Alfisti Do Autumn in Style and Tradition
the on-line newsletter of the delaware valley alfa romeo owners' club
Alfisti Do Autumn in Style and TraditionBob Brady
Our band of merry Alfaholics, the DVAROC celebrated fall with camaraderie, cuisine, a cruise, and of course, cars. In October, we gathered at Brookside Farm, home of our always gracious hosts Henry and Nancy Wessells to enjoy an Indian summer picnic. As almost always, the day was wonderfully warm and the foliage beautiful The collection of sumptuously shaped automobiles in hues ranging from deep organics through vivid primaries gave dimension to the autumnal landscape in which they rested. (makes you wish we printed La Voce in color, huh? - ed.) Nearly fifty years of Alfa evolution were represented. Henry's 1953 1900 CSS was the senior member of the group as his 6C 1500 was in the shop having its "testa fissa" repaired. No garage queen, 1900 was merely resting from a successful summer where it took first place at the Radnor Hunt Concours d'Elegance and competed in a rally to benefit the Philadelphia Orchestra. One could imagine driving the silver Touring bodied motorcar on a weekend getaway to watch its brother, the 1953 3000CM compete at Le Mans. Unfortunately, the CM was out of the country working on a "special project" and could not attend the picnic. Next to the 1900 sat the latest acquisition, a "new" '88 Milano Verde not yet ready for its 30,000 mile check up. Outside, a variety of Pininfarina, Bertone, and Touring bodied coupes, spiders and sedans graced the lawn. Dave West brought his Giuletta Spider Veloce out of the dark while Charlie Crothers and Arthur Jones brought their Giulia spiders. Ed Jones drove the only Duetto to grace a picnic in years. Dan Scolaro's 2600 was on hand to complete the spider line-up for 1965. Coupes abounded, with black, maroon, and at least three red GTVs present, including Mike Robinson's beautiful 2 liter powered '66. Quinn de Menna brought his lovely Alfetta GTV to keep the one in residence company. From older to near new, from black to white and all colors in between, the web of 115 series spiders included something for everyone. Finally, no Alfa gathering would be complete without sedans. And, while none from sixty years of the Italian carmaker's production were on hand, a few Milanos and 164s were there to provide examples of the last offerings from Alfa Romeo imported to these shores.
The beautiful scenery of the DVAROC fall picnic.
Always a family affair, the picnic provided ample opportunities for the children to explore the brook, chickens and meadows. But all was not play, for the picnic is the one event at which the DVAROC conducts real business. In a stunning break with tradition, president Dave West passed the baton on to Bob Brady, ushering in a new era for our chapter. After the brief meeting, it was back to the cars to conclude another very successful day.
The DVAROC would like to express our gratitude for the wonderful hospitality extended to us by the Wessells. Thank you so much for making this annual event our best!
Mike Robinson's pretty and potent 2L'66 GTV
A view suitable for a painting with spiders, coupes and sedans in
abundance.
The crowd gathers for our annual meeting.
Arthur Jones' distinguished looking Giulia Spider
Identity Dispute Pulls Rare Car From AuctionBob Golfen, The Arizona Republic
Jan. 20, 2001 - The most valuable vehicle at the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction, a rare 1935 Alfa-Romeo grand prix race car, was withdrawn from bidding Friday because of lingering confusion about its identity.
The Alfa-Romeo Tipo C 8C 3800 was moved from the auction block, where it was to be sold in open bidding today, to the Exposition area, with a price tag of $2.5 million.
The confusion surrounds another Alfa 8C sold in 1998 at auction in Pebble Beach, Calif. That car claims the same chassis number as the Barrett-Jackson car, creating doubt about either car's racing history and pedigree. Craig Jackson, auction president, said he is satisfied that the Alfa is the genuine article, pointing out that it came with a 6-inch stack of photos and documentation supplied by its Italian owner, whose identity is being withheld. Included in the documents is a 1988 bill of sale signed by famed race driver Juan Fangio.
Jackson knew about the controversy when the car was consigned, he said, and he used a team of experts to check out its background. Barrett-Jackson was withdrawing the car from the auction block, he said, as a courtesy to the owner of the other car. The original Alfa was raced for two years by Scuderia Ferrari, then sold to an Argentine, who raced it for years. It later was kept in Fangio's car museum in Argentina and later brought to Italy for restoration.
The car that arrived in Italy was incomplete, basically just the original engine, frame and transaxle. The body and other parts were remanufactured, using the original specifications.
The situation underscores one of the common problems in the world of vintage vehicles, especially old race cars. The racers are wrecked in crashes and rebuilt, get new engines or other parts and are altered for performance gains. And there is no easily followed paper trail of registration and owners. Although both cars claim to be the same car, it doesn't mean that either is a fraud. Each car has many of the parts of the original, and therefore could reasonably claim the honor.
But Italian attorney Veniero Molari, a vintage-car expert who is representing the owner at the auction, said his client's car has the most critical parts, including the original engine marked with the chassis number: 50014.
Bob's Babblings
Bob Brady
I changed the name from Editor's Notes to Bob's Babblings as I wanted to condense editorial stuff and presidential stuff in one place. So, here goes:
Winter Lunch I hope you can make our annual winter lunch. If you attended last year, you'll know that the food is fabulous and the afternoon quite relaxing. Once again, we'll park behind Gamburg's furniture which will allow us to oggle over the cars. While winter is typically not the best time to take out your Alfa, it really does need exercise. If the weather is as nice as last year's, you'll have little excuse not to let your treasure see some light. Don't forget to RSVP to me by February 9. My email is mpbrady@bellatlantic.net. I hope to see you there.
Events Communication I want to apologize for not getting the lunch notice out sooner and for not issuing a La Voce to notify everyone of the fall tour. Things have been particularly busy for me and there doesn't seem to be any let up in sight. It's much easier for me to send out events notices via email than it is to prepare a suitable La Voce, which leads me in to my ongoing plea. Please, if you have an email address and haven't received an update from the DVAROC in the past month, send me your email address. While I'll do my best to plan events well in advance, allowing a La Voce to be the primary mechanism for communication, email is much faster and reliable for me.
What Do You Want To Do? The tentative events calendar is shown on the previous page. It's pretty much a repeat of last year. If there is anything you'd like to do that's not on there, please let me know. Also, I could help in getting events organized. So, if you have some spare time, (yeah, I know, but I thought I'd ask anyway) I could use some help.
La Voce You'll no doubt notice that this La Voce is a bit thin. Not to keep harping, but the time I once had to write a good one isn't there anymore. So, while I'll do my best to fill some pages, I really need your help. I want to thank Dan Scolaro and Larry DeYoung for providing much of the content for this edition. It really helps!!! - Bob
Fall TourBob Brady
In November, an intrepid contingent of the DVAROC braved the chill and fired up their faithful Alfas to give them one last run before a winter's nap. This year, our destination was the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles. The trip through Chester County was pretty uneventful (except for my daughter getting sick in John Jeffries' GTV... sorry John!) and enjoyable thanks to Dave West's keen eye noticing a typo in the directions. Fortunately, he noticed it before we left!
At the museum, we learned about the rich history of automobile manufacturers in the Pennsylvania area and viewed many antique automobiles from makers we never heard of.
After our tour of the museum, we stopped at a local gourmet deli for some warm soup and some lunch. It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday.
Dave West notices the omission in the tour directions which Bob
Brady cleverly placed there.
Inside the museum, our tour group discovers the richness of the early
twentieth century automotive industry in Pennsylvania.
On The Track...Milton, N.C. October 16, 2000 - At the season closing Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) vintage/historic race weekend held at the spectacularly restored 3.27 mile, 22 turn Virginia International Raceway, history repeated itself when Peter Krause of Raleigh, NC drove Paul Tavilla's 2 liter Alfa GTV to a first in class (T/U), sixth overall finish during the weekend's Feature race, the IMSA GT event. Qualifying 9th overall, 2nd in class (behind a BRE Datsun 510) out of 44
starters, Krause moved up smartly through the field, running as high as 5th overall with only three 302 cubic inch Chevrolet Camaro's, a 2.5 liter Porsche 914/6 and a 2.8 liter Datsun 240Z ultimately coming between the Alfa and the checkered flag. Beating out six of the quickest BMW 2002's in the country and several Datsun 510's, Krause capped off a successful weekend
which saw Ceasar Cone take third overall, second in class in his 1600 Alfa Romeo Duetto, Bob Kullas fifth overall, second in class in his Giulietta Spider Veloce and Hugh Tompkins, eleventh overall, first in class in his beautiful "Riviera Blue" Giulietta Sprint Veloce. Other Alfas in attendance were Patrick Boova and Dana Loomis with their well turned out Alfa GTVs. Cone also raced his Giulietta powered sports racing car to a third in class finish enjoying the perfect fall weather. Hope to see everyone next year at an East Coast track near you!
A Few More Pictures...
Although Henry Wessells' 1953 3000 CM was not able to attend this
year's picnic, here is a shot of it competing at the Monterrey
Historics (top). Above, is a photo of it (or a similar one) competing
in the Mille Miglia nearly fifty years prior.
Dan Scolaro's latest acquisition, a 164S that needed some
TLC.