All Italian Car Day - Swan Valley

[Fast Eddie]

First reminder for the year to all WA Alfisti that the annual Rotary Northbridge "All Italian Car & Bike Day" is on again Sunday 21 February @ "Mulberry on Swan".

Same details as last year but we want to see a minimum of 100 Alfa on display (regardless of condition) on the day to commemorate the Alfa Centenary.

The Annual  "Show n Shine" will also take place that day.  So, as usual we will be lookign for volunteers to help speard the task load.

[Fast Eddie]

to those members or non members not on my weekly email broadcast but wanting to display your Alfa's, here are the instructions for the Italian Car & Bike day as we are trying to better control our display.

All cars - please drive to the Information Bay in West Swan Rd opp. Lilac Hill Park, some 300m. North of Barker's Bridge, or about 600m past Hamersley Rd if you're coming from Reid Hwy - between 0830 & 0900. Do not drive to the venue directly.

You'll be given a mud map, an interim location for placing your car which will be" fine tuned" once you've entered the area allocated to Alfa Romeo.  Please at all times follow the instructions from your club delegates.  We are trying to display each series Alfa in line (i.e all 105's together, all 900s together etc) with oldest to the front, youngest to the rear. 

Free entry if you display your Alfa for the duration of the event (approx 0900 til 1500).  There will be "door" prizes and giveaways on the day.

[aussiehcviva]

so what did everyone think of this event?

[Tim Jobson]

well this was first event as a member, so my views may be different.

Firstly as the weather is still too hot in Feb in WA it should be held later. it would make it more enjoyable for the general public and the people showing thier cars.

I feel that due to the limited space and very limited shaded areas it was not encouraging people to enjoy the day.    I think it would be nice to have plenty of space to set up your own seats, enjoy a meal in comfort and have people walkng past able to ask the owners of the cars questions.  It would promote members to interact more if there was more space rather that members looking for any scraps of shade to sit down.

Cars by themselves are nice but cars with their owners is what a car club should be based upon, this event did not really promote this.      May be it would be better to have just an old fashion club show and shine day where wifes and family can enjoy a meal, under shade and get a chance to talk to other members.

My thoughts only

Tim   

[aussiehcviva]

Tim,

I've heard the same comments echoed by many people . Not just this year but last as well.

was there any stand-out part of the display for you? a certain car that made it worthwhile? static displays, in my mind, always struggle to generate excitement at the best of times.

[JOHN G]

Tim  I agree completely very well put.

John

[Tim Jobson]

The best parts were talking to a couple of 105 owners who happened to be near their car when i was near by and the commentary done by Andrew.

Tim

[bteoh]

Hey John,

Did you have any of your cars displayed at the show?  Was that your recently acquired black GTV6 parked in the visitor's area on the day?
I could only be there for a short period as my 3 year old son was getting quite cranky due to the hot weather  
It might have been nicer with a bigger display area but I am sure the organisers may have had logistical problems?

[JOHN G]

Hi Brian

The 116 GTV6's that where on display were very average.(I could take that as an insult asking if any of them where mine )


Brian If you had entered any of your car's you would have taken first  in class


Yes the Black GTV6 3.0 with the South African rims in the Visitor's car park is my latest toy.

I was only there an hour and a half. I got there at 2.30 and I was out of there by 4 ish.

John

[bteoh]

Hahaha John, didn't think there were any nice 116 GTV6's there but I got there earlier than you and didn't spend more than an hour as I had to leave before lunch. There was a black GTV6 at the visitor's car park but it was looking tired - I didn't think it was yours but black GTV6s are not very common.....

Must get together one of these days with the rest of the guys.

Cheers

[aussiehcviva]

There were some good looking cars there for sure. perhaps the most interesting for me was Luca's fiat 500 with the sup[ercharged 16v alfa engine stuffed in the middle. I'd seen it whip around at the Midlave Superkhana so even that wasn't a big surprise though. Maybe a combined display/track day out at the RAC driving centre could be an interesting event to hold people's interest.

[Fast Eddie]

might be nicer to reflect positively on the fact that despite the heat we managed to have over 100 Alfa on display on the lawn over the day and conduct our annual show n shine.  
Pretty damn good way to commemorate the Alfa Centenary and the biggest Alfa presence for years (and we thought last years 50 plus cars was good).  And to not mention the highlight as being the presence of the RL?...

If you want some other club events, why not suggest them and then better still offer to run them rather than be negative toward the events that are put on by a very dedicated minority?

[Tim Jobson]

My views were not designed to criticise the few members that are normally left to organise such events, they were a personal view that was given as feed back from a fresh view point.    If we put people off from providing feedback how is a club able to grow and provide what the majority of members are looking for in a club.... please do not take this comment as a negative.

Regards

Tim

[105s alive alfa parts]

Hi All,

I thought the day was great, yes it was hot but its better then rain, then there would have been about 5 alfa's on show! having the stall there i got to talk to alot of people and alot of them didn't have cars there, they just came down to have a look and admire some great cars, what alot of them said was that the area of the swan valley with the vineyards was very suited to the italian cars and were very impressed and i never heard a bad word about the day.  Ed have you ever looked into having the day at the motorplex in kwinana? i only say this because there is the large grass area plus obviously the strip, but NO shade! where ever we have it there is always going to be a catch, i thought it was really well organised and it had good publicity,  also Eddie i know early last year Tony Lucente was trying to organise a pasta run and it was like mission imposible and it eventuly got canned, i think it was because no one could agree on a date,  how about we look into trying to organise one for this year, they are great fun and its a fairly relaxed day where we can all talk about cars. I know Tim is not complaining about the day just giving his thoughts which is good because yes you are right that if you don't things will never change, but i think its alot better venue then dorian gardens and where i was in bentley that time, anyway they are just my thoughts.

Angelo

[Fast Eddie]

The alternative is we run our show n shine at a different time but that will almost definitely dilute the attendance at the ICD as we have seen this in the past with our own events and the Whiteman Park classic.  The ICD is held around this time due to there almost always being a date clash with other activities as it is a multi club event but primarily a fund raiser.

We have several other club specific events on during the year - Convoy run to Northam and display at the flying 50, Presidents breakfast and run, Mystery weekend etc and we would love to see the resurrection of the Pasta Run, but i am afraid it was never raised to the committee last year...

We have an idea for a Pasta run this year which we are trying to put together.  I have gone on like a broken record for the last 3 years.  We need people to volunteer to organise these events, not rely on the 2 or 3 that always make the effort.  We need new blood and new input, especially as the AGM is in SEP and most of the committee are retiring, me included.