Once again, the weather gods were with us on April 20. Once again, lots of Alfas and Alfisti made the scene. Once again, many Alfa parts and pieces changed hands. Once again, Alfa lovers from all over New England got together to see old friends and make new ones. Just another Glynn Motorsports Tech Session / Swap Meet?

Hardly. There’s always something new and different – no two are alike. This time, we experienced a visitation by a Segway Human Transporter. AONE member Stephan de Pénasse happens to work for the company that developed the device, and was able to bring one along to our event. It’s a sophisticated two-wheeled machine that one simply stands on and essentially leans in the direction one wants to travel. A highly engineered system of motors, gyroscopes, sensors, and software keep the device and its operator upright and traveling in the intended direction. You’ve probably seen it on TV or in the newspaper – it’s gotten a lot of recent press coverage. (For more info, visit www.segway.com.) Everyone was impressed with the demo, and we thank the Segway Marketing Department for making an example available. There were, of course, the comments you’d expect from Alfisti – that it needed a sportier exhaust note, a Pininfarina body, and maybe we could get Kirshtein and Di Matteo to develop a chip for it to squeeze out a little more power…

Before people started arriving, the AONE Board of Directors held a meeting in the Glynn Motorsports conference room. Three members of the High Hopes Foundation were there to present us with the idea of participating in the High Hopes Balloon Festival on June 16 (see the Events section for the result!). We also discussed plans for the various events we have coming up in our emerging season.

Later in the day, we actually held a tech session (meaning that we can continue to call the event a Tech Session in the future). Brian Shorey showed up with three GTV6/Milano transaxles in various conditions. With lots of attendees looking on, Paul Glynn disassembled one that had both limited slip and lightened gears. We all got to see what made these things work (and to admire again the quality of the machinery that Alfa built into our automobiles).

Several members had their trunks open to display their arrays of Alfa parts, literature, and the like. It was easy to see that a fair amount of it traded hands. We spent the day awash in coffee, bagels, donuts, and muffins, thanks to Peter Walker and Tom Ducibella, who arranged for and delivered the sustenance.

The Furthest Traveled Award goes to AONE member Calvin Crouch, who lives out in the middle of New York State. Cal puts on the annual Italian Car Cruise out there late in September – consider making the run this year!

Once again, our club thanks the gang at Glynn Motorsports for being such gracious hosts for our affair.