Bill Heinecke

Meet the collector and hospitality tycoon behind a new concours in the heart of the eternal city, Rome

- David Lillywhite

I’M AT THAT AGE now when I would like to do a few things that I enjoy, and concours is one of them,’ says Bill Heinecke as we sit down together in Paris during Rétromobile week. And that seems a reasonable ambition for a man who's raced cars and bikes, who sails, who flies jets and helicopters and who owns hundreds of hotels, restaurants and fast food outlets.

But we’re not misleading you slightly, because Bill is a seasoned concours entrant already; you've probably seen at least one of his Ferraris at an event or in a magazine over the years. What he’s planning now is his own top-level concours in Rome. Or perhaps a series of concours around the world. Well, why not?

‘I’ve been participating in concours for 30 years or more,’ he continues. ‘I started out racing go-karts, then cars, and then - as I got older - rallying and racing vintage cars. Then I sort of retired [from motorsport]. And it seemed, when we took over the hotel the Anantara Palazzo Naiadi in Rome, just before lockdown, that it would be a perfect place to have an annual concours, because there hasn’t been one in Rome for 65 years.

‘It’s a beautiful hotel. It featured in House of Gucci and Mission Impossible. It's where Sophia Loren used to live. We even held her 90th birthday there, with her old 300SL Gullwing and Federico Fellini’s 300SL Roadster.’

So a concours just seemed like the natural thing to do. UBS is participating as a major sponsor, we have Jeremy Jackson-Sytner [curating the cars], Adolfo Orsi on the judging, and [Ferrari expert] Marcel Massini is helping on the selection. We’ve got a great team in place for the concorso and also at the hotel.

First events are never easy, and Bill could easily have created an amazing concours with his own cars, but that would go against his principles. Instead, he might have a couple of his cars on display but certainly not in any of the judged classes.