IniezioneIniezione The newsletter of the Northwest Alfa Romeo Club Viva Italia 2012 Columbia Winery, Woodinville The Viva Italia car & motorcycle show was another fun day filled with a great mix of Italian metal. The weather in the area around Woodinville was stormy with thunder and lightening not too far away, but our event location was blessed with just clouds and cars. No rain fell on us, but based on the reduced number of cars overall I think the weather kept a few at home in their garages. Harry Reed arrived early to help me setup, but neither of us had much of a task list. The new American Car Museum in Tacoma showing nearly 400 of the cars from the Lemay collection, joined us early as well with a table to sell raffle tickets for the 2013 Ford Mustang GT Convertible. I bought my ticket so I assume I’ll win. We used the west half of the Columbia Winery parking area this year mixing the Alfa Romeos, with Fiats, De- Tomaso Panteras, and Ferraris. One gorgeous yellow Sorry… no photos were sent to me so I couldn’t Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera came up from the share any in the article. Redmond show earlier in the day. Others from Red- mond came as well like Bruce Wanta with his one of a kind Tom Tjaarda Pantera, and his blue Maserati Bora. Greg Whitten brought his red Ferrari FF, to park next to the Ferrari Testarossa, as well as a few 308 and 355 that came. The Fiat side had a couple older cars but also a brand new white with red Fiat 500 Abarth that belonged to Dick & Judy Buckingham. The Pantera club had a few folks arrive providing a nice rumble to the area as they drive in or out. The Alfa Romeo side was well represented with a few sedans ranging from a Giulia Super, my Sport Sedan, and a number of nice Milanos. John VanRensberg made an appearance with his fierce Milano / 75 project which always draws a crowd either from its sound, looks, or mechanical extremes. We also had a few beautiful Giulietta Spiders as well as two Giulietta Sprints. Spiders came in a variety of years and colors and the GTV6 and Alfetta GT segment had good representation from both polished and non-polished alike. We had a few Ducati attend the show with their unique sound from the dry clutch when it is not engaged… but we also had a nice guy, and his family who brought out a rare Moto Morini Excalibur V-Twin motorcycle. Alfonso Morini started making motorcycles under the name Moto Morini in 1937 at a factory in Bologna, Italy. Just like Alfa Romeo, their factory was destroyed by Allied air strikes in 1943. By 1946, Moto Morini was back in the motorcycle business and independ- ent until early 1987 when they sold out to Cagiva. The last 17 years, Moto Morini was run by the daughter of the founder; Gabriella Morini. In 1999, a nephew of the founder bought the company with plans to revive it’s earlier glory. This year, showing a sign of a heartbeat, they launched a limited run of a new Moto Morini called the Giubileo. In the end, it was a grand day with nice cars, good weather at the show, new friends, good wine, and I delivered 73 pounds of donated food and money to the Hopelink’s food bank on National Harry Chapin Food Drive day. Thanks! Inside this August 2012 issue… * Viva Italia …….…………... pg 1 * RTC Exotics ………….….... pg 6 * Calendar ……………….… pg 12 * President’s Column …... pg 2 * Summer Drive …….....…. pg 7 Next club events… * Club Meeting …...…..…... pg 3 * Maryhill Hillclimb .….…... pg 8 * Club Meeting ……….......… Aug 14 * News …………………....….. pg 4 * Alfa Challenges ……….... pg 9 * Concorso Italiano …….….. Aug 17 * Half Fast Lap …...…...….. pg 5 * Classifieds …….….. pgs 10,11 * Summer Drive …………….. Aug 25 President’s Column by Merril Gordon excitedly pumping through my veins and about a year’s worth of bench presses pushing on 75 lb hand dumbbells… now I can’t select 1st gear anymore! I can still select the rest of the gears so I finished out the day with no handicap as 1st isn’t really used on the racetrack. Now I’m wondering what I bent. Speaking of the track, does everyone know Kathleen Boutiette? She’s been managing track logistics for as long as I know. She sometimes gets involved during the Holiday Gala as well. Joe Faherty is our Competition Director and performed track master duties that day. John Gates always leads tech inspection and I Summer Fun sure appreciate being able to count on him. Tess McMillan helped out with tech and other tasks too. Inspected my car and was pretty I was supposed to have this article in yester- thorough at it too. Fred Russell (yeah, that guy again) brought a bunch of day to Fred and here I am one day late trying colleagues from work to help with corner worker responsibilities. Who else to write up something. I also haven’t reserved did we have at the corners? Bill Gehring, Earl Krygier, were two of them. I the motel for the ½ Fast Lap… wait, got that think we had a few more. Phil Edwards helped out with driver instruction. taken care of. Even got it cheaper than Fred I need to know who the other instructors are. Seems like a good subject quoted. Those drives are one of the best for a future President’s article. Anyway it takes quite a few people to put events this club does and we can thank that on a track day and I for one appreciate it. guy who publishes our newsletter for that too. …writers block, I’ll call Gordy and see if he has any ideas. Gordy says Alfa Once we get to The Dalles we’ll have some is the featured marque at the Mary Hill hillclimb, 1st weekend in October. incredibly scenic and fun driving in north cen- He’s staying at the Quality Inn in Goldendale. He’s also giving a presenta- tral Oregon. I’m looking forward to it. tion at the next club meeting regarding the Toronto convention. Was on the racetrack again in July, having as Gordy also knew some advanced details for next year’s convention. It will always, a total blast. Did have one issue. be in north central California at the Double Tree Wine Country in Rohnert Driving out of Turn 8 I’m full on the throttle in Park located between Petaluma and Santa Rosa. This is a Monday second and shift into third, except one time I through Friday convention beginning July 8th and continuing through the shifted, or tried to shift and the lever landed 12th. Here’s some contact information: 800-222-TREE for the general between first and third. What with adrenalin Double Tree reservation line and 707-586-4615 to access the Rohnert Park Double Tree facility. Request “Alfa California”. Everyone! This is close enough to drive to and that means scenic drives in your own Alfa as well as track days, maybe even two track days at Infineon Raceway. That sounds like a fantastic time to me. So start preparing now, i.e. reserve the vacation time, make any chassis/engine freshening needed, and if you have A/C, make sure it works! I can imagine Vancouver Canada Alfisti driving down and collecting the NWARC folks, who then continue on to Portland to gather the AROO aficionados for a continuation onto Rohnert Park. And you track rats, get preparing, we’ll get to meet a lot of California drivers who like to keep slip angles at maximum with the tach at redline. Sounds like my kind of week. One last thing, Gordy says there will probably be some kind of post con- vention tour headed back north, so the more days you can re- serve the better. Let’s have fun! Last item; elections are coming up for November and we need volunteers to hold office. I’ve been president for two years now and any longer means I become dictator, and I don’t want to be president for life. The positions of President, VP, Secretary, and Treasurer are elected and the committee chairs; Activities, Com- petition, Membership, Editor, Webmaster, and Technical Editor are appointed, i.e. if you want it you’ll likely get it. Give some thought to supporting our club and shape it in the direction you want. Ciao for now, Merril Gordon President NWARC NWARC August 2012 newsletter page 2 NWARC August Club Meeting Board Members President Merril Gordon Only a few club members were lucky (206) 290 4704 [email protected] enough to attend the AROC National Con- vention in Toronto Canada, known as Alfa Vice President Bill Gehring (425) 822 4231 Canadese. This was the first time AROC [email protected] has ever held an International meeting, as they combined the gathering with Alfa Secretary Gordy Hyde (425) 241 9307 Romeo Club of Canada. The location and [email protected] many of the people and cars were new, mixed with many of the great members many of us recognize Treasurer Thomas Jermann (206) 276 3484 as well. [email protected] Gordy, as an AROC National Board Member, did his usual bang up job representing NWARC. He Committee Directors participated in a variety of events and gathered Activities Shannon Low stories for us. Now, at (206) 715 9670 our August club meeting, [email protected] Gordy will share a number Competition Joe Faherty of photos and words to (253) 549 6828 [email protected] give each of us a taste of what the rest of us Membership missed.