THAMES VALLEY SECTION SPRING 2015 NEWSLETTER & EVENTS DIARY
SPRING ALFA DAY 2015 IWM, Duxford The week leading up to Spring Alfa Day at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford was one of the warmest April in Britain has ever seen. All over the country, classic Alfas were removed from dehumidified garages, washed, waxed and detailed. And, as the week went on, the weather fore-
cast for the weekend got blacker and colder and wetter. For the most part, the rain forecast for Saturday stayed off until early evening but when it came, it came with a vengeance. Things for the first national Alfa event of the year were looking
bleak but – although quite a few of the more fragile and/or pristine classics might have been put safely back in their garages, the roads on the approach to the museum suggested that attendance would still be good. Ranged alongside the – sadly closed for refurbishment – American hangar, well over 400 cars made the trip. The cars were divided into four sections around the hangar – with a number of model registers closest to the entrance, alongsige the Anglian Regiments’ war memorial. Best turnout was from the Mito register, who were lined up in front of the perimeter fence. In front of them were more 75s and 155s than I’ve seen in quite a few years and a good selection of 916 Spiders and GTVs. At the other end of our patch – by the club tent (which was doing a roaring trade in woolly hats and umbrellas) and burger van – was a selection of interest-
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SECTION AGM Matters Arising The Section AGM took place on the 5th of May at the Bird in Hand and was well attended. The existing commitee was re-elected with the exception of Philip O’Hara who stepped down due to work commitments. Philip will continue to maintain the Section website - which is widely admired by the other sections - and to continue to co-manage the equally successful Facebook page. ing classics - including a familiar looking blue Junior Zagato - and no less than 6 4Cs – all red, but all with slightly different combinations of options. In between – and divided by the entrance road – were two eclectic groups of cars, parked as they arrived. Among them were a fair few Alfasuds and Sprints, a good selection of SZs and a large sprinkling of 939 Spiders – all with their roofs up. Everyone has their own views on what makes the perfect venue for a club outing, but I usually prefer a country house – in which I have less than no interest – in pleasant surroundings where I can enjoy the cars. So Duxford presented a bit of a dilemma as it’s exactly the sort of place I’d go to when there are no AROC events on!
numerous Spitfire fly-bys. A few brave souls even persisted with Plan A and sat around their cars with picnics, but the café and the catering vans were busy all day providing hot food and drinks. The rain held off but it remained bitterly cold and, despite the excellent turn-out and the plethora of interesting things to do, by mid-afternoon people were heading home from an excellent first event of the year well organised, well marshalled and well attended, at a popular venue. You can’t ask for much more - well, apart from the weather. GS
Jonathan Griffin remains as Chairman with John Timms as Secretary and Leo James as Treasurer. Nick Suiter and Guy Swarbrick joined the committee - Nick will coordinate events and Guy will edit a new quarterly newsletter. The Section also committed to some sort of presence at nine events this year - including Southern Alfa Day where we will support this year’s lead section - Mid-Sussex - at Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre. The full list is on Page 3 of this newsletter. Finally, we agreed to run a summer evening jaunt through the Chilterns in July - see opposite.
We managed to squeeze in a quick scoot around all of the halls – one of which looked spookily like my bedroom a few decades ago with Airfix models hung from the ceiling – apart from the fact that they were real aircraft! And even when we returned to Alfas, we were treated to a private display team of ex-RAF Red Arrows Folland Gnats rehearsing for the coming airshow season – as well as
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CROSS SECTION Italian Cars at the Ace Café
Owners Club does a very good job of making sure they fill all the available slots before anyone else arrives. But it’s a good natured event- the café provides marshals who make sure the evening stays on theme and also make sure as many cars as possible squeeze in to the car park. Not that they always can. One of the attractions of the meets is that it’s strictly first come, first served. Turn up in your Ferrari or Maserati when the car park’s full and you have two options - you can leave or you can wait on the street outside until an Integrale or a 155 or a brace of Abarth 500s leaves and makes room for you. You don’t usually have to wait too long - people come and go throughout the evening.
An (ir)regular look at activities (just) outside the Thames Valley I’d known about the Italian Night at the Ace Café for a while, but the thought of driving into London on a weekday evening was always just enough to put me off. Then a couple of years ago it happened to coincide with my birthday, so I decided it was a good opportunity to take the day off and go to check it out. It turned out that it’s really not that difficult to get there for 6 on a Thursday evening - all the traffic’s
going in the other direction - and it’s well worth the trip (unless you’re the kind of person who writes in to the letters page at the club magazine because you spotted a Lancia in the background of a photo of an Alfa.
The Ace Café was, of course, a transport café originally - and it still serves tea and coffee from urns. But the food’s pretty good - and very reasonably priced. You might have to share a table, though - with a The range of cars on the night varies group of bikers - or even some Fiat drivers.. enormously from classic 8Cs to modern Mitos and most things in between. There’s usually a Ferrari or You can find out more about the two, a couple of Lamorghinis and a history of the café - and see more of the pictures from the April weekday lot of Fiat 500s. meet and May daytime meet in Alfa Driver in June in the ‘Alfas at the So much so, that if you want a Ace’ feature. Better still, you could picture of your Alfa with the Café go along yourself! in the background, you’d better get there - very - early. The Abarth
GS
Giro Tramonto Inspired by our neighbours in the Cotswolds Section whose superb Giro Panoramico is one of the highlights of the AROC calendar, we’ve decided that a pale imitation is the best form of flattery we can muster. While the original involves a 2-3 hour odyssey around the Cotswolds to a traditional stately home ‘show and shine’ - see the Events Diary for details of this year’s edition - ours is little more modest. Taking the place of our normal monthy meeting, it will start at our normal watering hole - the Bird in Hand at Knowl Hill - with cars leaving between 6.30 and 8.30 and meander around the Chilterns for an hour and a half, ending up at a rather pleasant country pub. Like its more established cousin, the route will be provided in the form of a series of navigational waypoints and will be accompanied by a number of observational questions. There will be a small prize draw for those with the most compehensive set of answers. All are welcome - and there’s no need to enter - but we would like to get an idea of numbers ahead of the event. That’s partly because the venue at the finish would like some idea of how many cars will be descending on them and mostly so that we can make sure we have enough sets of directions printed. Email alfaspider@swarbrick.com if you think you’ll be coming - with the number of people and cars that will take part.
& EVENTS DIARY - SPRING 2015 PAGE 3
WHAT’S ON DIARY With summer almost upon us, the events are starting to come thick and fast and Nick Suiter has compiled a list of local and national events over the coming months. First up, these are the events that the Thames Valley Section will have an presence at.
Supported Events June 21st National Alfa Day Gawsworth Hall Macclesfield Cheshire 28th Auto Italia Summertime Classics Stanford Hall 28th Italian Car Breakfast Meet (0800-1200) White Lion Antiques Hartley Wintney, Hook, Hampshire RG27 8AE
July 19th Auto Italia Supercar Saturday Brooklands
August 16th MITCAR (Midlands Italian Car Day) Deene Park Northamptonshire 23rd Cotswold Alfa Day (incorporating the Giro Panormaico) Charlecote Park
September 6th Shere Hill Climb Staple Lane (junc of A246) 26th Southern Alfa Day Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre
October 11th Auto Italia Motorsport Festival Brooklands The next set of events are ‘unofficial’ events of interest to Section members.
Other Events
it is the first Tuesday
June
Location
7th Goodwood Breakfast Club - Soft Top Sunday Goodwood Circuit 25th-28th Goodwood Festival of Speed Goodwood Estate
July
The Bird in Hand Country Inn, Bath Road, Knowl Hill, Reading, Berkshire, RG10 9UP, tel: 01628 826622
2015
12th Yorkshire Section Sapphire Anniversary Day Newby Hall nr Ripon
June
18th-19th Chiltern Open Air Museum Classic Show Newlands Park, Chalfont St. Giles
6th Giro Tramonto The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill at 7pm - Leisurely navigation drive through Berkshire and south Buckinghamshire to another public house
24th-26th Silverstone Classic Silverstone Circuit
1st The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
July
August
August
3rd The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
9th Newbury Classic Vehicle Show Newbury Showground Chieveley
September
30th Brill Classic Show Brill Oxfordshire
October 5th The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
September
November
19th-20th Kop Hill Climb Kop Hill Road, Princes Risborough Buckinghamshire
2nd The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
11th-13th Goodwood Revival Goodwood Circuit
October 10th AROC Track day Blyton Park Lincolnshire
November 13th-15th NEC Classic Car Show Birmingham If there are any other events that you’d like included in the diary, contact Nick at nico12367@gmail. com and we’ll include it on the Section website and in the next Newsletter.
7th The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
December 7th The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill The next issue in September will feature Goodwood Breakfast Club Soft Top Sunday, National Alfa Day and Giro Tramonto reports and more! Your ontributions are welcome reports, pictures, event dates and details, article ideas and feedback - and can be sent to aroctvnews@swarbrick.com
Secion Meetings
Until then, vist our website at http://www.aroc.uk.com/thamesvalley or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/arocukthamesvalley
Monthly at 8pm on the first Monday, except public holidays when
Published by AROC Thames Valley. Edited by Guy Swarbrick.
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