FuoriConcorso 2026:  KRAFTMEISTER. Force and Mastery. The great tradition of German automotive excellence.

Lake Como: a new chapter in automotive culture. In attendance Simon Trumper for Relentless Magazine

With its 2026 edition, FuoriConcorso has once again transformed the shores of Lake Como into an international showcase for contemporary automotive culture. Whilst in 2025 speed celebrated Italian creative genius that unpredictable and visionary fire that has written some of the most brilliant pages in the history of motoring – this year the focus has shifted to a different form of excellence: the German one, founded on absolute precision, on design discipline elevated to a system, and on a pursuit of performance that knows no compromise and tolerates no approximation.

KraftMeister was the title chosen to recount this tradition: a compound word that encapsulates the idea of controlled power, of technique sublimated into aesthetic language, of engineering that becomes culture and culture that becomes desire. A title, and at the same time a programme.

An immersive journey through heritage, innovation and vision

For two days, Villa del Grumello and Villa Sucota welcomed collectors, designers, drivers, engineers and enthusiasts from all over the world, confirming FuoriConcorso as one of the most prestigious and recognisable events on the international motoring scene. The historic villas overlooking the lake, with their centuries-old gardens, neoclassical architecture and picture-perfect views, provided a setting worthy of what they contained: not merely cars, but living testaments to a productive and creative civilisation without equal.

• KraftMeister: when precision becomes emotion FuoriConcorso 2026 brought an immersive narrative dedicated to German automotive tradition to the shores of Lake Como: two days of exhibitions featuring cars selected for their ability to embody a specific concept – that technical perfection inevitably leads to beauty.

• 72 cars on display, 6 world premieres,
  16 automotive partners and 19 lifestyle and technical partners: figures that confirm FuoriConcorso’s growth as an international platform.

• A coronare il tutto, la prima mondiale di Helmut Newton. Cars a Villa Olmo: un evento che ha trasformato Como in un palcoscenico culturale di risonanza globale.  

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More than just an exhibition, KraftMeister was an immersive and multi-layered narrative, spanning decades of industrial and design history without ever losing sight of the present. From the legendary Porsche endurance cars, those that forged the Le Mans legend lap after lap in the darkness and rain until dawn, to the Mercedes-Benz icons that redefined the very concept of Gran Turismo; from visionary prototypes that never went into production to the masterpieces of the great German tuning houses: each section of the exhibition helped to forge a close and passionate dialogue between past and future, between form and function, between cultural roots and continuous innovation.

Every car on display had been selected not only for its collectable value or mechanical excellence, but for its ability to embody a specific idea: that technical perfection, when authentic and profound, inevitably achieves beauty.

World premieres and new perspectives on the car
The world premieres presented during the event attracted considerable attention, further confirming the increasingly central role of FuoriConcorso as an international platform for the debut of exclusive projects and fresh perspectives on the contemporary car. Lake Como thus confirms itself not only as a place of remembrance and celebration, but as a privileged stage for the future: a space where the world’s most innovative industries choose to present themselves, knowing they will find an audience capable of understanding, being moved and judging with genuine depth.

Helmut Newton Cars: a world premiere on Lake Como

Alongside the motoring exhibition, Villa Olmo hosted an event of historic significance for the worlds of photography and motoring culture: the world premiere of *Helmut Newton Cars*, a groundbreaking exhibition that, for the first time, brings together in a single exhibition the images through which the great Berlin-born master portrayed the automobile throughout his career. An absolute debut, deliberately chosen for the shores of Lake Como, a place that embraces beauty with the natural ease of one who has known it all their life.

Newton’s photographs, with their formal tension and their gaze capable of transforming every subject into an archetype and symbol of an era, engaged with the cars on display like a revealing mirror: the car not as a means of transport, but as a projection of the desire for perfection, as a polished surface on which one’s own time is reflected. A comparison that enriched the entire narrative of KraftMeister, extending it far beyond mechanics and industrial history, towards a deeper reflection on the cultural significance of the car as an object and on the way in which the human gaze continues to seek it out, to study it, to find it beautiful.

Conversations: rethinking the car beyond the car

The Conversations provided opportunities for genuine reflection and direct exchange between some of the most influential figures in the automotive world. Designers, engineers, drivers, entrepreneurs and intellectuals from the sector took turns in an open, unfiltered dialogue on the future of mobility, the cultural value of the car, and the increasingly complex and fascinating relationship between technology, identity and desire. No conferences, no formal panels: real conversations, capable of generating new ideas and leaving a lasting mark.

FuoriConcorso 2026: the figures that tell a story

KraftMeister also tells its story through the numbers: 72 cars on display, 6 world premieres, 16 automotive partners and

19 lifestyle and technical partners, with visitor numbers growing steadily with each edition. These figures are not mere statistics, but a concrete measure of an event that has, year after year, built a reputation founded on the quality of its selection, the prestige of its protagonists and the depth of its narrative.

Crowning the 2026 edition is the world premiere of Helmut Newton. Cars at Villa Olmo: 38 previously unseen works dedicated to the automotive theme, brought together for the first time in a single exhibition and open to the public for 45 days, with free admission for enthusiasts and admirers. A choice that says a great deal about what FuoriConcorso is, and what it aims to continue being: not merely an event for collectors and industry professionals, but an accessible cultural space, capable of addressing the automobile as an aesthetic, historical and social phenomenon. Because FuoriConcorso is, first and foremost, automotive culture.

A community that makes FuoriConcorso unique

What sets FuoriConcorso apart from every other event of its kind is not merely the quality of the cars on display, nor the extraordinary beauty of the venues that host them. It is the audience. An international and diverse community, youthful in outlook and curiosity even when bringing with them decades of passion and knowledge, capable of understanding the car with a rare depth: not simply as a collector’s item or status symbol, but as a cultural, aesthetic and social expression of its time.

Every year, on the shores of Lake Como, people gather who choose FuoriConcorso not out of a sense of obligation, but out of a genuine affinity with its values: the pursuit of quality, respect for history, and openness to the future. An increasingly discerning, increasingly international community, increasingly capable of recognising the difference between what is truly rare and what merely appears to be so. It is this discreet and enlightened presence that transforms each edition into something that transcends the sum of its parts..

A word from Guglielmo Miani

“KraftMeister has been a journey into a motoring culture that has managed to transform technology into identity and engineering into an aesthetic language: one of the great intellectual achievements of the 20th century, and still an inexhaustible source of inspiration today. FuoriConcorso continues to grow because it continues to evolve, whilst keeping its essence intact: creating authentic connections between people, ideas and passions, and offering a space where the automobile is discussed with the seriousness and depth it deserves. Once again this year, Lake Como has become more than just a venue: it has become a place of thought, where the big questions about mobility, desire and cultural identity have found form and voice. I am proud of what we have built together, and I am already looking forward to the next chapter with the same curiosity and ambition as ever.”

Guglielmo Miani, President of Larusmiani and founder of FuoriConcorso

Looking to the future

The 2026 edition once again confirms FuoriConcorso’s ability to transcend the boundaries of the traditional motoring event, building year after year a format in which design, historical research, industrial heritage and contemporary vision coexist within an increasingly international and multidisciplinary narrative. An event that does not merely celebrate the automobile, but actively contributes to defining its cultural significance in the present.

Our gaze now turns to the future. A new chapter is already in the making, ready to bring a fresh interpretation of international automotive culture back to Lake Como, with the same care, the same ambition and the same inexhaustible curiosity that have made FuoriConcorso what it is today.

KRAFTMEISTER. Where precision meets emotion.

An immersive experience combining engineering, design culture and a contemporary vision.

Villa del Grumello, Villa Sucota, Villa Olmo, Como  |  16–17 May 2026