The New Hope (PA) Auto Show, now in its 67^th year, was held during the weekend of August 10 & 11, 2024. After a stormy week concluding with a tornado watch (!) on Friday for most of the eastern PA/central NJ area, the weekend weather was some of the best of the summer: sunny, low humidity, and not too hot! The New Hope show organizers did their usual thing, with American cars on Saturday and “foreign cars” (I thought the hobby dropped that phrase in favor of “import cars”) on Sunday. I was there yet again with my Alfa, as the NJ and Delaware Valley Chapters of the AROC (Alfa Romeo Owners Club) turn out in reasonably big numbers for the show. This year, 13 Alfas were in attendance, and for the first time, thanks to the lobbying efforts of our NJ President Enrico, ALL Alfas were parked and judged together, including modern models such as the Giulia and 4C.

While not as populated as it’s been in prior years, I was informed that over 200 cars had registered for Sunday, and it appeared as though that many cars were indeed on the ground. Vehicles are organized by marque and/or country of origin, making it easy to scout for your faves. The show continues to attract some of the highest quality cars in the area, with the only downside coming from some jerks in the “modern exotics” (I’m looking at you, Lamborghini owner) who think it’s entertaining to rev their open-exhaust engines at 6,000 rpm.

When it was time to begin judging the Alfas, I was volunteered by Enrico, as his call for volunteer judges during the weeks leading up to the day resulted in zero response. Paul, another NJ Chapter member, also joined us, so our team of 3 set out to judge the row of 13. Traditionally, the Alfa group is simply divided into ‘open cars’ and ‘closed cars’. But with one modern Giulia and two 4C’s in the mix, Enrico came up with “pre-1980” and “1980 and newer” as the sub-classes, and that worked out beautifully. It was an almost even split of 6 and 7, and so we proceeded. In the Pre-1980 class, a stunning plum-colored GTV Coupe won 1^st place; in the Post-1980 class, the red 4C took home top honors.

New Hope rings the bell for me for many reasons, including the short (under 30 minutes) and easy (no interstates) drive. But this is it for big shows this year. In 2024, I’ve had the Alfa to East Hanover NJ, Saratoga Springs NY, Fort Lee NJ, and Macungie PA, all highway drives, and all during less-than-ideal weather. Nevertheless, I will continue to drive the car, which was my intention when purchasing it 11 years ago. I’ve now put over 14,000 almost trouble-free miles on it, and I look forward to keeping it on the road.

GERMAN

ITALIAN (OTHER THAN ALFA ROMEO)

BRITISH

 

 

This Alvis was a “Senior” car (previous 1st place winner), and it was impeccable.

 

VOLVO

ALFA ROMEO

 

 

ADDENDA

Someday I’m going to devote an entire blog post to “My Aunt Rita’s Cars”. She had exquisite taste in automobiles and treated herself to some fine machinery. As a preview, here is a photo which I had presumed “lost”: it’s a film photo which was greatly underexposed. But with some modern technology, I was able to bring it back enough to identify it as her 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass, her third new Cutlass in a row. The shot was taken in her driveway on Staten Island, probably in the late 1970’s.

 

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