1989. He has always been involved in very particular and unusual projects, such as the one for the Downtown, a 2-door car with center-drive and parallelogram doors. In 2001 he was appointed, first director of the Fiat Group's new Advanced Design Center, and then took over as Director of the Fiat & Abarth Style Center after the launch of the new Fiat 500 on July 4, 2007. Giolito is known worldwide for creating some of the most renowned cars in the Italian #automotive market, such as the 1998 Fiat Multipla and, in particular, the 2007 Fiat 500. He has been honored with prestigious awards such as: World car design of the year in 2009 and Compasso d'Oro for industrial design in 2011. Today, Giolito is also head of the Fiat/Alfa Romeo/Lancia/Abarth #heritage department, with responsibility for the company's collections of historic vehicles and related events and activities. The award will be handcrafted in ceramics by Liguria resident artist Donato Donno.

La Bella Macchina Award
This year it is awarded to Giuseppe Gianoglio organizer of Automotoretrò and Roberto Giolito who will be inducted into the 2023 Hall of Fame. Gianoglio will be awared to honor his long career. Automotoretrò, the great Turin show dedicated to historic motoring, from this year in its new location in Parma, celebrates 40 years. Since 1983 it has offered a selection of the best two- and four-wheeled gems of the past, promoting private collecting and the spread of motoring culture. The #event now has more than 1,200 exhibitors and more than 73,000 visitors from all over Europe, with a well-established presence from France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. The organizers' intent has always been to share their passion with the large public, encouraging private collecting and the spread of motoring culture.

Valentino Balboni Award
Valentino Balboni, a regular guest of #concorsoitaliano, will, as every year, choose the most deserving Lamborghini to be awarded, according to his unquestionable judgment. To the lucky winner will go the work created by a young emerging artist who will be selected by the end of March.

Doug Magnon Preservation Award
Once again this year it will be presented by Adolfo Orsi. The Orsi family owned Maserati from the 1930s to 1968, and today Adolfo is the historical memory of everything related to the brand. The Doug Magnon Preservation Award is dedicated to Doug Magnon, owner of one of the largest Maserati collections in the world, the Riverside International #automotive Museum. The Award is for the owner of a Maserati who has never been tempted by the desire to modify their car to try to improve it and still make it perfect today, but who preferred to preserve the driving experience.

Visitors can attend the #event by purchasing the standard ticket or CI VIP Club ticket www.concorso.com and register their car and display it for the duration of the #event. All information and updates about the #event, which will take place on August 19th, 2023, are available on the #concorsoitaliano website.

Speakers' statements:

Geronimo La Russa, President Automobile Club Milano
"We are particularly proud and happy to host in our headquarters the first official presentation in Italy of #concorsoitaliano and to collaborate with the organizers of this #event. Since its birth and throughout its 120-year history, Automobile Club Milano has been the home of motor enthusiasts. It is important to keep alive and give space to events such as these, which thanks to classic cars, shows how the constant evolution of research has always accompanied the production of cars, up to today's technologically advanced ones. The history of the car is the history of the Italian economy and of the industrial development of our country, known all over the world also thanks to the #automotive sector and its many excellences."

Tom Mc Dowell, President Concorso Italiano
"Concorso Italiano is the largest show in the world dedicated to Italian cars and we are proud to officially present it for the first time in Milan. We are grateful to the Automobile Club Milano and its President #geronimolarussa for hosting us in this wonderful location. Since the pandemic has ended, #concorsoitaliano has regained momentum and we are creating a 2023 edition with strong brand and audience participation. We are very pleased to be able to honor Beppe Gianoglio this year by inducting him into the Concorso Hall of Fame: what he has done in 40 years with Automotoretrò is extraordinary."

Raffaello Porro, #event Ambassador Concorso Italiano
"Concorso is a stage for all things Made in Italy and its participants are highly qualified lovers of Italian cars and motorcycles, food and #lifestyle. With about 1,000 cars on display and nearly 10,000 visitors, #concorsoitaliano blends historic vehicles and new models into an extraordinary choreography. Among the celebrations this year will be 60 years of Lamborghini, the Maserati Quattroporte and Autodelta, 70 years of the Lancia Appia, 100 years of the Quadrifoglio, the Fiat X1/9, the Maserati Merak and a special Citroen SM display with a Maserati V6."

Roberto Giolito, Fiat/Alfa Romeo/Lancia/Abarth Heritage
"Making a product with one's own hands that can represent the Italian automobile, more than a century-old culture of crafts and schools of thought, a basin between masterpieces of great production, one offs and racing cars, is of great concern to me and poses quite a dilemma: To design what best succeeds in expressing my vision and experience accumulated over the years, or to identify a center of balance, a common denominator of all the "Made in Italy" car scholasticism, and make it look like it is still in the draft stage, not quite finished, even though it might look like a 60-year-old product? I choose this second way, less ambitious, but more exciting to extrapolate a universally understandable language from it. It will be a fragile creature, with a precise and sinuous rhythm, with voids and solids, like certain cars of Italian manufacturers generically called "ecceterini," as if they were really banal and all the same. It was there, on these small cars, that one could see the genius of many Italian builders, skilled and visionary, a school on the move that even today does not tend to stop in coming up with new, beautiful and useful things. This is what I will start from for my contribution to #concorsoitaliano 2023."

Valentino Balboni, former Lamborghini test driver
"I expect the 2023 edition to be even more exciting than the previous year. #concorsoitaliano is an opportunity to showcase all the creativity of young Italian artists. It is an opportunity not to be missed. In fact, we are looking for someone who will accept the challenge of going straight to the hearts of fans with their art. The artwork, which will bear my name, must express values, emotions and stylings in tune with the passion of Lamborghini customers and fans. The chosen artist will be given space to present his or her work."