Forget about classic cars, youngtimers, modern classics, supercars and future classics — because car culture today knows no labels, no genres and no boundaries! It doesn't matter if your car was built in 1926 or 2026, if it has 160 horsepower or 1600, if it cost 20,000 or 20 million euros. All that matters is the sheer joy of driving, and the pleasures of sharing these precious moments of good old analogue fun with like-minded enthusiasts from your community. A proper car guy's love for automobiles knows no limits — and last weekend, during the first edition of our SOC x Classic Driver Andermatt driving event, we had the pleasure of meeting the ultimate representative of this new, passionate and inclusive species: Mate Rimac. As the CEO of Bugatti Rimac, he is one of the most influential players in the top-end car industry. Yet, Mate is still very down-to-earth and approachable, letting kids have a seat in his trusted high-mileage Bugatti Chiron nicknamed "Cro-Bug" while driving to the supermarket or the dry cleaner — or casually swapping cars with other owners.
"I love many cars, not just the ones that we build. I never drove a Ferrari F40 before, it's a legendary car. So today, the owner just randomly asked if I would be up for a change, and I gave him the keys to the Chiron". The owner enjoyed the Molsheim spa treatment after the ride in the hardcore Ferrari and Mate experienced the F40 for the first time. "I would have never had the experience if I wasn't here today", Mate says. "It's all about meeting people who share a similar passion. And it doesn't matter if it is a 20,000 euro car, a 2 million euro car or a 10 million euro car, it's just about the joy of driving."
To be fair, most of the 60 cars that joined our SOC x Classic Driver Andermatt driving event last weekend were on the rare and expensive side — and the official patronage of Bugatti for the event did not help either to decrease the average value of cars in the garage. It was the first time that Classic Driver collaborated with the Supercar Owners Circle, but the enjoyment of the drivers and enthusiastic appreciation of all brands and eras, from a purist 1950s Porsche 356 Speedster to the hardcore Porsche 911 GT3 R, from a breathtakingly elegant Ferrari 275 GTB/4 to the latest F80 hypercar — proved that mixing cars, crowds and formulas is exactly the right thing to do. Especially, if you can enjoy your machines on some of the world's greatest driving roads!
On Friday afternoon, the small Swiss mountain village of Andermatt was buzzing with the sound of high-performance engines, as the first participants were arriving with their cars. The SOC x Classic Driver Andermatt hat set up its base camp at the Chedi, one of Europe's most exciting luxury hotels — but the sophisticated setting quickly turned into a Le Mans style paddock as traislers were unloading boxes full of gear and big-winged racing cars. In the entrance hall of the Chedi garage was turned into a racetrack pit box by performance car specialists SPS who set up a brutalist, 1,600 horsepower Bugatti Bolide track weapon right next to an equally impressive Mercedes-AMG SLS GT3 wearing an iconic AMG livery, all surrounded by buzzing mechanics and mountains of spare slick tyres for the weekend drive.
Across the aisle stood two otherworldly Aston Martin Valkyries and a black-carbon Porsche 911 GT3R Rennsport — a barely-legal racing machine that seems to have escaped from the Weissach testing grounds. Further down into the garage, the unicorn parade continued with a factory-fresh Ferrari F80, a Pagani Huayra Roadster and a Roadster BC, an outrageous orange Koenigsegg CC850, a Mercedes-AMG One (the steering wheel still wrapped in plastic), the all-red Capricorn 01 Zagato "Tutto Rosso" and the new Brabus Bodo.
Meanwhile, our collector friends had taken the Bugatti patronage seriously — and lined up the greatest display of modern-day W16 icons that we have ever seen. Celebrating 20 years of the ground-breaking Bugatti Veyron, there were two Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse — one specced in a blue "Transformers" theme, the next one shining like a high-speed disco ball in polished silver — a Veyron Super Sport and the breathtakingly elegant Veyron Grand Sport 'Soleil de Nuit' in polished Aluminium, Black Blue Metallic paint and a burnt orange interior. Meanwhile, the Chiron line-up included a pre-production prototype, a red-and-black Chiron piloted by Bugatti design director Frank Heyl, a Chiron Super Sport and Mistral from the Molsheim garage and the aforementioned "Cro-Bug" driven by Mate Rimac.
These modern-day hypercars would have offered enough entertainment for the weekend already, but it was just the tip of the iceberg: At 5pm, just as the sun started to set behind the majestic mountain peaks surrounding Andermatt, the participants fired up their engines, left the garage through a crowd of car spotters from all over Europe and lined up on the main street of Andermatt, waiting for the starting flag to be waved. The loudest cars in the pack were certainly two iconic race cars from Porsche's motorsports history — a duo of roaring Porsche 930 Carrera 3.0 RSR IROC piloted by legendary drivers Mark Donohue and Peter Revson in the 1970s International Race of Champions series. Surrounded by some of the most famous Zuffenhausen relatives from the Porsche 911 2.7 Carrera RS to the mythical Carrera GT with its glorious V10 soundtrack, our event managed to pay a small tribute to the 75th anniversary of Porsche's "Rennsport" legacy.
During the months of preparations with the local authorities, we had managed to close the Oberalp and Furka passes for public traffic, allowing us a short and secure stint on the two legendary mountain roads during the weekend. On Friday evening, the Oberalppass between the cantons of Uri and Graubünden had been closed down for us until the summit elevation at 2,044 m above sea level — and once the chequered flag dropped, the cars began to climb the curves with a deafening roar.
Leading the pack were Moritz and Alex Hess of Auto Sportiva driving two purple Lamborghini Diablo SE30 Jotas which had once been ordered from the factory by their father and which they tracked down again in Japan. Only a handful of these super-rare, Jota-spec special editions have been built. Adding to the 1990s and early 2000s analog supercar nostalgia were a silver Jaguar XJ220, a Ferrari F50 and a dark blue Maserati MC12, reminding us of the glory days of the more-is-more Y2K design and engineering philosophy that also gifted us with the Bugatti Veyron, the Ferrari Enzo, the Porsche Carrera GT and many of the cars that are currently breaking auction records on a weekly basis.
After a truly unforgettable drive up the Oberalppass and down towards Disentis, we followed the dark blue Audi Sport Quattro in front of us and steered our trusted (and Brabus-restored) Mercedes-Benz 280 SE Cabriolet towards Lai de Sontga Maria where all cars lined up on the lake's dam wall for a unique family photo. Walking along the line-up in the evening sun, adoring the cars, we wondered how there could be a more memorable moment than this during our SOC x Classic Driver Andermatt driving event.
It turned out there could! The next morning the alarms went off at 6am sharp and shortly after 7am, all participants sat in their cars, engines running, waiting for the highlight drive of the weekend: Today, the iconic Furka Pass had been closed for our fast-paced travel group. And one after the other, each car and driver had the legendary curves of James Bond "Goldfinger" fame for themselves for a couple of minutes. For one owner it was the ultimate maiden drive for his newly purchased Ferrari 599 GTO featuring the glorious 6.0-liter naturally aspirated V12 derived from the Enzo as well as many unusual carbon features from Ferrari's XX client racing program.
As always, he took the hairpins with impressive pace, setting the standard for the other participants that followed along towards the top of the pass. Clearing the track with our open-top Mercedes, we thought we were the last cars in the field — until we heard a scary, otherworldly sound from behind us. Instinctively, we pulled to the side, letting the Mercedes-Benz SLS GT3 followed by the Bugatti Bolide pass, both enjoying the opportunity to drive their track-only marvels of engineering on the beautiful alpine road.
Leading us along the famous Hotel Belvedere towards the Grimsel pass, Interlaken, the Gotthard pass and down to Ticino, the road book offered hours of sheer driving pleasure before the next challenge had to be tackled: At Ambri Airport, we had managed to claim the runway for some high-speed sprint runs — and after a quick refreshment, the cars lined up on the airfield for their stints. Making a cameo appearance for just this part of the weekend, Florian Feustel's Kremer Porsche 917 K81 was the first car to hit the track. Flying off like a rocket with an ear-piercing roar, the iconic yellow car was using our SOC x Classic Driver Andermatt driving event for some last high-speed trial runs before returning to the Circuit de la Sarthe for next weekend's Le Mans Classic.
Watching the cars take off from the launchpad or fly past on the narrow straights towards the Gotthard mountains with incomparable speed, it was interesting to compare the different sounds of the engines: the unfiltered 8-cylinder howl of the Ferrari F40, the eerie, high-pitched whistle of the Aston Martin Valkyrie, the (at least for our ears) unmatched V10 symphony of the Porsche Carrera GT. Meanwhile, returning to the track with open scissor doors after each drive, the two purple Diablos demonstrated 1990s Italian air conditioning in perfect style.
After a full day of driving, we usually would have retreated to our hotel rooms early. But naturally, our SOC x Classic Driver Andermatt driving event needed a grand finale — so we had converted the Chedi's underground garage into a glamorous dinner party, with an endless table stretching along the glorious cars still crackling from the drive. Bizzarrini used the opportunity to present their latest creations, the wonderful Bizzarrini 5300 Targa Lusso.
Then it was time to present the awards which had been created by none other than the design grandmaster Fabrizio Giugiaro for our event: The Dolce Vita award went to the pale blue Bizzarrini, the Elegance in Motion trophy to the timelessly elegant Ferrari 275 GTB/4, the Bugatti Bolide claimed the prize for the greatest contemporary supercar, the racing spirit award went to Peter Revson's wild Porsche 930 3.0 Carrera RS IROC and the Maserati MC12 was celebrated as Best in Show by the participants.
The next morning, we finally had the opportunity to explore the two concept cars brought to the SOC x Classic Driver Andermatt by Fabrizio Giugiaro: the Bugatti EB112 which had been created by Italdesign as the ultimate high-performance V12 sedan in the 1990s for Automobili Bugatti, and the 2002 Aston Martin Twenty Twenty, a clever roadster that pushed the proud British brand out of their comfort zone. The full interview with Mr. Giugiaro — as well as our talks with Mate Rimac, Capricorn founder Robertino Wild, the Hess brothers and many other participants and their wonderful cars — will be part of our feature film launching soon on Classic Driver's YouTube channel. So if you don't follow us already, we highly recommend to subscribe to our channel for early access to our documentary film.
Meanwhile, as we have returned from the Swiss Alps to our editorial office, our heads are still buzzing from the countless memorable moments and pleasant encounters of the weekend. The first SOC x Classic Driver Andermatt was certainly an event to remember, a community and driving experience beyond labels, genres and boundaries. And as Mate Rimac said: "All that matters is the joy of driving, a passion shared with friends." We cannot wait to do this again!
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Uri Police, the Canton of Uri, and the municipalities of Andermatt, Realp, and Hospental for their dedicated care and maintenance of our beloved roads.
