FuoriConcorso, one of the satellite events around the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este weekend, has announced its theme for 2025: Velocissimo – Italian racing cars.
Held on May 24-25, FuoriConcorso takes place at the Villas del Grumello, Sucota and Olmo, located only a 35-minute stroll around Lake Como from Villa Erba and Villa d’Este. First held in 2019, it has attracted increasing manufacturer interest, from major brands such as Porsche and Aston Martin to smaller boutique firms such as Koenigsegg and Zagato. We spoke to founder Guglielmo Miani about how the event came to be and what the future holds.
It all began in May 2019, when one of Guglielmo’s other enterprises, the hand-made fashion brand Larusmiani, was sponsor to the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. “That year I’d produced a book celebrating 100 years of Bentley, celebrating the Continentals of the 1990s,” Guglielmo recalls. “I asked Villa d’Este and BMW if they minded if I rented a villa not far away to showcase 12 unique Continentals, all hand-made, and to present the book’s world premiere. They said it was a great idea, and I expected 300, maybe 400 people – but 600 to 700 came. That gave me the enthusiasm to do further events.”
This first of these was held during the Italian Grand Prix weekend in 2019. “We brought six of the most legendary Formula 1 cars to a beautiful villa near Milan, and that was a great success, far beyond our expectations. Then we started doing dynamic events,” Guglielmo explains. “We then went to California and did our first FuoriConcorso rally from Palm Springs to LA – and then Covid arrived.”
He kept the concept afloat, however, with a rally for only white cars in Sardinia, but the focus remained on the main event, FuoriConcorso. Previous events have focused on aerodynamics (2023) and British Racing Green (2024), and this year’s focus on Italian racing legends is set to bring out some very special cars indeed – although Guglielmo is keeping the tastiest examples secret for now. “However, I can promise a grid of Italian F1 machinery, much like the British F1 cars last year, as well as Le Mans and Targa Florio cars,” he says.
Of course, there is much more to FuoriConcorso than the main theme, reflecting that the event is about more than Italian automotive brands. “There are 13-14 automotive brands involved at the moment, but even if they are not Italian they will interpret the theme – for last year’s British Racing Green, Porsche brought along a selection of green 911s, and other manufacturers brought themes that were important to them,” he says. Part of that is also developing the event as a launchpad for new cars. Last year, for example, it was the public debut of the AGTZ Twin Tail.
Alongside private collectors, manufacturer heritage and classic departments also bringing rarely seen cars to the event. “We’ve been approached by several manufacturers to be overall sponsors, but we always say no because we want to create and build a community that involves all car manufacturers. When there is a special moment for a manufacturer – such as when we celebrated Porsche’s 75th birthday in 2023 – we can give them a great deal of visibility because that is a time for them to be in the spotlight. Maybe next year it could be Mercedes-Benz, because it has an anniversary, or maybe Ferrari.”
It’s this trust from manufacturers that Guglielmo holds dear. “The greatest success is seeing that car manufacturers at an HQ level are seeing our work as being innovative and fresh, and recognising us for being passionate – the fact they’re joining us in building a greater event every year touches my heart,” he says. “I am directly involved in many aspects of the event – even the positioning of the cars is made by me and a few collaborators.”
Guglielmo says making money is not the main focus. “Passion and automotive culture is the central theme – the priority is not to make money. My priority is to create something memorable, special, something that will have people coming out and saying ‘wow, I have discovered something new about automotive culture’,” he says.
Over the next few years Guglielmo is eyeing expansion: “Our goal – and I think we share this with BMW and the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este – is to lengthen the event to a week-long experience for those coming from very far away.”
The event is only one string to the bow. Alongside the Como event and driving tours, Guglielmo also continues to publish books. “FuoriConcorso is about automotive culture – it’s why we have it under the logo. We have produced three books about cars that, while not forgotten, we felt needed more publicity – the Bentley Continentals of the 1990s, the Ferrari Berlinetta Boxers and the quattro technology of Audi,” he says. “Nobody had ever done one about quattro, so we did a small book with Audi itself. We are preparing another book based on the cool concept of one brand – it will be ready in the autumn.”
Despite the stresses and strains of running the event, in addition to his other roles, it’s a challenge he clearly relishes. “It’s difficult to say which parts of it are most beautiful – the preparation, the event, the satisfaction as the end that we receive comments from people thanking us for the invite, and making them live this experience, you know?” he says. “I have quite a list of cars I’d like to bring, but what really brings me enthusiasm is to bring new things every year – cars nobody had seen before, or altogether in one place, for the first time.”
Tickets are currently available with a 20 percent discount until February 28, 2025. More details are available here.
