THAMES VALLEY SECTION WINTER 2016 NEWSLETTER & EVENTS DIARY
CROSS SECTION Shere Hill Climb The Shere Hill Climb took place on first Sunday of September in the most glorious, late summer sunshine. In only its third year the day has
already become one for the diary of anyone interested in cars. The invitation only event takes place up Staple Lane, between East Clandon and Shere, in the beautiful Surrey Hills near
Guildford. The lane is a public road which was closed to all other traffic. The road ascends by 300 feet over a distance of nearly a mile with a series of challenging corners along the route - with several straw bale chicanes added to increase difficulty. The hill climb supports local charities, this year raising funds for Brooklands Museum, GASP Motor Project, Cherry Trees Respite Home, Shere Infants School, Shere Village Nursery, West Clandon School and Wildlife Aid Foundation. Approximately 150 cars took part ranging from pre WW1 machinery to modern supercars. The event, being non-com-
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petitive, is very informal and relaxed allowing you to give passenger rides. A good selection of Alfas were represented by a 2600 Sprint, 105 coupe and Spider, GTV6 and my own 75 V6 Veloce. A first for this year was the
presence of two wheels on the hill with Brooklands Museum demonstrating a number of spectacular classic motorbikes. A record attendance at the event saw crowds fill the paddocks and line the hedgerows, as each car took to the course
three times throughout the day. In between there were things for the kids to see and do and a number of top class food and drink outlets. NICK SUITER
SOUTHERN ALFA DAY Amberley Working Museum
Southern Alfa Day this year was held at the excellent Amberley Working Museum near Arundel in Sussex. Some of you will have seen the article I wrote for the December issue of Alfa Driver, but, as always, space is tight in the club magazine so it wasn’t possible to get as many photos
in as we would have liked.
journey down.
Because the section newsletter is only produced electronically, we can have as many pages as we like, so we decided to take the opportunity to showcase a few of the cars from around the Thames Valley that made the
The museum site covered a large area - albeit in a long thin strip - and so the cars were spread about a bit. We had our fair share around the entrance, though - including a trio of SZs that SZ and RZ Model Registrar
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and Alfa Aid supremo Adrian Jardine had brought along. Not far away from the SZs was the beautiful blue Junior Zagato - a regular feature at events round the South of England that for many years was owned by Margaret Callard and her husband and has now been ‘inherited’ - in advance - by her daughter Ella and her husband Martin Dominguez.
And just a little further up was another stalwart in the form of Charles Lumby’s gorgeous Montreal. At the other end of the museum - but fitting chronologically between the Junior Zagato and Montreal and the SZs were a
pair of boxer-engined cars - Stefano d’Alessandria’s very tidy Alfasud and John Haynes’ 33. Tucked away opposite those two - to avoid embarrassment - was my car for the weekend. With my 939 Spider in the garage having the damage that I inflicted on her en route to the Surrey Section Family at Hollycombe repaired, I had to slum it in a Ferrari California T.
The marshalls kindly let us in despite the Alfa-only ruled - and then, quite rightly, tucked us away in a corner - so I thought I would do the same with a picture. Many of my non-Alfa-owning friends found this hard to
believe me, but - glorious as the Cali was - we would much rather have been there in the Spider.
I know there were a couple of other section members there for future events, if you drop us an email with the registration number of your car we’ll try to make sure that you make it into the newsletter. GUY SWARBRICK
& EVENTS DIARY - WINTER 2016 PAGE 3
CROSS COUNTRY Italian Car Passion, Autoworld Brussels Being able to combine my passions for Belgian beer and Italian automotive machinery was too good an opportunity to miss, so on 3rd December I was whisked by Eurostar to Brussels for the Italian Car Passion exhibition. The exhibition started on the 3rd, I planned to visit on the 4th, therefore giving me a chance on arrival to enjoy the other reason for my visit. Suitably sobered up by an extremely large hotel breakfast I set off to the event. Autoworld is located in the Parc du Cinquantenaire and is housed in a magnificent building designed for the great exhibition of 1888. A sister building opposite that holds the aviation museum. Alfa Romeo was well represented along with Ferrari and Lamborghini, more of those latter marques in another article. Without a doubt the 1900 was the largest model range and certainly the most I’ve seen in one place. Mainly CSS coupés of differing designs the most unusual being a ‘Americana’ Ghia coupé. Scuderia Portello displayed a 1900 Super Berlina. For the Alfisti there were a TZ2, GTA and Giulia Super Gardiniera support vehicle. A smattering of Giulietta/Giulia Spiders were dispersed throughout the exhibition. The rarest car being a Disco Volante which was displayed next to its modern incarnation. An Alfa Romeo that I believe should have been produced was the beautiful Ghia 2600 coupé, much prettier than the Bertone version. I can highly recommend visiting Autoworld even if the Italian Car Passion has ended as they have some very rare and interesting vehicles.
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NICK SUITER
& EVENTS DIARY - WINTER 2016 PAGE 5
WHAT’S ON DIARY With the Giro Tramonto Treasure Hunt and Quiz - as well as the annual Fun Concours - we’ve decided to theme more of the section meetings this year - and add in a couple of excursions away from our normal venue. Nick Suiter has compiled a list of those as well as local and national events.
January
22nd Section Christmas Dinner Villa D’Este, Marlow
March
5th-6th Practical Classics and Restoration Show, NEC, Birmingham
April
SECTION ‘CHRISTMAS’ DINNER Once again our section Christmas Dinner will take place on the 22nd of January at the excellent Villa D’Este restaurant in Marlow. It is booked for 7:30pm and the price is £37 for the meal and one glass of wine including the excellent service The menu will be their standard party selection, not the Christmas one but is always excellent - as is the company!.
Venue The Bird in Hand Country Inn, Bath Road, Knowl Hill, Reading, Berkshire, RG10 9UP
November
7th The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
December
17th Spring Alfa Day National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, Hampshire
February
5th The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill - Christmas Quiz
30th AutoItalia Italian Car Day, Brooklands, Surrey
March
7th The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill - Annual General Meeting
Blag-a-ride and BBQ probably mid-July (Sunday 17th - TBC)
June
26th Italian Car Breakfast Meet (0800-1200) White Lion Antiques Hartley Wintney, Hook, Hampshire RG27 8AE (TBC)
July
10th National Alfa Day Chatsworth House, Derbyshire 29th-31st Silverstone Classic
August
14th MITCAR (TBC) If there are any other events that you’d like included in the diary, contact Nick at nico12367@gmail. com
Section Meetings
Monthly at 8pm on the first Monday, except when that is a bank holiday when it is the first Tuesday
1st The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
April
4th The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
May
3rd Museum of Berkshire Aviation, Mohawk Way, Woodley, Berkshire RG5 4EU - 7pm start, £4 per head
June
6th The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill - Fun Concours
July
4th The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill - Giro Tramonto
August
7th The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
September
5th The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
We are considering moving the monthly meeting, so keep an eye on the website at http://www. aroc.uk.com/thamesvalley and our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/arocukthamesvalley in case these dates change before the Spring Newsletter, which will be out in late March/early April.
Next time... The next issue in April will feature previews of upcoming events and our first Me and My Alfas feature and more! Your contributions are welcome reports, pictures, event dates and details, article ideas and feedback and can be sent to aroctvnews@swarbrick.com Published by AROC Thames Valley. Edited by Guy Swarbrick.
October
3rd The Bird in Hand, Knowl Hill
PAGE 6 - NEXT NEWSLETTER MARCH 2015
2500 SC Villa D’Este photo by Franco Vannini