On Labor Day, Fiat Lancia Unlimited (FLU) will sponsor its 12th annual Italian Car Corral at Lime Rock Race Track in Lakeville, CT. Alfa Owners of New England is a co-sponsor of this event. The Corral is being held in conjunction with the 23rd annual Vintage Sports Car Races being held over Labor Day weekend at the track. The schedule includes practice races on Friday, qualifying races on Saturday, a Concours on Sunday and Vintage Races on Labor Day. In addition, there are an auto flea market, many vendors, and many beautiful and rare cars to inspect. This is New England’s premiere vintage racing event, with thousands of people flocking to Lime Rock!

FLU was offering discounted weekend and daily tickets to the Vintage Festival, although if you haven’t already purchased them it’s probably too late by the time you read this. But you can still buy your tickets at the gate! Contact FLU’s Tim Beeble at 203-743-4954 or beeblet@umich.edu to coordinate participating in the corral. For more information, check out the Lime Rock Park web site.

On Saturday the 10th and Sunday the 11th are the SVRA Vintage Races at the track, which is a major take-in with many different classes competing wheel-to-wheel, and The Collier Cup. There will also be many vendors from all over the country to tug at your purse-strings, and a classic car show in which those participating in the prior day’s Alfa event are invited to show their cars (and it gives you great parking while at the track!).

As if all of this weren’t enough to give you a total overdose of your favorite obsession, the picture-perfect setting of Watkins Glen, crammed with old (and not so old) sports cars and racers, beautiful twisty roads dotted with wineries, lakes, and waterfalls make for a heady brew, so you’d better bring someone sensible with you to make sure you come back!

The beautiful grounds of the Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich, MA will provide the setting for this year’s Premier Auto Show & Grand Invitational on September 17th from 10am to 2pm. This year, they’re expanding the show to fill all the lawns of Heritage with a grand array of beautiful, restored or exceptionally preserved autos.

Vehicles will enter the Heritage Premier Auto Show in the following categories: American antique (up to and including 1925), American pre-WWII classic (to 1945), American post-WWII classic (1945-1984), exotic (unusual origin: limited production, multi-national, race-bred, etc.) and foreign (all marques, all years) categories. In each class, there will be 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards presented.

The centerpiece of the proceedings will be an elegant, judged Grand Invitational featuring a select, invited group of exceptionally restored and original vehicles competing for a variety of special awards. The Antique, Vintage and Classic Show, held at the Heritage for over 30 years, is building the Heritage Premier show into a larger affair with the addition of classes and features. Now that the Castle Hill Concours d’Elegance is history, this could become the East Coast’s answer to Pebble Beach!

Heritage Museums & Gardens is just over the Sagamore Bridge in Sandwich, with one hundred acres of beautiful gardens and woodlands, the J.K. Lilly III Automobile Collection, art and history museums and a wonderful restored, operational 90-year old carousel. The show entry fee of $15 (if registered by September 5th and $20 at the gate) includes two admissions to the Museums & Gardens (a $24 value). You can visit the Heritage web site or contact Tom Goux (508-888-3300 X122, tgoux@heritagemuseums.org) with any questions about showing your car.

First run in 1999, Pasta Fazoom is a low-key road event providing Italian car owners with an opportunity to gather for some camaraderie and an enjoyable cruise though the picturesque Central New York countryside. This is not a concours event—it is a drivers’ outing.

Previous years’ participants report having a lot of fun—that it’s a great chance to tear up some terrific empty roads with other Italian car aficionados! There’s a lot more information, some great photos from prior years’ cruises, and an online registration form on the ICC web site, or you can reach Cal at 315-691-9718 or calvincrouch@hotmail.com.

Back to Events

This was a well-planned, interesting event and this year’s variant promises to be even better! Guilherme and John inform us that another great route is being planned. The gathering spot will be the parking area of Peterborough Plaza, with a target meeting time of 10:45 to 11:15am.

Our group of Alfas will proceed to the Depot Square area of downtown Peterborough, a destination spot for the Monadnock region. Depot Square is framed by the confluence of two rivers in the center of Peterborough. It provides an attractive setting for the Sharon Art Gallery plus several fine restaurants and clothing boutiques. Our group can visit the Square and have lunch at our leisure. After lunch, we’ll head out on the tour and find out what John and Guilherme have in store for us!

In order to keep things under control, our tourmasters are limiting the event to the first 20 cars to sign up—first come, first served! To register, contact Guilherme at 603-732-1539 (work), 603-860-9705 (cell), or via email at bbonatto@verizon.net. Do it now so you don’t end up on the waiting list!

So reserve Saturday, October 1st (rain date Sunday the 2nd) on your calendars and sign up post haste!

Directions: Peterborough Plaza is visible from Route 101 and includes a Stop & Shop supermarket. There’s an entrance off Route 101 near the traffic light at the intersection of Routes 101 and 202 South.

Look for a BUNCH OF BEAUTIFUL ALFA ROMEOS in the parking lot!