Hear ye, hear ye! It’s time to put winter behind us and get the AONE season off and running! On the day before the vernal equinox, we’ll be gathering at Vinny T’s in Natick, MA for the annual AONE Spring Kick-Off Meeting. For those of you with good memories, this is where we held our 1999 Winter Party.

In addition to getting back together with your Alfa buddies after the long winter respite, this is your chance to make your voice heard and have some impact on the types of things our club does this year. As you can see on these Events pages, there are already some nifty things shaping up, but there’s a long, event-filled season ahead of us. We need not only your ideas but also your efforts—why not make 2006 the year you get involved in running an event or two? The Spring Kick-Off Meeting is the perfect place to make the connections and sign on to an activity that interests you.

Vinny T’s has an atmosphere that is reminiscent of big Italian family dinners, where "every dish starts from scratch and ends in a vowel". (You can visit www.vinnytsofboston.com for info, photos, menu, etc.) We’ll be gathering on Sunday, March 19th at 12:00 noon in a function room of our own, with tables set up in a square to facilitate conversation. The menu is extensive and quite reasonably priced.

So come on out! With any luck, the roads will be sufficiently salt-free to allow our Alfas to traverse them. But what’s even more important is that you traverse them to the annual AONE Spring Kick-Off Meeting and help get the season off to a running start! See you there!

Directions: Vinny T’s is located at 801 Worcester Road (Rt. 9W), Natick, MA, 508-655-8787.

This "scavenger hunt" of Cape Cod is a low-pressure event where you are supplied with a map and clues to locations all over the Cape. The object is to visit these locations and do so in the fewest miles possible. Each two-person team chooses its own pace. The distance that will be traveled will be at least 110 miles. Above all, the idea is that you will have FUN on this tour of Cape Cod.

And it’s also a great excuse for a weekend getaway on the Cape before the summer crowds arrive! The SCCA has made arrangements with the Four Points Hotel in Eastham for a bargain rate of a mere $65 per night. (To get this rate, you must make a reservation by March 8th!) Most rallyists will convene there Friday night, run the rally on Saturday, and there’ll be a banquet right at the hotel on Saturday night. The rally entry fee is $35/car ($30 for SCCA members); the buffet runs $30/person. Click here to download a Word file that contains more detailed information and the registration form!

One more thing! If we get enough of us to enter, there will be a separate Alfa Romeo class with its own trophy! After you sign up for the rally, please contact AONE and SCCA member Mark Ziburis at mziburis@cox.net or 860-648-0205 and let him know that you’ve done so.

This rally will be a great way to break your Alfa out for the season, spend a weekend on Cape Cod with other sports car enthusiasts, find out what this rally thing is all about, and have some fun! Sign up now!

About a month ago, Tom Letourneau had an opportunity to attend a tech session at KTR Motorsports in Ayer, MA with the Jaguar club. After spending the day there drooling over the many sports and vintage street and race cars that they maintain, he knew that his fellow AONE members would also welcome an opportunity to visit this facility and meet the people who run it.

If you’ve attended vintage sports car events throughout the Northeast, you’ve surely spotted KTR vehicles, trailers, and cars sporting KTR logos. Several well-prepared Alfa race cars in various stages of work are always in KTR’s shop. They also work on a number of street Alfas and other older makes of European vehicles, but Alfa Romeo is right up there among their specialties.

In addition to viewing this candy store of vintage racers, we’ll be treated to a presentation and viewing of the new Noble M400 super car. KTR does the final assembly and is the New England authorized installation facility for the Noble. This car is something to see and behold!

We’ll also get to see KTR’s brand-new computerized four-wheel chassis dyno that they now use for doing high-performance tuning and tweaking of their customers’ race and street cars. Tom reports that all of the Jag club members who patronized KTR had nothing but compliments about the staff, their work, and their pricing. So if you’re looking for an alternative for you Alfa’s servicing needs, here’s yet another reason to show up!

The tech session, Noble presentation, and walk-through of the KTR facility will start at approximately 11am, but feel free to show up a little early. We’ll break for lunch at noon, and this will be special too—things like chowder, chili, wrap sandwiches, dessert, coffee, and other accoutrements. Lunch is $10 per person, and you must contact Tom at Alfaracer1@cox.net, 401-334-3315 (home), or 401-651-3346 (cell) to let him know you’re coming (and with how many people) since we need to plan the food.

There’ll be directions and more info in next month’s Velocissima. If you want to get an idea of what the KTR facility is like, visit www.ktrmotorsports.com. This will be one of AONE’s "must-do" events of the year, so don’t miss it!

The early-autumn Italian Car Cruise that's become a tradition! For more info, visit the Pasta Fazoom web site or contact Cal Crouch at 315-691-9718 or calvincrouch@hotmail.com.