The New Hope Auto Show, which began in 1957, lays claim to being the second oldest collector car show in the country, after Pebble Beach, CA. Given its modest location, in a high school parking lot in the quaint and charming town of New Hope, it has much to live up to. One aspect of the show that the organizers brag about is its judging system. First, vehicles gain entry to the event (Saturday for domestic product, and Sunday for imports) only by application. Cars are then placed in classes based on make and model. Volunteer judges attend a judging meeting to review the rules: all cars are evaluated based on a 100-point scale, divided among exterior, interior, engine compartment, and chassis. Judges are looking at originality and condition, and they must decide on a first, second, and third place winner. Ties are not allowed. The judges are experienced men and women who have judged for the AACA and/or have judged at New Hope for years. The New Hope show organizers expect that the winning cars will be representative of the hobby’s finest.

This year’s show was held on August 8 and 9. My ’67 Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Jr. was in attendance for the sixth time. There was an excellent turnout from both the Delaware Valley and New Jersey Chapters of the Alfa Romeo Owner’s Club (AROC), and it was announced during the morning’s judges’ meeting that Alfa Romeo, with twenty-eight registered cars, was the largest class on the show field! The challenge for our chief judge, NJ Chapter President Enrico Ciabattoni, was completing the task in a timely fashion. He again had a team of four for judging, including your author, fellow NJ Chapter member Paul Mitchell, and DelVal Chapter member John Palumbo. As we have done in the past, we divided the field in two: open cars and closed cars. There were eighteen convertibles and ten coupes and sedans. Paul and I tackled the convertibles (Spiders in Alfa-speak), while Enrico and John took on the closed cars. (I should note that even though Paul, John, and I had cars on the show field, we voluntarily labeled our cars “do not judge” to avoid any appearance of impropriety.)

The judging went smoothly for us, and we were slowed down a little only by judging rules that require owners to be present and that require tops to be raised for inspection. In reality, Paul and I had fewer than eighteen cars, because at least four owners had marked their cars “do not judge.” After filling out our evaluation sheets, we sat down to tally the totals, and we were happy to see that we had no ties. (During the judges’ meeting, it was mentioned that during Saturday’s show, a tie score in one class was decided solely based on the cleanliness of the driver’s floor mat.)

Among the open cars, the 1963 Giulia Spider, looking like it had recently emerged from a restoration shop, was our clear first place winner. Second place went to a nicely preserved ’91 Spider, and third place to an almost-as-nice ’87 Spider. Among the tin tops, first place went to a beautiful black 1991 164 sedan, second place to a lovely blue ’72 Giulia Junior, and third place to a brilliant black 1989 Milano sedan. Interestingly, among the six winners, three were from the NJ Chapter and three from the DelVal Chapter.

I’ll say it again: Alfa Romeo owners are among the friendliest, most down-to-earth hobby people I know. The entire day was spent hanging with old friends and making new ones. Even though participants were competing with each other, there was no animosity displayed. The variety of cars was impressive, helped by the fact that for Alfa Romeo, unlike most other classes, all years are accepted up to 2026. We had a nice selection of Euro-spec cars, including my Junior, Quinn deMenna’s Junior, and a 916-series Spider. Overall, every car was in nice condition. I saw no corrosion on any car during my chassis inspections, which speaks to the care that these cars get. The entire day felt like a party, which is how it should be. Being part of this club is supposed to be fun, and it was!

ALFA ROMEO OPEN CARS

Classic Spiders (1966-1994)

 

916-Series Spider

 

CLOSED CARS

Classic Giulia coupes

Alfetta/GTV-6 Coupe

Modern Giulia sedans

 

 

 

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