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THE I.C.E.

ST. MORITZ

Petrology _ The I.C.E. St. Moritz

We found the coolest cars at The I.C.E. St. Moritz 2026.

When have you last seen 50 priceless collector cars drifting across a frozen lake? Last weekend's The I.C.E. St. Moritz was an unforgettable celebration of car culture. There were the coolest cars on the ice.

After all, gathering the world's greatest automobiles on a golf course or in the lakeside park of a grand hotel for a static concours almost seems like an easy task compared to the challenge of displaying 50 priceless collector cars on a frozen lake in the middle of the Alps — and providing them with a well-prepared playground for ice racing and drifting in the snow. Once again, Ronnie Kessel, Marko Macaus and the whole team behind The I.C.E. St. Moritz have excelled at the task and delivered an unforgettable experience.

Petrology _ The I.C.E. St. Moritz

The most remarkable cars at this year's International Concours of Elegance were certainly the iconic racing machines that lined up on the ice in the "Living Legends" category. Who would have expected to see mythical track beasts like the psychedelic Hippie-Porsche 917 that competed in Le Mans in 1970, an Alfa Romeo 197 B Formula 1 racer, an Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 with 'Mr. Le Mans' Tom Kristensen behind the wheel, a Citroën ZX Rallye Raid and the McLaren F1 GTR "Lark" all going sideways on the ice in a fountain of powder?

Petrology _ The I.C.E. St. Moritz

The most Swiss car in the class was certainly the Porsche 911 RSR with its Toblerone livery, while racing legend Erik Comas pulled the stunt of driving his former Le Mans car, a street-legal Nissan R390 GT1 with 660 horsepower, across the mountain passes to St. Moritz. Who would have imagined in 1998, when he competed in the 24 hour race, that he would once put studded tyres on his endurance racer and take it for some victory laps across a frozen lake?

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Arguably the cars that are the most fun to drive across the lake are the open-wheeled racing machines from the 1920s to the 1960s, the golden age of classic motorsports. Local car collector Fritz Burkard had brought his weirdly wonderful Bugatti T13 driving alongside a glorious Bugatti T35 and an unrestored, snow-white T37A that had been untouched for 52 years before it hit the ice. Meanwhile, Katharina Kyvalova steered her Titanic-sized 1928 Bentley 4,5 ltr Open Tourer across the lake like a speedboat, only followed by 19-year-old classic car enthusiast Victoria Dold in her family's 1928 ex-Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo 8C 2300. Naturally, the most fitting cars for a somewhat nautical car event can be found in the "Barchettas on the Lake" category: Some days earlier, we had already tested the ice with the golden, Bertone-designed 1955 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider Prototype from the Lopresto Collection. At The I.C.E. St. Moritz, it was joined by a fleet of iconic racing yachts on wheels, including a Maserati 300S, a Ferrari 250 MM Vignale Spyder Series II, a Ferrari 750 Monza and a Jaguar D-type driven spiritedly by Kurt Engelhorn (the creator of the Bernina Gran Turismo race). The most outlandish car was a 1965 Pontiac Vivant, a unique study in aerodynamics expertly driven around the lake by Richard Gauntless, owner of the famous Meyers Manx Cafe at the foot of the Bernina Pass.

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The I.C.E. St. Moritz is a celebration of automotive elegance and design. And as Lord Norman Foster once said: Cars just look better on snow. Therefore, the timeless classics in the "Icons on Wheels" category looked even more stunning than usual. Arguably the most elegant car on the lake, the 1937 Talbot-Lago T150C SS ‘Teardrop’ owned by Fritz Burkard rightfully claimed the "Best of Show" trophy on Saturday afternoon. But there were strong contenders, too. The orange Lamborghini Miura SV from the Distinctive Collection was the perfect car to celebrate the model's 60th anniversary, while we would have had a hard time to pick between the Ferrari 250 SWB Competizione and 275 GTB/4 for a stint on the ice. Rally pilot Christian Geistdörfer, Walter Röhrl's famous co-driver, demonstrated his skills in a Porsche 910 while the owner of the Ferrari Dino 206 S had wrapped his car in vintage tourism posters, perfectly representing the Spirit of St. Moritz.

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Luckily, car culture in St. Moritz knows no age limits so I.C.E. St. Moritz had invited a fleet of game-changing supercars from the 1990s to star in the "Birth of the Hypercar" category. Stirring our nostalgia for retro video games like "Need for Speed", the line-up included other unicorn supercars like the McLaren F1 owned by Clive Joy, an early Pagani Zonda C12, a Porsche GT1 wearing neon green "snow socks", an all-wheel-drive Bugatti EB110 from the Perridon Collection and a Ferrari F50 that celebrated the model's recent auction records with a set of skis on top. Collector Gaurav Dhar had brought the very first Koenigsegg prototype onto the ice - and the car was not only reunited with Christian von Koenigsegg, it also received praise by Mate Rimac, the petrol-headed CEO of Bugatti Rimac, for it's innovative style and build quality. You can only witness these type of conversations at The I.C.E. St. Moritz.When the event came to an end on Saturday evening, we had to rub our eyes: Did all of this just happen? Can we please go back in time to inspect all of these incredible cars and speak with their owners? If you, like us, would like to rewatch the most memorable moments from The I.C.E. St. Moritz 2026 once again, we recommend you to visit and follow Classic Driver's channel on YouTube.

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