THAMES VALLEY SECTION SPRING 2016 NEWSLETTER & EVENTS DIARY
CROSS COUNTRY Passion for Speed 2016 The Passion for Speed festival takes place in South Africa over 3 weekends the first at Zwartkops Raceway near Johannesburg, then Kilarney, Cape Town and finishing in East London
on the south coast. I visited Zwartkops, a 3 day event with qualifying on Friday, car racing Saturday and Sunday reserved exclusively for bikes. Cars range from pre ’66 sports and saloons
to modern GTs. There are lots of Alfa Romeos competing to keep the Alfisti interested, the vast majority were entered for their own championship named Trofeo Challenge or Pre ’66 Little Giants Production and Sports Cars, two GTV6s raced in the Pre ’84 Historic Saloons. This was my second visit to the festival, last year I ended up helping change an engine on a Berlina 2000, so this time I was determined stay clean and just spectate. I attended the event with Surrey section member Kevin Rascher. Kevin is originally from the Jo’burg area and his family kindly accommodated me. Weather for both Friday
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still wasn’t able to get near his practice times, the transmission was suspected and after returning home, I was informed that it was a failing limited slip differential. Craig Kidgell fared much better than Bram in race one finishing a credible 6th place, though he was disappointed as the previous year he had finished 4th, that’s race drivers for you, always wanting to go faster! Race 2 it was Craig’s turn for bad luck, managing only one lap due to the clutch housing cracking. and Saturday was very hot being 35°C and 38°C respectively. Luckily I was only viewing and not stuck in a tin can, one can only imagine what it must have felt like for the drivers! The two GTV6s were built by Dawie de Villiers, the racer and tuner of the legendry 3-litre version. I’ve known Dawie for 16 years so it was great to catch up with him again at his workshop, which is based at the circuit. The GTV6s were raced by Craig Kidgell and Bram Muller, they provided plenty of drama over the 2 days, though not always for the right reasons. During the weekend Bram was unable to replicate his times from practice earlier in the week, on inspecting his car after qualifying we found the Watts Linkage centre part had nearly fallen off its mounting pin, causing wayward handling. I was called upon to
hastily manufacture and fit a part to hold it in place for the race, so much for not to get my hands dirty! During the 1st race Bram only completed one lap due to the fuel pump switch fail-
Trofeo Alfas are nearly all 105 series with a Sud and Alfetta GTV thrown in for good measure. They were combined with the Marque cars, these
ing. The 8 lap 2nd race was better with Bram starting last and finishing 16 from 31 starters, very good considering the short race distance. Though Bram
are mainly RWD Ford Escorts with a smattering of Mercedes, Datsun’s and BMWs. There were a lots of Alfa coupes racing in the Pre ’66 Little Giants Production and Sports Cars race. A great battle ensued between a Mini Cooper and an Alfa Sprint GT. The Alfa spent most of the race harassing the Mini and eventually sneaked through to just beat it. Best result on the day from all Alfa Romeos competing was Cuan Helen’s 2nd place driving a GT Junior in the second Pre ’66 race. A great weekend of racing which has got me itching to compete again. NICK SUITER
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ME AND MY ALFAS Guy Swarbrick
I know the moment I got hooked. I bought the 1983 Daily Express Guide to World Cars published annually around the time of the Motor Show. Pretty much the first car in the book was a black Alfa Romeo Sprint Cloverleaf, parked outside a high-end restaurant. I didn’t really know what it was, but I knew I wanted one. There was no real history of Italian cars in the family - although I learned to drive in a wonderful Fiat 128 3P Berlinetta - the best car my father ever owned, by some distance. For various reasons, I passed my test relatively late and the topic
on everyone’s lips at the time was the end of leaded fuel.
I found one that looked good value for my budget and managed to persuade the bank to
Nobody seemed to know how big the impact would be and I was persuaded that the sensible option would be a Ford Sierra diesel.
loan me the money. I picked up the cash and went back to the small ads to look up the seller’s phone number again... and I got distracted by the first advert in the classified section. ALFA Romeo Sprint Veloce 1.5 £2500 That was the car I’d seen four years earlier. And it was the price of a diesel Sierra. I had to at least have a look. My parents and girlfiend were slightly surprised when I invited them to look at my purchase. And my girlfriend’s comments hit hardest - comparing my beautiful terracotta Sprint to my father’s bronze Austin Princess, but I think she grew to love the
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have kept longer. Seven months after I got it, I changed jobs and was offered the chance to buy the 33 for about half the deal we’d done with Waterside. It was an absolute bargain and I should have stuck with it. But my head had been turned. I’d seen the 155 and I wanted one. Waterside - as was often the case in the early 1990s - had given up their franchise, so it was down the A2 to Canterbury where Motorway Sports Cars had an ex-demo 2 litre Twin Spark in Myrtle Green on the forecourt. car - if not the colour. The car had a few foibles - a mysterious fault where the fuse for the instrument binnacle would blow under acceleration turned out not to be related to the rev counter, but to a wire from the fuel tank sender shorting against the exhaust.
company car and I had a budget and a completely free choice. Finding an Alfa dealer in 1992 wasn’t the easiest job in the
They offered me a very sensible trade-in on the 33 - much more than I’d paid for it - and I couldn’t resist.
My first major project was to have the engine blueprinted and it was running beautifully - and virtually rust-free - when it was written-off after being punted from behind by a Toyota pickup. After a ludicrous delay - duing which I bought and sold absolute wreck of an Alfasud 1.3SC - a decent insurance settlement went on something ‘more sensible’ - a Fiat Uno 70SX. That was a great car, but after a couple of years I got my first
world but I finally tracked down Waterside in Maidstone and - as luck would have it - they had the 33 S QV 16V I was looking for in stock. It was over my budget - but not much - and a deal was quickly done. That was a car that I should
The 155 was mostly trouble-free - but the one bit of trouble was significant. When I got the car, it was supposed to come with a year’s AA membership. I was assured that the paperwork was all in order, but I never got confirmation from Alfa or the AA, so I wrote and complained. By way of apology, they sent me a beautiful leather desk diary and extended my AA coverage and warranty to a full three years. Just two weeks later, the car came to a halt making a horrible noise. The AA attended and diagnosed it as a problem with the top end of the engine - “The problem is, he said the top end
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of your engine is all in the bottom end of your engine”. A cam bucket had failed and the engine was wrecked. And promptly fixed by my new local garage SGT in Taplow. The 155 eventually made way for another Fiat - a Punto which was trouble free and surprisingly fun but another change of job provided another company car. The car I wanted was a 145 Cloverleaf but my wife put her foot down. It looked, she insisted, like a Royal Mail van. So the 146 ti it was. Another cracking car that, once again, was pretty reliable - a throttle cable problem halted it on the M40 once, but was fixed by the AA and never
What followed was a serious of accidental purchases - of one sort or another. First, I set off to SGT to buy a silver 156. A few minutes into the drive I saw a red one - and so we ordered a red one - a 1.8 Twin Spark with a tan leather interior.
The last thing I expected to have to explain on my return was the fact that I’d ordered a 147 GTA - it was practical; it was a hatchback, It was a glorious car - even if it did have three new sets of front tyres in the 18 months I owned it. But it wasn’t practical and after a nasty incident with a Jeep Cherokee was, it, too, had to go. This time I really did get the Sportwagon - a 2.4 JTDm - another bargain (a cancelled order) which ended up carting bicycles all over the country to the tune of 153,000 miles before going up north where, to the best of my knowledge, it did another 30,000 or so.
recurred. And so came another job and my worst act of cruelty as an Alfa owner. I’d always wanted another Sprint and I found an absolute corker. One of the best in the country at the time, my Cloverleaf was even featured alongside a chrome-bumpered Veloce in the pages of Auto Italia. Sadly, it was my daily driver and the drive was from Wokingham to Battersea. It took its toll and, after three years of ownership I'd trebled the mileage and after many expensive trips to Justsuds, it was time to say goodbye.
As my children had started cycycling competitvely, the booted 156 was no longer entirely practical, so after a couple of years we headed back to SGT to order a diesel Sportwagon.
By now one child had left home and the other had his own car so the need for practicality had all but gone. I returned to SGT - the only question being whether I would return with a GT or a Brera. The one thing I knew is that I wouldn’t be buying a V6.
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I drove a 2.2 Brera and my mind was almost made up. I thought about it over the weekend and phoned on Monday morning to leave a deposit but it had been sold over the weekend. I was devastated. On a whim I asked if the V6 Spider that had been parked next to it was still there. It was - but he warned me that if I drove it, I’d buy it. He was right. It was - and is - a glorious thing and, as with the GTA, I’d made my mind up while the exhaust note was still echoing off the railway tunnel at the start of the test drive.
Now I just had to tell Sarah. We’d agreed we could sacrifice a bit of practicality - she had a 147 if we needed some boot space but a convertible...
down with kit. It coped magnificently - but I had visions of the Sprint’s undignified end and so decided to get something more practical as well.
Her reaction? ‘What do you mean you almost bought a Brera? I always thought you were buying a Spider!’ She's even fine with the fuel consumption - coining the phrase Smiles Per Gallon.
I nearly bought the new Fiat 500X but I’d wanted a 159 Sportwagon from the first time I saw them and managed to find a low mileage 2.0 JTD Ti that has proved rather capable as a load lugger - including bringing all the wine for my daughter’s wedding back from France - and a half-decent track day car!
For the first two years I once again used an immaculate low-mileage car as a daily driver - driving all over the country as a sports photographer, laden
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GUY SWARBRICK
CROSS COUNTRY TOO Autoworld Italian Car Passion - the non-Alfas
In the last issue I wrote about the Alfa Romeo’s on display, obviously there were a large number of other Italian marques to view. A themed layout saw the cars displayed in one of the following areas; Central Piazza, Concorso D’Eleganza, Competizione, Showroom and Lambo Legend.
a Multipla taxi not forgetting an Autobianchina Cabrio
The central piazza This was the exhibition’s throbbing heart. On show; among others, a Lamborghini Miura, a 350 GT Touring, a Maserati Ghibli. At the heart of this hectic piazza, slotted between the Ferrari 275 GTS , that for a time belonged to the actress Raquel Welch, the Fiat V8 Zagato (1952), a Bizzarrini 5300 GT Strada (1964) designed by Giugiaro, the De Tomaso Mangusta (from the ‘60s), an Iso Rivolta Grifo Giugiaro (1963), the Lancia B24 Spyder. The decor included several hard to avoid popular small cars that added so much life to the narrow Italian streets during the ‘50s and ‘60s: a Fiat 500 Giardiniera, a Vespa tricycle,
Competizione A large screen allowed visitors to have the opportunity to follow various stages of the Mille
Concorso D’Eleganza It is in this zone that a plethora of Fiat 8V coupes, including a Supersonic, by several different coach builders was displayed, notably Vignale, Zagato and a Bertone designed Siata.
Miglia and Targa Florio where you could catch a glimpse of the Ferrari 250 SWB. Other motor-sport cars included a Lancia Delta S4 Group B rally car and an Abarth 1300 OT. Show Room On the fringe of the piazza boasting a contemporary setting, the highly exclusive Lamborghini Veneno of which a mere three models were produced, a LaFerrari, Ferrari’s most recent supercar, along with a Bugatti EB110
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and a Maserati MC12 race-car, were displayed. The Lambo Legend Lamborghini opted to support the ‘Italian Car Passion, la bella macchina’ by becoming the Title sponsor. As such, a zone was entirely dedicated to them showing the Gallardo Spider, Gallardo Super Trofeo, the Murcialago Versace, Aventador and the Huracan. Once again I can highly recommend visiting Autoworld even if the Italian Car Passion has ended. NICK SUITER
AGM 2016 Update We held our AGM in March,
which resulted in John Timms standing down as Section Secretary and Nick Suiter being elected to the position. Your committee consists of Hon. President Michael Haines, Secretary Nick Suiter, Chairman Jonathan Griffin, Treasurer Leo James, Publications Guy Swarbrick and John Timms. Who is your new Secretary? I bought my first Alfa Romeo, an Alfetta saloon, in 1987 also joining the club at same time. I’ve owned Alfas too numerous to mention here, my current fleet consists of a new Giulietta and two 75s - a turbo and 3-litre 6V Cloverleaf. Motorsport is a big passion and I’ve competed in the both the Auto Italia and Alfa Romeo championships becoming Class C Champion in 2000. More recently I was instrumental in organising Southern Alfa Day at Osterley Park in 2014. Last year I joined our section committee as Events Co-ordinator.
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NICK SUITER
National Alfa Day 2016 Chatsworth House
Chatsworth House The Peak District AROC Member Advance Ticket £8.00 Per Car Non Member Advance Ticket £10.00 Per Car. These prices are per car and will give you entrance to National Alfa Day in your Alfa Romeo. If you wish to enter the house & gardens at Chatsworth, the venue is offering a discounted entrance fee of just £13 per person for people with a National Alfa Day ticket. Their tariff entrance fee is £20 per person, so why not take advance of this discount to have a look around this fantastic venue. These tickets cannot be pre booked, and are payable direct to the venue on the day. If you don't want to visit the house then there is nothing else to pay on top of your NAD entry ticket. Please note that all cars for the Concours Competition must be pre registered
Southern Alfa Day 2016 10 September Hever Castle
This year's Southern Alfa Day is organised by the Kent and East Sussex Section at Hever Castle a fantastic venue - especially for anyone interested in Henry the
Eighth and his colourful life. It's very close the the M25, so very easy to get to - and there's plenty to do in addition to the
usual AROC activities - including the famouse maze. More details in the next newsletter.
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WHAT’S ON DIARY With the Giro Tramonto Treasure Hunt, Quiz and the annual Fun Concours we’ve themed more of the section meetings this year - with some excursions away from our normal venue. June 5th Goodwood Breakfast Club - Full Throttle (0800-1200) Goodwood Circuit, near Chichester (Registration required) 26th Cotswold Alfa Day/Giro Panoramico The Bell at Alderminster, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 8NY and Ragley Hall, Warwicksire July 10th National Alfa Day Chatsworth House, Derbyshire 29th-31st Silverstone Classic August 7th Goodwood Breakfast Club - Thoroughbred Sunday 8am Goodwood Circuit (Registration required) 14th Festival Italia Brands Hatch
SECTION BBQ We are planning a BBQ at the Bird in Hand on the afternoon of the 17th of July. There will be a cost of £15-20 a head for an excellent selecton of food full details, prices and menus will be sent by email and posted on the Facebook page in the next few weeks. As well as the BBQ there will be an opportunity for a passenger ride in your favourite Alfa.
nico12367@gmail.com Section Meetings Monthly at 8pm, first Monday, except when that is a bank holiday when it is the first Tuesday Venue The Bird in Hand Country Inn, Bath Road, Knowl Hill, Reading, Berkshire, RG10 9UP June 6th Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill Fun Concours
28th MITCAR British Motor Museum, Gaydon CV35 0BJ
19th Museum of Berkshire Aviation, Mohawk Way, Woodley RG5 4EU - 2pm start, £4
September 10th Southern Alfa Day Hever Castle, Kent TN8 7NG
July 4th Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill Giro Tramonto
October 2nd Goodwood Breakfast Club - Italian Sunday 8am Goodwood Circuit (Registration required)
17th Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill Blag-a-ride and BBQ
November 6th Goodwood Breakfast Club - Hot Hatch Sunday 8am Goodwood Circuit, near Chichester (Registration required)
September 5th Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
If there are any other events you’d like to see here? Email
November 7th Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
August 7th Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
October 3rd Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
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December 5th Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill Christmas Quiz We want to improve participation across the section so that everyone gets as much as possible from the Club - so we’ve put together a short survey. The questions cover where and when we meet, types of meetings you’d like to see and how you’d like to be kept informed. We hope you can find the time to participate. More responses means more accurate results. The survey can be found on the internet at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NY369J7 Next time... The next issue in August will feature a preview of Southern Alfa Day and updates on events over the summer. Your contributions are welcome - reports, pictures, event dates and details, article ideas and feedback - and your Me & My Alfa story can be sent to aroctvnews@swarbrick.com Published by AROC Thames Valley Edited by Guy Swarbrick