Giant gallery: coolest cars from the coldest concours in the world
by Nik Berg
2 March 2023 2 min read
Photos: Barry Hayden
Every year the lake at the Swiss mountain resort of St Moritz freezes over and it becomes the venue for an assortment of unlikely sporting events, from horse racing and polo to cricket.
Now, thanks to an enterprising Italian, you can add messing around in motor cars to that list. Local lore says that drivers first took to the ice in the 1930s but it was a group of Brits in vintage Bentleys that inspired Marco Makaus to come up with the idea of The ICE (International Concours of Elegance). In 1985 said Bentley boys had driven to St Moritz to hurl themselves down the daunting Cresta Run bobsled track. When they bored of that they starting skidding around the lake instead, and Makaus was there to watch.
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For more than 30 years he dreamed of seeing more cars send it in the snow of St Moritz and, finally, in 2019 he staged a test event with a handful of chums. The pandemic put paid to his first concours event in 2020, but the event proper finally ran in February 2022 and looks set to get bigger and better with each year.
What began as a static display now includes a one-day exhibition, complete with concours judging, followed by a day of multi-million dollar drifting in the most spectacular of settings.
For now, we though you’d appreciate a selection of beautiful cars in a dazzling landscape. So pull on your snow boots and join us for a tour…
Above: Someone’s enjoying their passenger ride alongside Emanuele Pirro, in the ’63 AC Cobra 289, which won its class at Le Mans in 1963. Top to bottom, clockwise: The Bentley boys would approve of how this 1925 Bentley 3 Litre was being manhandled; the 1972 Mercedes C111 concept car takes things more gingerly – although its Wankel engine sounded a treat; who needs snow tyres when you have tank tracks? 1956 Porsche 365A draws a crowd wherever it goes; 1968 Lamborghini Miura P400 S Millechiodi was a tribute to the Jota.It may have been a little more stressful for JP Rathgen (top left), one of the concours judges of ICE St Moritz, but for visitors and participants it was smiles all around as the coldest and coolest concours got underway. A ticket cost CHF25 – less than a gin and tonic in St Moritz – which likely explained the crowds.1971 Ferrari 365 GTS 4 Daytona Spyder1968 Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada1958 Bentley S1 Continental Drophead Coupe1955 Lincoln Indianapolis Boano1971 Matra BB Bertone1950 Ferrari 166MM/212 Export Uovo1978 Lancia Sibilo1951 Jaguar XK 120 Jabbeke record car1970 Lancia Stratos ZeroThe star cars of the Concept Cars & One Offs class for the 2023 concours had crowds gathering and selfies snapping. You’d be hard-pressed to pick a favourite from this bunch but that’s what the judges had to do. In the end, the plumped for the 1970 Lancia Stratos Zero. Designed by Gandini while with Bertone, it may have been engineered as a running show car but the HF Zero was never intended for production. It was, as Philip Sarofim the owner said, “a car built by those who dared to dream”. Snow may have been in short supply on the surrounding mountains, and the ice may have been receding at the edge of the lake in places, but that didn’t put off visitors; nearly 11,000 reportedly attended through the course of the weekend.
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