A Horch 855 Special Roadster bodied by Gläser won Best of Show at the 2026 Concours of Elegance Germany at Gut Kaltenbrunn on Lake Tegernsee. The award was selected by the owners of the cars entered in the concours, giving the surviving Horch an unusual peer-voted distinction in a field spanning nine decades.
The organiser identifies the car as a 1938 Horch 855 Special Roadster, chassis 855007. Only an estimated five to seven examples were built, and this car is described as the sole known surviving production example. That makes it exceptionally rare even by the standards of large pre-war German luxury automobiles.
The roadster was originally delivered to the Netherlands. After the Second World War it was acquired in Germany and later moved to the United States, where it passed through several notable collections. It appeared in Road & Track in 1954 and was also driven by Rock Hudson in the film The World Is Ours.
The concours took place in Bavaria on July 4 and 5. Its selection combined privately owned road and competition cars, while Maserati's centenary formed another major theme of the weekend. Decade awards went to cars including a 1931 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Spyder, a 1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona and a 1985 Aston Martin V8 Vantage.
For the Horch, the result is more than another trophy for a restored pre-war car. The Best of Show vote recognised a specific survivor whose rarity is tied to both the scarcity of the original production run and the fact that chassis 855007 is the only known production example still extant.