aving hosted last year’s national convention, and attending two or three prior to that one in ‘working’ mode (gathering up thoughts and ideas so we could do the best possible job on ours), it was a refreshing change to attend a convention in ‘spectator’ mode. I attended in a 1976 Alfetta Coupe that I had purchased in the bay area of California. My daughters and I had done the cross-country trip (southern route) last year in a ’72 GTV, so this year we planned on driving to Seattle from the bay area, and then to Boston via a northern route.

The Seattle club hosted a really great convention! The organization was top-notch, the venues were really fun, and the scenery was fantastic!

From California, we took Route 1 north, through Redwood Forest (and literally drove through a Redwood tree). We arrived late on Thursday evening, so I missed the tech sessions and garage tours (they had arranged tours of the garages of a couple of Microsoft billionaires, or something like that). I went straight to the time trials on Friday morning.

The time trials were held at Pacific Raceway, which used to be called Seattle International Raceway. The main straight doubles as a quarter-mile drag strip, so it’s pretty long and allows you to carry a lot of speed into the first corner. Other than that, there are some good turns and elevation changes, and one sequence of really, really unnatural turns.

The Alfetta was on Pirelli touring mud-and-snow tires and, while I’d gone through the engine and drive train, I hadn’t put in new brake pads and fluid. Big mistake (more on that later), but for the time trials it meant that for each session I got in about 5-6 good laps before the brakes started to fade. This was plenty of fun, however, as the Seattle club had a good twist for this event. They installed transponders in all of the cars, and simply told everybody they’d take the single best lap each participant turned during the course of the day. This meant they didn’t have to spend any time at all staging 2-3 single cars on the track for the timed runs, which resulted in one or two extra lapping sessions for everybody!

The highlight of the day for everybody was the parade laps during lunch. The organizers had some pretty rare stuff from those Microsoft billionaires out on the track—8C2900s, 6C1750s, Tipo 33s, and many other ‘lesser’ Alfas—HA! At the end of the day, the Alfetta mustered a second in class! However, we got back to the hotel and found that the brakes seemed to be on rivets.

On Saturday morning, we left the Alfetta at the hotel and joined Kevin Redden (another AONE member in another bay-area-purchased Alfa, this one a Verde) for the rally and then the autocross. We didn’t think we’d have time to go back to the hotel to fetch the Alfetta in between (we were right), and the Alfetta brakes were shot, so Kevin graciously offered his Verde to me for the autocross.

The rally was another hoot, but a little on the longish side. We were the first car off at 9:01 AM, and we reached the finish line at 2:00. I’d learned a lesson from Keith Kelly, with whom I’d won the LA rally a few years ago: Don’t be afraid to backtrack if you think you missed a clue. At the end of the day, most people will get most of the clues, and the really tough ones will be the tie-breakers. This lesson paid off for us; while it took us a long time to finish the rally, we did end up in second place overall. We heard that the team that finished first took 7 hours to complete it!

The scenery was fantastic; if you’ve never been to Washington State, you’ve got to see Mount Rainier on a clear day to really appreciate how awesome it is! Well, this was a clear day, and the rally route took us past many great views of Mount Rainier, Snoqualmie Falls, and many other neat Washington sites.

Fortunately, the rally finished at the site of the autocross; we arrived just in time to get teched and then begin our runs. Poor Kevin—without being able to walk the course, his first few runs were "off courses", but I was able to hop in his car, get my runs in and learn the course, and then navigate for him. His last couple of runs were pretty respectable for a novice!

On Saturday night we had delicious salmon at the banquet, they had an Indian tribe come out and perform some traditional Indian potlatch tunes for us, and the guest speaker was Burt Levy, who was very entertaining to listen to.

Sunday brought the concours, and they had an impressive display of Alfas there. Those wonderful 8Cs were there, enough to make up a class! The weather and setting were most cooperative; they also had some vendors selling food and drinks, and Burt was there selling books.

Then it was back to the hotel for the awards luncheon, where I won the ‘Quadrifoglio’ award—some sort of composite award for the highest finishing position across the most events. Or something like that. I rather think this was Gordy Hyde’s way of saying "thanks" to the New England chapter for whatever help and guidance we might have provided them for this convention.

After the awards banquet, we began the ride home. Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you might remember that the Alfetta had no brakes, and you might also recollect that I never mentioned anything we’d done to fix them. Well, facing a day-and-a-half delay to fix them versus driving 3,000 mostly highway miles cross-country, I figured I’d leave plenty of space in front of me, downshift a lot, and save what was left of my rivets for one or two possible panic stops. And the fact is, I think there was only one single time during the ensuing 3,000 miles that I had to touch the brake pedal at a speed higher than 5 mph.  Whoo-hoo!

Along the way we visited Yellowstone Park, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Niagara Falls! And there is one other thing worth mentioning in this story: Last year, we drove a little over 4,000 miles in a 30-year-old non-air-conditioned Italian car, and my two lovely co-pilots never uttered a single complaint. This year, we did it again: 4,700 miles, and again not a single complaint. In fact, my younger daughter willingly did both trips in the rear seat of both cars!

Dad: "Alicia, you are now probably the only living person to complete two consecutive cross-country trips in the rear seat of an Alfa Romeo GTV and Alfetta Coupe, respectively.  Inquiring minds want to know: Which one was more comfortable, and why?"

Alicia: "I don’t remember last year..."

Cara: "Well, then maybe we’ll have to do it again!"

Alicia: "Oh, now I remember! Last year we drove through that hot place [BS: that hot place was Death Valley] and this year we drove by that watery thingie [BS: that watery thingie was the Pacific Ocean]. Neither one was very comfortable. I’d like a Milano with air conditioning better…"

So there you have it: conclusive proof that neither rear seat is very useful for anybody much over the age of 12 for any trip approaching 4,000 miles (or less!).

That about wraps it up. I’m starting to get hooked on these conventions—next year is in Oklahoma and the club there has talked the police into blocking off the roads around the hotel so they can run a STREET AUTOCROSS adjacent to the hotel! I think I’ll have to try that one!
 

s described, a Potlatch is a Northwest Coastal American Indian tradition where a person invites their acquaintances for a celebration and sharing of their wealth. The Northwest Alfa Romeo Club did just that, and such wealth it was! They freshened up and raffled away a beautiful 1975 Spider, giving all of the proceeds (almost $10,000) to the Seattle Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center.

Jon Shirley and Greg Whitten generously opened up their car collections for all to see. From a P3, which later spent time on the track, a 1932 8C2300 Touring and a 1938 8C2900 Touring, through an amazing series of Ferraris, including 1969 and 1997 Formula One Grand Prix cars, and a smattering of other makes (Porsche/Jaguar/MG/Austin Healey) to a couple of modern Ford GT40s, an F50, and an Enzo. (Drooling yet?) I even watched Greg Whitten pick up a young lad and drop him behind the wheel of his P3 for the fun of it!

Back at the hotel was the everlasting Alfa fest. The art show, vendors, tech sessions (where I learned lots about my Spica) and, of course, the enclosed garage where all the Alfisti hung out, displayed their toys, made adjustments and swapped stories.

The rallies wandered through some beautiful countryside and the track events were at Pacific raceways.

The banquet featured Salmon and a host of other delicacies. A group of local American Indians shared their tribal dances with us and Burt Levy regaled us with stories of his automotive escapades.

The Concorso was another delight for Alfisti Paletti. There were four pre-war racecars, a real TZ2 and a beautiful Ereminas Imports replica. Spiders, Sprints, GTVs and every other Alfa model abounded as did the smiling faces. They even had free Gelato and Italian Pastry samples.

We all had a great time!

Mille Grazie Amici!

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Photos by Brian Shorey, Kevin Redden, and Steve Thomas)

	Somebody brought a new Spider!
	Brian on the track in his West Coast Alfetta
	Kevin Redden in his Giulietta Giubilee T-shirt
	Greg Whitten’s P3
	The raffle Spider
	A rare 2000 Berlina
	Brian thrashes Kevin’s Milano in the autocross
	1997 Ferrari Formula One
	A very detailed model Alfa garage
	A 1939 8C2900 Touring