The National Alfa Romeo Club Magazine Publishes My Bologna, Italy Article

February 24, 2025 RichardReina Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Jr., Car shows, Events AROC, Auto e Moto d'Epoca

The Alfa Romeo Owners Club (AROC) has been in existence since the 1950s and has a storied history in the U.S. You can read more about the club’s history and mission at this link, where the passion for the marque is obvious. It has been said, without the slightest exaggeration, that it was AROC that kept the Alfa Romeo spirit alive during that long gap of time (1994 – 2016) when new Alfas were not offered for sale in this market.

The club’s monthly magazine, Alfa Owner, is a highlight of club membership. It is a full color publication, printed on high quality glossy paper, and carries stories about recent and upcoming events throughout the country. After my trip to the Auto e Moto d’Epoca in Bologna, Italy last October, I submitted an article to the club. I am proud to let you know that it was accepted for publication, and was selected to be the cover story as well. Twelve of my photos were included, and I was honored by the editors’ decision. I have included scanned pages from the magazine in this post. (Please excuse the fact that several photos were positioned across two pages and appear disjointed in my scans.)

NJ AROC breakfast meet, Feb. 16, 2025

February 16, 2025 RichardReina Events Americana Diner, AROC-NJ

The NJ Chapter of the Alfa Romeo Owner’s Club held its monthly breakfast on Sunday, February 16, 2025, with six Chapter members gathering at the Americana Diner in Shrewsbury, NJ. The lighter than usual turnout was not a surprise given the weather, which overnight had started as snow, then changed to sleet, freezing rain, and finally rain. Temperatures above freezing helped make the hour’s drive for your scribe palatable.

Also palatable was the food, which was excellent as we’ve come to expect from this diner. Conversation ranged from winter projects on stored Alfas to the upcoming Amelia Island show and the annual National AROC Convention in Chicago.

Four of the six of us motored in Alfas, and we decorated the Americana parking lot with a Giulia, two Stelvios, and the oldest Alfa out today, a 164 sedan. Here’s hoping for an early spring so that our March breakfast might include a larger number of Milan’s finest.

L to R: Lee, Richard, Vic, Paul, Alfred, Frank

NJ AACA Judging Seminar, Jan. 25, 2025

January 27, 2025 RichardReina Events AACA judging, NJ Region AACA

As they did last year, the Bettles of Florham Park hosted around two dozen members of the NJ Region of the AACA at their home for a seminar on the finer points of show car judging. There were several twists compared to 2024. First, the family 2000 Saturn station wagon is now, at twenty-five years of age, AACA-eligible, so it was moved into the garage and used as the target vehicle. And in addition to the vehicular judging, a separate seminar was conducted upstairs on the administrative side of the judging juggernaut.

Our Regional V.P. Craig, as he did last year, assumed Chief Judge duties while we wait for a dear Regional member to recover from an extended illness. Craig had this to say at the end of the technical session: “… repetition of the discussion of what and how to judge is always beneficial for judges. My eyes were opened a bit because judging the engine compartment of a car only 25 years old car is not the same as judging a 60- or 90-year-old engine compartment…. There’s a lot of technology stuffed under the hood, and … recognizing authentic is a lot more complicated now.”

Is it all original? How is a judge to know?

Meanwhile, yours truly helped oversee the administrative brainstorming, which focused on doing a better job of keeping the registration line moving, accurately identifying which cars belong in which class, and ensuring that those cars are correctly parked in those classes. The biggest issue will be the tallying of the scores. The Region has 17 AACA classes, plus classes for modifieds and moderns. Each class potentially has a 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place winner. Within the space of three hours or less, the entire judging team must correctly identify up to sixty trophy winners, based on numerical scores assigned by the team.

Craig and I agreed that the biggest takeaway of the day was the greater number of Regional members who expressed a willingness to volunteer on show day. At the conclusion of the separate meetings, we all headed toward the kitchen for a delicious self-serve lunch of ham, lasagna, meatballs, sausage and peppers, and dessert. As our President Paul has pointed out more than once, we get a better turnout at these things when food is involved!

Craig (facing camera on right in light blue shirt and cap) is about to start the meeting

John P, using Saturn door as armrest, ably assisted Craig with his deep knowledge of AACA judging

“The ‘judged’ stickers go on the placard, NOT ON THE CAR’S HEADLIGHTS!”

Although it wasn’t used for judging, our host owns this very nice Lotus

The lady of the house generously provided more than enough food for all

Dining Room #1 held these hungry campers

The folks at Dining Room #2 were smart enough to sit close to the food

AROC-NJ Monthly Breakfast Meet, Jan. 18, 2025

January 19, 2025 RichardReina Events AROC NJ Chapter, Bernards Cafe

The New Jersey Chapter of the Alfa Romeo Owner’s Club (AROC) got the 2025 season off to a roaring start with our first monthly breakfast meet, held at the Bernard’s Café in lovely downtown Bernardsville, NJ, on Saturday, January 18, 2025. Ten hardy Chapter members made the trek, enjoying the fine food and comforting coffee as served up by the capable wait staff of the Café.

What did we talk about? Where do I start? Much of the discussion focused on our plans for the year. I’ve long maintained that living in the Northeast as we do, and enduring the winter seasons as we must, only makes us look forward to the coming spring with increased excitement. The group anxiously awaits that first drive of ’25. Meanwhile, all of us with older, classic Alfas have their cars in hibernation. Only Steve and J.P. with their modern Giulia, and John and Fran with their Tonale, drove Alfas to the breakfast.

For many of us, our Alfas are our toy cars, and we have “non Alfa” daily drivers. There was much talk around the table about our ups and downs with our Fords, Saabs, Volvos, Hondas, BMWs, Mazdas, and Kias, among others. This led to an interesting discussion about the prevalence in our daily drivers of modern safety aids such as rear-view and 360-degree cameras, and automatic braking for front collision avoidance. Our hobby-level Alfas have none of this electronic wizardry. Does that make them unsafe to drive? Not by a long shot would undoubtedly be our consensus. Our classic cars are fun to drive, and stick shift transmissions, manual steering, and non-ABS brakes require 100% driver focus at all times. We could make the argument that some so-called modern features, such as touch screens, add to driver distraction. At Volvo, I was taught that “active safety” is another term for accident avoidance, and our older classics have lots of active safety features. Precise steering, excellent handling, abundant outward visibility, and well-placed controls enable the driver to take appropriate evasive action when necessary.

Another hot topic: Stellantis, as in, the parent company of Alfa Romeo, which is having some major business issues at present. Alfa Romeo’s new vehicle sales in the U.S. last year were not great, and while these things don’t necessarily directly affect us right now, all of us want to see the brand thrive. The company is under new management and we’re hoping that there are big changes for the better coming soon.

Once we had finished solving the problems of the world, the group headed back into the winter air. The first day of spring is two months from Monday, and the days are getting longer, so there is plenty to look forward to and to be thankful for, including the continued camaraderie of this group.

From L to R: Bob, Richard, Jay, Steve, J.P., Tony (standing), John, Fran, Gene, and Cathy.

Cars on the Street: Washington, D.C., late 2024

January 12, 2025 RichardReina Cars on the street D.C., JDM cars, Rover, Washington

My wife and I recently spent a long weekend in the Washington, D.C., area, and it was not a surprise to find some interesting automobiles scattered about. One day we toured the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, where I spotted a few JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) cars. I presume that navy men and women, while sailing around the world, return with cars that they can’t otherwise source here in the States.

Sightseeing in several neighborhoods also uncovered cars on the street that I haven’t seen in the metro NY/NJ area in a while. The most fabulous find was the Rover TC2000, because I would have presumed that one hundred percent of them stopped running ages ago.

It only proves that cars of interest are everywhere, you only need to look for them.

FROM THE ANNAPOLIS NAVAL ACADEMY:

This Mitsubishi is a “kei” truck, limited in size by Japanese statute

We know it as a Lexus SC, but in its home country, it’s a Toyota Soarer. Note the rear wiper!

A very clean Toyota 86, formerly Scion FR-S

A painter was using this Vantage as his work truck. Off-road use only?

ON THE STREETS OF D.C.

A pair of Volvo C30s. The design has aged well, I think, and they are starting to become collectible among Volvo fans.

Is it me or is this spoiler mounted backwards? Great downforce in reverse…

A Plymouth and a Lexus, several generations apart??

January 9, 2025 RichardReina Uncategorized

Happy New Year! I’m back after taking an extended break over the holidays, although my head is still in the clouds after that outstanding visit to the Auto e Moto d’Epoca in Italy in October.

I almost never post items found on other websites, but in this case, I couldn’t resist. This morning, while performing my daily scroll through the offerings on Bring A Trailer, I was struck by the juxtaposition of these two cars. By complete coincidence, they were placed side-by-side. Gaze if you will at all the similarities between this 1961 Plymouth Fury and this 2021 Lexus LS500: the headlight location, the front fender sweeps, the pinched grille, the horizontal brightwork along the bottom edge. The black paint only adds to the resemblance.

Sixty years separate these two automobiles, and while it’s fair to conjecture that the designers of the Lexus were not born when the ’61 Plymouth debuted, they might have stumbled across reviews of that Plymouth which referred to its front-end styling as “the grille that ate Tokyo”, or some variation thereof. Maybe something got lost in the translation….

NJ Alfa Romeo Club Breakfast Meet, Dec. 14, 2024

December 14, 2024 RichardReina Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Jr., Drives, Events AROC NJ Chapter, Jimmy's American Grill

Thirteen degrees Fahrenheit! That was the temperature in my driveway at 8 a.m. this morning as my wife and I headed to our car, about to drive to Jimmy’s American Grill in Bordentown, NJ. The occasion? The monthly breakfast get-together for the New Jersey Alfa club. We arrived at the restaurant just before 9 a.m. to find most of the crowd mulling about in the parking lot (and why not? The temperature had risen to a tolerable 25 F). We shared our quick “good mornings” and briskly strolled to the entrance. They were ready for all twelve of us, as the waitress efficiently passed around their extensive breakfast menu.

Food, coffee, and service were all great, and the table talk bounced from our Alfas, to holiday plans, to travel stories, and back to (what else) our Italian macchine. A personal highlight for me was meeting Pedro, his wife, and daughter, who arrived in their Alfa Romeo 155, a model never sold in this country. Pedro informed me that he imported the car from Japan, and that all the instrumentation was labeled in Japanese. His sedan is FWD, with a transversely-mounted Twin Spark 2.0L four-cylinder engine. I thought it was sharp. Those of us with “classic” Alfas left our steeds at home, so the only other Alfas in the parking lot were the modern Giulias.

A little less distinctive from the rear, but note the spoiler, lower valence, and exhaust tips

A congratulations of sorts is due to the NJ-AROC. In late 2023, we decided to “try” to hold monthly breakfast gatherings, with the first one in cold mid-January. After that, we also decided to vary the eatery location, so that we might increase the likelihood of additional members joining us. We did just that, and month after month, throughout the year, NJ Chapter members showed up. With this December 14 event, we have successfully held a breakfast meet every month for the year. I hope that we continue this into 2025, and I feel certain that we will. Thanks to all who have made the effort!

NJ Alfa Club Breakfast Meet, Nov. 17, 2024

November 18, 2024 RichardReina Drives, Events Americana Diner, AROC NJ Chapter, Breakfast meet

For the 11^th month in a row, the New Jersey Chapter of the Alfa Romeo Owner’s Club (AROC-NJ) held its monthly breakfast meet, returning to a favorite eatery, the Americana Diner in Shrewsbury, NJ. Our autumnal weather continues to grace us with sunshine and warm temperatures, and this past Sunday the 17^th of November was no exception.

We made our way into the diner a little bit after 9 a.m., but we were far short of the expected headcount. That was soon remedied when the remainder of those who had registered for breakfast arrived to fill out our reserved table. The food and drink were greatly enjoyed, and although the diner was getting crowded, the wait staff didn’t act as though they were in any hurry to shoo us out the door. One waitress, obliging my request, was only too happy to take my camera and snap the obligatory group photo.

The fun continued after we exited the building. We hung around our Alfas, old and new, and continued our conversations. Vic delighted us by showing his new-to-him 1966 Giulia Super sedan, an amazingly original car. The cloth interior was nicely preserved, and the engine compartment looked like it had not been tampered with, down to the fuses which Vic claimed were original. At some time in its past, the car had been repainted, and top coat did not adhere well, perhaps due to poor prep work. We debated the pros and cons of a repaint, with the consensus agreeing that the car probably should be brought back down to bare metal and treated to a quality respray.

Parked next to Alex’s red Duetto was a very rare Alfa Romeo prototype. A club member who prefers to remain anonymous said that he was given the chance to drive Alfa’s new electric SUV. In order to disguise the beautiful Italian styling, the engineers hung sheets of flat steel roofing they bought at Home Depot over the entire car. Their intent was to use the camouflage to create “the ugliest car on the road” as a way to deceive the public. We unanimously agreed that they had succeeded.

The Americana parking lot is small, and cars kept pouring into the lot looking for spots, of which there were none. We finally decided that we needed to get out of the way, so our chit-chat was over for the day. The NJ Chapter meets next month in December, which will make it 12 consecutive monthly breakfast meets.

Auto e Moto d’Epoca Summary Part 4

November 6, 2024 RichardReina Car shows, Events Auto e Moto d'Epoca, BolognaFiere

This 4th and final installment includes the cars which didn’t fit into any of my previous categories.

This 1966 Autobianchi Bianchina convertible was for sale for €26,900.

FERRARI

There were not many Ferraris here, certainly not compared to other Italian makes.

This 400i Automatic was for sale for €58,700.

A Dino 246GT in yellow for €355,000

According to the sign, this 330 GT was Enzo’s personal car.

A stunning 275GTB in yellow.

Another yellow Ferrari, this time a 308GTB.

And yet another yellow Dino.

My all-time personal favorite, the 330GTC. Vendor was asking €650,000.

A Daytona.

Parked outside, and looking like it belonged to an attendee, the world’s first 4-door Ferrari, the Purosangue.

ISETTAS

This BMW Isetta in blue/green had an asking price of €33,900.

A painted Isetta body shell.

No, this is NOT a BMW Isetta. This is a car I’ve never seen before: an Iso Isetta, from 1954. Iso was the company which originally designed and manufactured the Isetta. It was Iso which sold the licensing rights to BMW so that they could produce their own version. When I belonged to the Isetta Club in the U.S., there was only one known Iso Isetta in the entire country. The detail differences between the ISO and BMW are significant.

Bosch was there to sell spare parts. Note how the emblem on the front of this VW Bus has been changed to the Bosch emblem.

This Abarth Simca was for sale for €310,000!

VIGNALE

Although based on Fiat mechanicals, I’ve listed the Vignale-bodied cars separately because of their uniqueness.

This is a Vignale 600 convertible.

Another Vignale convertible, asking €28,900.

A Vignale coupe in grey, asking €14,550.

A 1958 Vignale based on a Fiat 1100TV.

This Autobianchi Bianchina Transformabile convertible could be yours for €30,000.

This Fiat 128-based Moretti looked like a downsized Fiat Dino Coupe, and was only €17,000.

The beer truck lady flashed me the Victory sign. She was doing a brisk business all weekend. “Long Island” made it onto the menu.

RM Sotheby’s Auction company had its own display which included these two Abarths. I’m sorry that I did not record details about either of these cars.

This Abarth 1300 Scorpione had an asking price of €58,500.

A pair of OSCAs, made by the Maserati brothers.

A Stanguelli, with racing history going back to 1948.

A Moretti-Fiat 1500.

A tiny Abarth (is that redundant?).

A 1950 Siata, asking €145,000.

A 1966 Cisitalia 850 Spider, asking €108,000.

The Bianchina Club had these two adorable examples on display.

This blue and white Abarth was ready to rip.

Auto e Moto d’Epoca Summary Part 3

November 5, 2024 RichardReina Car shows, Events Auto e Moto d'Epoca, BolognaFiere

Days 3 and 4 in the BolognaFiere were spent making sure that I walked at least once through every one of the 13 halls. The show category called “The World of Classics” did not contain vehicles for sale; instead, it consisted of display cars which were brought in by manufacturers, car clubs, and organizations. Non-Italian brands were well represented. Clubs for Alpine, BMW, Volvo, MG, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes Benz, Mini, Mustang, Porsche, Triumph, Toyota, and Volkswagen had vehicles there. ASI, which stands for “Automotoclub Storico Italiano” (Historic Italian Automobile Club) had a huge presence, taking up most of one hall.

By Sunday afternoon, the final day of the show, I made one last walk through the cars for sale sections, this time paying more attention to the asking prices. After being on my feet for 6 hours a day for 4 days, it was time to quit.

While I like all cars, I especially like Italian cars. And while I like all Italian cars, it’s my ownership of an Alfa Romeo which puts that brand at the top of the mucchio (heap). The below photos reflect just a sample of the many Alfas at this show.

This 1963 Giulia Spider was for sale for €78,000, presumably including the hardtop.

This 1961 Giulietta Sprint could be yours for €55,000. It would make a nice bookend with the Giulia Spider above.

I was smitten with this ’67 GT 1300 Junior because it was an almost exact duplicate of my car. The owner was asking €46,000.

This 1991 SZ had an ask of €90,000.

This 1970 Spider looked to be cosmetically near perfect, and it stood out for me compared to almost every other Spider at the show. The vendor was asking €63,000.

A 1973 GT 1300 Junior in white. Note the 2^nd series front end styling.

An Alfetta GT coupe in black. This was one of only a few at the show.

This blue GTA “tributo” was only €39,000.

A 1957 1900 Super sedan.

I thought this GTV looked sharp in silver with the silver wheels.

One of the better priced Alfas here was this 1976 Spider 2000 for €26,500. The sign on it seemed to claim that it had only 9,000 original kilometers on it.