AROC EAST MIDLANDS SECTION John
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AROC EAST MIDLANDS SECTION Formerly Central & East Midlands Something different for early summer - a guided tour of a small brewery in south Leicestershire, The Langton Brewery started off in a shed at the back of the Bell Inn in East Langton, but now has its own special premises. We will have a special tour of the whole operation followed by a sandwich buffet at around 9pm. Cost is just £11 a head inclusive of refreshments, inc. proper tasting glasses not thimbles! Be wary of course of drink driving, but you can take away bottles of the excellent brews. IMPORTANT— there’s no deposit but you must book your attendance via John. Address: Langton Brewery, Grange Farm, Welham Road, Thorpe Langton, Market Harborough, LE16 7TU events past and on the way to cover. Given the Weds 12 June from 7pm at necessary restriction on wording, it’s very hard to make it much more than a list, so apologies for not The George & Dragon listing many people’s names for example. Not so Thringstone bad here in Alfisti thankfully. I always like to feature new joiners who actually make the step of A host of Alfas will join in at this interesting As per tradition, June will see our very popular coming along to one of our meetings in the Our regional event that always attracts a good Fun Concours night at the George & Dragon on Cars back page feature. After three 916 GTV A512 near Thringstone in Leicestershire. We owners last time we have owners of two classics number of classic Alfa Romeos. had a terrific attendance of 34 Alfas and around this time; Phil Levell with his Bertone and Roy You can either go direct to Stanway House (from 50 people participating last summer. Regulars Matthews with his Spider S3. Great cars both of 11.30), a beautiful property with an impressive will know the drill; all Alfas attending are them and we hope to see them at a lot more fountain that is fired at various intervals, or take automatically entered, and all people present gatherings in the future. They have both seen the part in the Giro Panoramico run that starts at get to vote. There are a host of categories, both wide variety of models owned by us, that being Twyning from 10am and ends there. See the fun ones and the more serious, including the one of our club’s big plus points for me. Excuse Cotswold Section’s website for info and booking prestigious Car of the Night, with prizes me if it sounds trite, but Alfas are Alfas to me, be form. (Entry to Giro and Stanway £11, per sponsored by our key Section supporters; Chris they fiery pre-war roadsters, sleek sixties style person, under 12s £3.50; Stanway only, £7.50 Variava Alfa Romeo Nottingham, Engine icons, the quirky, charismatic eighties machines, per person, under 12s free.) Services (Dave French) and IntaServices (Dave the excellent nineties and noughties models or the Knott) in Leicester. It’s always an enjoyable technologically-rich latest products of the brand. evening and I hope you can make it. Given They all have style and all drive with true Latin value of prizes, if the weather is bad we will spirit, so seeing 105 Bertones and Spiders parked postpone the contest to our July meeting night. next to 75s, 155s, GTVs, Breras, 159s, MiTos and Please note though, very often though drizzle new Giuliettas to me just works. Seeing a recent may be about we get away with it, so please display of MGOC cars, with lines of the don’t be deterred by threat of showers etc. ubiquitous ‘B’ flanked by an MGF and a ZT (75) This summer is lining up to be one of the just looked, well, odd. Not as odd as if there was busiest on record, and April and May have been an MG6 there. Now that would be weird! (See pretty busy to start with. At this time of year it’s ‘Scoop’.) Anyway, here’s to a always tricky to write our Section report for the gloriously varied array of Alfas at our June magazine as there are always around 15 Fun Concours. See you there! John ‘CAD’ 2012 Alfisti is the AROC East Midlands Section newsletter, edited and produced by Brooklands Spring John Griffiths Italian Car Event AROC East Midlands Section Secretary Tel: 0774 8881317 May Meeting at the G&D e-mail: [email protected] Classic Car Night Our website for the latest news and more: Curborough Sprint Experience www.AROC--UK.COM/EASTMIDS . and more Alfisti production sponsored by ALFISTI / EASTMIDS Price? IT’S FREE!! ■ Alfisti Issue 154 ■ June 2013 4 May 2013 Another fantastic Spring event at Brooklands saw hundreds of Italian cars gather in the superb surroundings. Morning showers did not deter the crowds and a several of our local members made the 120mile trip down to the iconic venue near Weybridge in Surrey. Club Manager Nick Wright and John Griffiths looked after signing up new members and selling some club shop items, whilst Stuart Taylor, 105 Series Registrar made sure that classic Alfas were parked tidily together including a superb row of Bertone Coupes and many Alfetta GTVs. The Alfa Romeo dedicated parking was full by 10am so overflow parking on a big section of the original race track banking was used. The event always attracts some amazing Exotics, and with over 20 Lamborghinis and 70 or more Ferraris, this year was no exception. The morning saw various special cars lapping on the Mercedes Benz World circuit, then the afternoon saw runs up the incredibly steep test hill, everything from De Tomaso Pantera to Piaggio Ape! Run of the afternoon belonged to a rather enthusiastic owner of a Ferrari 360, He ignored the course marshal’s instructions and kept his foot in right to the very top of the course, getting the car a good three feet off the ground! The Ferrari by all accounts was unharmed. There’s a ink to some camcorder footage of this flight of fancy on the club forum, it’s worth a look! Also see snaps on page 5. This is a really good event , one all Italian car fans should go to. John As you’ll see from the photos here, Brooklands is very much an air museum as well as having some indoor car exhibits. All pics are by John, and there are tons more in the gallery on our Section website. Stuart Taylor, pictured above, is AROC’s 105 Series Registrar. Here’s a few words on the day from him. “I’m delighted to say we had 22 beautiful Bertones parked in a long line (with several more spotted around the large sprawling Brooklands site) along with some really top quality classic Alfas – a lightweight Giulietta Sprint, Giulia SS, 2600 Spider and some stunning ‘Suds and Alfetta GTVs. The gorgeous Blu Hollandese 1750 GT Veloce owned by club member Peter Knight took the MGS Coachworks award for the ‘Best Bertone in Show’. Peter received an elegant trophy and a bottle of champagne.” Stuart Would you believe it? Two weeks of half decent weather, including some lovely evenings with clear blue skies, then the usual second Wednesday comes and…. heavy showers. Blinking typical! Still, we’re a hardy lot, and the early-arrivers parked in the freshly-mowed paddock area, happily with nice firm ground, and enjoyed a natter around the cars with brollies firmly up until a major downpour forced us inside! Several of the regulars were away (or had submitted decent excuses!), including Dave Atkins, Bryan Alexander, Keith Krog and Leigh & Mandy Nethercot, but we still had around 20 people along. It was good to see Matt Strange along again with his blue 3.0 GTV, and also to welcome new member Brolly practice for the summer? Roy Matthews from Evington in Leicester along with his classic-car-mad and previous Alfa-owning friend Jim. Roy had brought along his newly restored Spider Series 3. Strangely enough I’d actually signed him up as a member at the Classic Motor Show at the NEC last November - a place where he’d enjoyed sitting in Simon’s similar but different S4. Roy had with him some picture of the car pre and during restoration - it had been in a bit of a state, owned by a garage-owning Italian guy who’d probably caused more damage to it from storing rubbish on top! It’s certainly in lovely order now. See pic on the back page. Also new in the car park was Sally Swinfen’s MiTo. All of us outside remarked how rich its Alfa Red colour looked, and how quite the 1.3 JTDm engine was too. Another MiTo also appeared, this time a Chris Variava loan one being borrowed by Steve Sembay who’s white Giulietta was in having some warranty work. I was also in a MiTo, Maria’s bright yellow one, borrowed as she was away at Torquay with work. (I love that little car!!) Back inside we also enjoyed a good group natter on forthcoming events, something I’d like to make a feature of each meeting going forwards as its George arrives, but the rain defeats us! surprising what people don’t pick up from our communications - and it’s a great chance for some banter too! So, another enjoyable evening there, please don’t miss the next one at the G&D - Fun Concours Night! John Sally Swinfen’s new MiTo Mark Sangster’s 147 DC John was in Maria’s Yellow Peril WINDOWS.