New England 1000 day 5

May 22, 2015 RichardReina Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Jr., Events, Rallies

Wayne Brooks, Rich Taylor, and your scribe.

Steve with the Alfa somewhere in the Catskills.

Back at Mohonk, rally driving over for the week.

Not all rally cats get driven back home. — Not all rally cars get driven back home.

2015 New England 1000 day 4

May 20, 2015May 20, 2015 RichardReina Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Jr., Events, Rallies Alfa Romeo, classic car rallies

Wednesday’s driving took us from MA and into CT, where we visited Dragone Classic Motorcars and lunched at the home of Bill Scheffler. The Scheffler homestead was the day’s highlight, for the magnificent garage, the lawn’s car collection, and the lobster lunch. It was a long but lovely drive back into NY and a return to the Mohonk Mountain House.

The ceremonial washing of the rally car.

Rally cars queuing up to get a time out for the next segment.

AC and Jaguar at Scheffler's. — AC and Jaguar at Scheffler’s.

Ferrari, Porsche, and Mercedes at Scheffler's. — Ferrari, Porsche, and Mercedes at Scheffler’s.

The Alfa in front of Scheffler's garage. — The Alfa in front of Scheffler’s garage.

Bob Cushman learns how to fold a British convertible top.

The circle in front of Bill Scheffler's home. — The circle in front of Bill Scheffler’s home.

2015 New England 1000 day 3

May 19, 2015 RichardReina Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Jr., Events, Rallies

Tuesday was a long day’s drive, taking us from Lenox MA, into NY state, back into MA then VT for our first stop. The weather, which began completely overcast, became rainy enough for wipers on all the time.

The next stage pulled us through Bennington again, then north to Grafton VT where we had lunch in a charming old inn. After lunch, despite forecasts to the contrary, the clouds parted, the sun broke through, and we had marvelous driving weather.

On the way back to The Cranwell, we stopped at Donovan Jaguar, an outfit which specializes in servicing street and racing Jags.

The store owners, previous rally participants, own this neat VW pickup.

Mercedes Benz 250SE convertible — Mercedes Benz 280SE convertible

Kristen Levenson, rally wrangler extraordinaire.

Rich Taylor listens to another fish tale.

Richard trite on an XK140 for size, decides he likes it. — Richard tries on an XK140 for size, decides he likes it.

Stop

2015 New England 1000 day 2

May 18, 2015May 18, 2015 RichardReina Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Jr., Events, Rallies classic car rallies

Steve outside Hemmings World Headquarters.

Today, our first day of driving started by taking us from New Paltz NY to the Saratoga Auto Museum in Saratoga Springs NY. We toured the museum and ate lunch on the grounds.

From Saratoga we drove to Hemmings World Headquarters in Bennington VT. From there it was off to the Cranwell Resort, our host hotel in Lenox MA for the next two nights.

As we have discovered in the past, once the driving starts, the photo ops become less frequent. Nevertheless I was able to squeeze off a few shots including some cars in motion. Again I will let today’s pictures tell the story.

Steve Hansen enjoying his time behind the wheel of the Alfa.

Left to right: Maserati Mistral, Porsche 911, Ferrari 250 GT Specials.

A butterfly meets its demise on the rally.

2015 New England 1000 Day 1

May 17, 2015May 17, 2015 RichardReina Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Jr., Events, Rallies Alfa Romeo, classic car rallies

Each year, this classic car rally has a home base which serves as a starting and ending point. For 2015 that home base is the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz NY. Departing NJ at about 1pm, the Alfa easily handled the ride up the NY Thruway. Improvements to the cooling system kept the engine temperature under control at 85 degrees and 70mph.

The Alfa and I arrived in a little over two hours. It was a personal thrill to meet up with my rally brother Steve Hansen, who flew in from California (again) to drive the rally with me.

As always, there was the ceremonial installation of the front license plate. We then perused the parking lot to take in this year’s rally choices. The cars were more eclectic than ever, with a larger mix of domestic iron than we usually see.

Having completed our first rally together in 1998, the fun of meeting up with other rallyists whom we have gotten to know through the years sometimes outweighs the fun of seeing the spectacular cars.

From here I will let the photos speak for themselves. At 8am Monday morning the actual rallying begins.