A scenic stop along the route of one of our AONE motor tours? No, AONE Director Brian Shorey decided to clean his garage and moved all of his cars out to make it easier. Brian reports that all but one did it under their own power! (And that one was missing its engine...) 3 Next Events - What an assortment! - Watch three Alfas race in the absurd but hard-fought T YOU MUST NO Twenty Four Hours of LeMons on July 11th and 12th S THIS ! - AONE will tour past the Newport mansions and take in a po l o MmaItchS on July 18th - Tutto Italiano will blossom at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum on August 2nd 6 The AONE Spica Tune-up Tech Session - Report and photos from the June 14th AONE Shade Tree Tech Session hosted by Frank Maldari 8 Precision Auto Restoration Tour - Lots of photos of the cars in and visitors to this prestigious restoration shop, plus a write-up by event organizer Jim Miga 10 Classified Ads - Always some new arrivals and some great deals 1 1 The Club Store - Step right up for those AONE baseball caps, pint glasses, and calendars! WWW.VELOCISSIMA.COM The official publication of the Alfa Owners of Director: Kevin Redden - Salem, NH - New England, Inc. (AONE, pronounced A-1), a 978-387-2416 - [email protected] non-profit organization of Alfa Romeo enthusiasts Director: Lou Shames - Medfield, MA - that is a regional chapter of the national Alfa 508-242-9944 - [email protected] Romeo Owners Club, Inc. (AROC). AONE is Director: Brian Shorey - Boxborough, MA - incorporated in the Commonwealth of Mas- 978-973-0879 - [email protected] sachusetts. Director: Peter Walker - Beverly, MA - 978-524-8102 - [email protected] Disclaimer: Velocissima is not to be considered Treasurer: Dave Pratt - Dedham, MA - the authority on maintaining or improving Alfas. 781-320-8208 - [email protected] The views expressed are those of the author Legal Counsel: Kevin Murphy - Framingham, or person quoted. Anything contained herein MA - 508-879-1881 - [email protected] does not constitute an endorsement by the club, its officers, Alfa Romeo Inc., or Fiat. This Velocissima publication and this organization assume no li- ability for any consequences. Be prudent—don’t Editor & Webmaster: Dave Pratt - Dedham, void your warranty! MA - 781-320-8208 - [email protected] Send articles and ads, preferably by email or on AONE Board of Directors disk (but scribbled on a napkin is acceptable) to: Phone: 781-320-8208 President: Thomas Lesko - Hingham, MA - Email: [email protected] 781-749-9132 - [email protected] Mail: AONE, 300 Westfield Street, Director: Myron Barnett - Newton, MA - Dedham, MA 02026-5631 617-641-0976, [email protected] Director: Stephan de Pénasse - Nashua, NH Alfa Romeo Owners Club - 603-594-4204 - [email protected] Director: Tom Ducibella - Beverly, MA - To join our chapter and national AROC or to 978-921-0125 - [email protected] renew your membership, contact: Director: Gene Durso - Leicester, MA - AROC National Headquarters 978-314-1224 - [email protected] Jolene Justus, Executive Secretary Director: Frank Maldari - Andover, MA - PO Box 12340, Kansas City, MO 64116 978-475-2846 - [email protected] 1-877-399-AROC (toll-free) Director: Jim Miga - Winchester, MA - Fax: 816-459-7462 (call first) 781-729-7567 - [email protected] [email protected] 2 AONE EVENTS CALENDAR WHEN WHAT WHERE WHO July 11 - 12 Twenty Four Hours of LeMons (see Page 4) Stafford Spgs, CT K. Redden, B. Shorey 12 - 19 AROC National Convention Portland, OR www.velocenelverde.org 18 - Sat Newport Tour and Polo Match (see Page 5) Newport, RI G. Venable August 2 - Sun Tutto Italiano (see Page 5) Brookline, MA M. Barnett 8 - Sat Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car Show Saratoga Spgs, NY Alfa featured marque! September 4 - 7 Vintage Festival & Italian Car Corral Lime Rock Park, CT T. Beeble 19 - Sat The AONE Hyland Hillclimb Westminster, MA G. Durso, D. Donovan October 3* - Sat Il Giro Del Monadnock Motor Tour Peterborough, NH G. Bonatto 11 - Sun “Drive For Wishes” Classic Car Show Burlington, MA 24* - Sat Indian Summer Sortie Fall Foliage Tour South Deerfield, MA P. Walker Note: Dates marked with an asterisk (*) are tentative. Know of something else happening that would be of interest to Alfisti? Please contact the Editor (see Page 2) and we’ll add it to our Events page! OF GET THE MOST UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION ON ALL OUR CLUB EVENTS AT WWW.VELOCISSIMA.COM ! Italian & German Auto Repair Specialists • ALFA ROMEO • AUDI • MERCEDES • FERRARI Motorsport LTD. • PORSCHE • MASERATI • BMW • LAMBORGHINI 617-783-3078 • Service • Repairs • Bodywork • Restorations www.motorsportgarage.com • Computerized Diagnostic Equipment • Agip Racing and Synthetic Oils Located near the Green Line on the • Computerized 4-Wheel Alignment T • Certified for Air Conditioning Repairs 410 Cambridge Street, Allston, MA 1/4 mile from Storrow Drive & the Allston/Brighton Exit off Mass. Turnpike 3 CHEER ON THE ALFA TEAMS AT THE 24 HOURS OF LEMONS! Saturday & Sunday, July 11th & 12th By Brian Shorey First, in the “Banned Technology” category, we tried for something ey Sports Fans! We’re just a couple of weeks away from the functional and fun. So we fabricated a pair of wings made out of pizza Hsecond running of the New England 24 Hours of LeMons. Kevin boxes, and built up some linkages from the DeDion rear suspension. Redden covered the venue pretty well last month, so I thought I’d Now, when the brakes are applied, the rear end lifts, and the wings bring everybody up to date on the car itself. raise! We’re sure that this will result in much better adhesion in We’re running the same Milano as we ran last year — a 1988 the turns! Verde 3.0. There are two other teams also running the same Mi- The second item is sure to be controversial. But first, a little lanos as they ran last year — so much for the non-reliability of Italian up-front explanation is in order. The LeMons organizers place cones cars! Ours was running pretty well at the finish, in strategic places with two problems. First, we felt something around the track, in the front suspension; and second, we in order to control had an engine stuttering problem coming flow and keep driv- out of one corner, which unfortunately was ers in some sem- the corner leading onto the only straight with any real passing op- blance of order. To portunities. So our list of things to do for car preparation this year minimize protests was pretty simple — fix the issues from last year, update the car from drivers who based on some new safety rules added for this year, and spend a think they might be little time on some, uhhh, thematic items. unfairly called in, The maintenance items were pretty easy to address. We found An early protoype of the sophisticated pizza-box-based they attach little downforce enhancement system that the castor bushings were hammered; a call to Performatek re- packets of ketchup sulted in a new set of poly bushings that should withstand whatever or mustard to the cones, so if a car hits one there will be some abuse we can throw at them. The engine stuttering problem had us “evidence” on the bumper. We decided to design and build what scratching our heads; we suspected that our fuel gauge may have been we believe to be the first on-board weapons system in LeMons (or off, so we started perhaps any racing organization) history — an integrated, pressur- by draining the fuel ized ketchup dispenser! Ours is strategically located in the trunk, system, which is so that if we’ve got somebody following too closely behind us, we can where things got leave some “evidence” on his front bumper. Given the Peoples Curse interesting. As we award, we don’t intend to have this powered up until the second day were finishing the of racing, after the award has been presented. race last year, we This year’s had to do a quick event is gearing up splash-and-go with to be a whole lot about 20 minutes more fun than even left in the race, as Last year’s Milano in action at the 24 Hours of LeMons, last year’s was, if displaying the need for additional downforce we were running out not for the driv- of fuel. That got us through the race, with what we figured to be ers then certainly a gallon or two left in the tank. When we pulled the cover off the for the spectators! car earlier this spring, we couldn’t get it started; however, when we Don’t miss it, and added fuel, it started right up. We figured that the car must have please stop by the paddock and say been empty at that point, and we poured in five gallons. We had A classified spy photo of the On-Board Integrated, Pressurized run the car a bunch since that time, so as we drained the tank we hello! Ketchup Dispenser (OBIPKD) figured that a 5 gallon can would hold everything. 14 gallons later, we knew we had a fuel pickup problem. Yup, we drained 14 gallons! We ended up pulling the tank, and found that the in-tank filter was clogged. This left us with a usable fuel capac- ity of probably 7-8 gallons or so, which left 9-10 gallons of fuel as permanent ballast! The new safety rules were pretty easy to address. We had to add an electrical shutoff switch, do some welding on the rear bulk- head to isolate the fuel tank from the passenger compartment, and encase the fuel lines inside the car in metal.