NJ Alfa Club Breakfast Meet, Feb. 18, 2024

February 18, 2024 RichardReina Drives, Events Americana Diner, AROC NJ Chapter

The NJ Chapter of the Alfa Romeo Owners Club (AROC) held their 2^nd monthly breakfast meet-up of the year on Sunday February 18. The chosen locale was the Americana Diner in Shrewsbury, NJ. Nine Alfisti braved a.m. temps in the teens to make the trek. Our Chapter V.P. Vic had made the arrangements with the diner, which was all too obvious when I, the first one to arrive, walked in, whereupon the diner manager blurted “You with Vic? Just hang on a sec.”

The rest of the crowd poured in within minutes, and we were given a large table in the rear, where we could eat and chat in peace and comfort. With spring just over a month away, much of the conversation pivoted around plans for warm weather events, such as a visit to the Simeone Museum and participation in the New Hope car show. Alex, our Chapter Secretary, entertained us with the Show & Tell portion of the morning by passing around the gears and synchros from his Duetto transmission, which he is in the midst of rebuilding.

Breakfast was served and consumed, coffee was poured and drunk, and as car guys tend to do, we hung out and gabbed well past the time when plates were cleared. Before departing for the day, I made sure to capture photos of those who drove their modern Alfas. The classics are still stored, waiting for salt-free roads and milder temperatures.

The next breakfast outing for the Jersey Chapter is Sunday March 10, which means there will be just 10 days remaining before Ol’ Man Winter departs (we hope) for the season.

NJ AACA Covered Bridge Tour, July 22, 2023

July 23, 2023 RichardReina Drives, Events AACA NJ Region, Covered Bridge Tour

On July 22, 2023, Dick and Bobbi Bettle of the AACA NJ Region hosted a Covered Bridge Tour of Bucks County PA. Twelve vehicles were in attendance: most were AACA cars, but the group included two modern vehicles plus a handful of Ford Model As from the local Model A club. The tour took us through 8 covered bridges and included a picnic lunch stop at a nearby park.

At my wife’s urging, I reached out to two sets of friends who own convertibles, although both cars are new enough to be ineligible for AACA. Our friends Andy and Greta drove their BMW Z4 roadster, and our friends George and Pat cruised in their 2009 Infiniti G37 retractable hardtop. I was thrilled that having Greta and Pat along meant that my wife was more than willing to ride in our Alfa for the day. Dick and Bobbi’s attitude about it was “the more the merrier”.

We left our house at 8 a.m. and headed to the Clinton Station Diner for breakfast. Andy and Greta followed us there in the Z4. The Diner was the official kick-off spot for the tour, as we met most of the remaining drivers in the parking lot. From there it was a short ride to Tinicum Park in PA where we met up with the rest of the contingent, including all the Model As as well as George and Pat in the G37.

The bridges were fantastic. At least 5 of these were part of the NJ AACA-sponsored Glidden Tour from last year. The bridges are all similar enough: wooden structures with creaky noisy wooden floors, and so narrow that traffic can move only in one direction at a time. George and I honked our horns inside every bridge, just because we could.

We stopped for lunch at precisely 12 noon and out came the picnic baskets and folding chairs; although it was very warm in the bright sun, it wasn’t humid. Nevertheless, we found a picnic table in the shade, which was a special relief to our friends driving topless.

After lunch, the bridge tour continued. In the morning I had been driving mid-pack, but after lunch I drove sweep. Dick and Bobbi made a point of putting the Model As closer to the front after lunch, as earlier they were the last cars in line and may have been falling back. I don’t know where in PA we were; my phone had no cell service, and we were just following the line of cars in front of us.

It was now getting near 3 p.m. and we needed to be home to meet someone, so at our final stop, we drove in, waved goodbye from inside our car, and headed home (my wife’s phone managed to pick up a Google map signal before my phone did). We were home by 4 p.m., with the Alfa trip odometer reading 138.5 as the day’s total mileage. It was a great tour, and the architectural and automotive scenery made the long day worthwhile.

An assortment of covered bridges:

There were even a few interesting Pennsylvania barns, great for storing those extra collector cars:

Above: the Model A Collection

The 2023 Hillsborough NJ Memorial Day Parade

May 29, 2023 RichardReina Drives, Events Hillsborough NJ Memorial Day Parade

The Hillsborough NJ Memorial Day parade was held on Saturday, May 27, 2023. As has become tradition, the NJ Region of the AACA was invited to have its members drive their collector cars in the parade. About 17 special interest vehicles, all at least 25 years old, participated. The weather was close to perfect, with sunny skies and comfortably warm temperatures. I enjoy this event because it’s local to me. I’ve driven it in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022. In 2018 it was in the Miata, and all other times in the Alfa.

The oldest vehicles in the parade were from the ‘40s, and coincidentally, all were trucks. The 1950s were well-represented, with 7 cars, all from the Big 3. The 1960s cars included a late C1 Corvette, a Ford, two Mercurys, and the lone import in the parade, your scribe’s Alfa Romeo. A single vehicle from each of the decades of the ‘80s and ‘90s rounded it out.

All parades move slowly. This year, the puttering along seemed even slower, and then we came to a complete stop for several minutes. I learned later that one of the lead vehicles (not an AACA car) was tossing candy out the windows, and children were running into the street to retrieve it, which led to a dangerous situation. The parade was temporarily stopped so that this vehicle could be instructed to quit tossing the sweets. I almost brought the parade to a stop myself when a spectator yelled out to me “I like your Audi!”. I hit my brakes and yelled back “it’s an Alfa!”.

For me, as it has been in previous years, it’s all about the spectators. I love seeing people of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds who are now here in the USA and are partaking in this event. I’m glad that the NJ Region has continued its own tradition by participating each year.

THE TRUE COLORS OF OUR COUNTRY AS REPRESENTED BY THESE SPECTATORS:

Alfa Romeo Club Dealer Visit & Tour, Oct. 30, 2022

November 13, 2022 RichardReina Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Jr., Dealerships, Drives, Events Alfa Romeo of Englewood Cliffs, AROC NJ Chapter

The New Jersey Chapter of the Alfa Romeo Owners Club (AROC) sponsored a combination dealer visit/drive event on Sunday October 30, 2022, which saw a significant turnout of older Alfas along with some newer vehicles. The dealership, Alfa Romeo of Englewood Cliffs (NJ), located on Route 9W, graciously opened its doors to us on a Sunday morning, providing coffee and breakfast treats while we owners took advantage of the opportunity to mingle under sunny and unusually warm late October skies.

The size of the group was impressive; aside from six Spiders, there were five Bertone Giulia Coupes, a Milano, a 4C, and modern Giulias and Stelvios. A Fiat 500 Abarth rounded out the Italian entries. As the owner of a GT 1300 Junior, it was most interesting to me that there were four 1300 Juniors present, 3 Coupes and a Spider, incredible given that the model was never officially imported to the U.S.

After our morning soiree, some of us joined our tour leader Scott Klion and followed him in his red Giulia on a scenic ride up the Palisades Parkway and around Storm King Highway in NY, ending with a lunch at the charming Painter’s Tavern in Cornwall-on-Hudson. I’ve always admired how Alfa owners love to drive their cars in a spirited fashion, even if I in my 90-HP Junior struggled to keep up! My wife and I had a long ride back home from the restaurant, but it was good to get out, put some miles on ‘Junior’, and see some of my old Alfa friends again.

Hard to tell, but this Spider is dark green

’73 GTV, with GT 1300 Junior in nero behind it

Your scribe’s GT 1300 Junior in Muschio Verde (musk green) next to a Spider

This ’68 GT 1300 Junior in Bluette was recently restored

A 4C in a shade of blue I’ve not seen before

The 2022 Glidden Tour Summary

October 3, 2022 RichardReina Drives, Events Glidden Tour

The 2022 edition of the annual Revival Glidden Tour is in the books. It wrapped up last Friday, September 30, 2022, with a closing banquet at the host hotel outside of Princeton, NJ. In all, 115 pre-1943 cars were registered; an unofficial count states that 7 cars did not finish the tour due to various mechanical issues; a small number were unable to attend; and that leaves me estimating that approximately 100 vehicles completed the tour, driving a total of 450 miles over the course of 5 days.

Starting with the purchase of my first collector car right after college graduation, a 1957 Ford Skyliner, my interest in this hobby has been in the cars of the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, no surprise coming from a card-carrying Baby Boomer. However, participating in this year’s Glidden tour as a boots-on-the-ground photographer, present at almost every planned stop over the entire week, has turned my head around. Now I’ve seen proof that pre-war cars can be as reliable and as enjoyable as post-war cars for touring purposes.

Here are some general observations about Glidden drivers and their Glidden cars:

Driving 60 to 100 miles a day, no matter the weather, is not only NOT an obstacle; it is THE enjoyment. (The places of interest and the meal stops are only a means to an end.) A casual observer, stumbling upon these cars gathered together, might think this was a car show. To the owners, however, these cars are “Touring Cars” (NOT “drivers”). The difference is this: a “driver” will likely show at least some cosmetic wear, and not all its mechanical features may operate to 100% effectiveness. A Touring Car, by contrast, is both cosmetically and mechanically exceptional. A touring car leaves the owner with no doubt that the car will start, accelerate, handle, and stop. One friend commented to me that “these cars look like they just left the restoration shop”, which misses a major point. These touring cars are driven enough that they have proven their roadworthiness. A fresh restoration may need 200 to 500 shakedown miles before it could be trusted to do what a Glidden Touring car can do.
The typical Glidden owner is devoted to their marque. I met two Studebaker drivers, both of whom have a collection of Studebakers at home (one man said he had “10 more”[!]). A Ford Model A owner told me this car was one of four A’s. A delightful woman in a 1937 Buick said that this was just one of a handful of Buicks she and her husband had, at which point she rattled off the year and model of each of the other Buicks. A man with a 1940 Ford stated that he has a small collection of flathead Fords at home. One takeaway for me is that the owners know the ins and outs of their cars very well.
Horsepower is nice to have, but the experienced touring driver makes do with what’s under the hood. The Model T probably had the lowest HP rating of the tour cars, and 1/3 of the tour vehicles were Ford Model As, making 40 HP to push a car weighing over 2,000 pounds. At the other end of the spectrum were a Cadillac V12, a Packard V12, and the two Continental V12s. The Glidden tour is not a race, and again, the ability of all these cars to drive the crowded roads of NJ and get to their destinations in reasonable time speaks to the professionalism and experience of these tour drivers.
Glidden participants travel throughout the country to participate each year. The Tour Guidebook listed all 115 registrants, and also tallied the number of Glidden tours previously completed. For thirteen, this was their first (and they are referred to as “freshmen”). The remaining 102 have completed at least one other tour. Twenty-nine have driven in 10 or more such events; two people have done 30; one 34, one 39, one 43, and in the top spot is someone who has completed 54 Gliddens!!! Cars were trailered to this year’s event from states as far away as Florida, Colorado, Texas, Nevada, and Arizona.
The Tour Guidebook lists 14 cars which carried an additional set of passengers, meaning, 4 in a car. Many of the cars from this era have spacious back seats, and this concept also goes back to the idea of “touring” as something which can be enjoyed with a greater number of people provided your vehicle has the room for them.

Last week, I posted a daily photographic account (which you can find here for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday). However, I did not identify any of the vehicles. Some cars stood out for me more than others, and here is a brief write-up about a few of my favorites:

1920 Mercer Raceabout: If the searing yellow paint didn’t catch your attention, then the barely-muffled exhaust would! The Mercer’s driver was having no problem keeping up with traffic, and the wide grin on his face verified that he was having as much of a blast as you’d expect. I caught up with him at one stop to ask about the cubic inch displacement of the Mercer’s 4-cylinder engine. He said that it’s “about 300 c.i.” which helps explain his ability to run with the 8- and 12-cylinder jobs. I found myself photographing his car repeatedly during the week.

1941 Lincoln Continental: We were treated to TWO beautiful Mark I Continentals on this tour, and while Tour Chair Vince made it clear to me that he preferred the maroon one, I fell in love with this warm silver one. The female owner/driver caught me continuously taking pictures of it, and said to me “it’s not a show car, you know!” I told her it was just as beautiful as any show car. In a self-deprecating way, she complained that her car was photographed at an event and ended up on the cover of the Lincoln Owner’s Club magazine, which to her “was just a shame as there were so many other nicer cars there!” Her car ran as well as it looked. This was my overall favorite car on the Tour.

1931 Auburn 8: This car was in the running against the Continental for favorite car. From certain angles, it was stately, powerful, and streamlined. Yet from other angles, the car appeared bulky and less graceful. Nevertheless, it was an imposing automobile to see cruising down the road. I didn’t speak to the driver, but he was out and about every day with no apparent issues.

1936 DeSoto 4-door convertible: I had a long chat with the owner’s wife, who told me that this had been her father-in-law’s car, so it’s been in the family for a long time. She said the car is very comfortable and has been extremely reliable. She and her husband also have done The Great Race twice, for which they purchased a 1971 GTO! But it sounded like they both enjoyed that experience less, as she described the tremendous pressure to compete, as it’s a TSD rally. It’s interesting to compare the styling of this ’36 to the 1935 DeSoto Airflow which was also on the tour.

1911 Cadillac Model 30 Touring: All credit goes to the driver and passenger of this 4-door open car, both of whom brought adequate clothing for the conditions, which thankfully remained mostly warm and dry. This was one of the oldest cars on the tour, yet they were out there, often leading the pack! When the driver finally opened the hood for me to peek, I saw that the car was running a 4-cylinder engine with twin spark plugs per cylinder. As per Wikipedia, this engine displaced 3.7L, quite large for a 4-banger. Wiki also states that the 1911 Cadillac was the first car to have an electric starter.

My immersion among 100+ cars from the first 4 decades of the 20^th century was rewarding beyond words. It was an in-your-face education about the early years of autmotive engineering and styling. Now of course, I want to find a pre-war car to call my own, and go touring in it!

The NJ Glidden Tour for Friday, Sep 30, 2022

September 30, 2022 RichardReina Drives, Events Glidden Tour

Friday’s tour, the final driving day of the week, began with a stop at the NJ National Guard Militia Museum, followed by a visit to the Princeton Battlefield. After lunch in Colonial Park, the group headed back to the hotel via the Millstone Valley Scenic Byway.