By Dave Pratt
Photos by Terry Rushbrook, Gene Durso, and Dave

we’ll try to keep this short — so you can get to the photos! Besides, this hardly needs to be written, since you were probably at Tutto Italiano yourself on August 2nd, and you know what a marvelous show this year’s Italian Car Day was!

Despite a rather damp Spring, the weather cooperated handsomely on this early-August Sunday. Around 9AM, Italian vehicles of every size and shape began rolling onto the grounds of the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, MA, gracing onlookers with their beauty as well as with the sonorous music produced by their carefully-tuned intake and exhaust systems. Hard to say, exactly, but there must have been over 200 macchina when all was said and done!

Our Alfa Romeos occupied half of the main lawn, which we needed, since we were nearly 50 Alfas strong. And there were a lot more Alfisti who parked on the street and in the lower lot across from the main lawn. It was a great turnout! As in recent years, some of the smaller marques (Fiat, Pantera) were also on the main lawn, Lamborghinis and Maseratis were parked up the hillside, and the numerous Ferraris were at the top of the hill. Several extra-special cars were arranged near the Museum entrance that included Ven Fonte’s Alfa Romeo 1930 6C1750 Gran Sport, 1950 6C2500 Super Sport Touring Coupe, and terrific Osca and Maserati classics. Rod Burdick’s Sprint Speciale was included among the significant cars as well.

To many attendees, the star of this year’s show was the appearance of a new, red Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, proudly and prominently on display as the centerpiece in the Museum’s main hall. For many of us, it was the first opportunity we had to lay our eyes on one of these automotive masterpieces. Many visitors were observed walking away from it dazed, drooling, shaking, panting, staggering, or some combination thereof.

One purpose of a concorso is to have the entrants’ cars judged and compared with others in their classes. Originality, condition, presentation, and patina are all important factors to the judges. With so many Alfas on the field, the various winners of their classes can feel especially proud of their vehicles. The results of the judging in the Alfa classes are shown below. We’re pretty sure that Ven Fonte’s cars won some special awards too, but the info we have is sketchy. Congratulations to you all!

Besides the cars, there were a lot of other attractions for us — food concessions, various automotive vendors, live entertainment; and much more. AONE was well represented, with our 10’x20’ canopy draped with AONE and Alfa Romeo banners and flags. Here, we offered our various club paraphernalia, welcomed several new members, and simply hung out to enjoy the day and each other’s company.

Many thanks again go to Myron Barnett for admirably performing in his position as Head Alfa Judge, as well as to Alfa class judges Gene Durso, Andy Kress, Doug Sondak, Kevin Murphy, Tom Brooks, George Dolak, and Greg Stidsen. Myron will be stepping down, however, after many years of valuable service. We need to find his replacement! If you have an interest in filling this important and rewarding role, please contact Myron at myron.ics@gmail.com or 617-840-9800. He’ll be happy to discuss what it entails and will do whatever he can to make the transition as easy as possible for you. Let’s make sure that future Tutto Italianos are as terrific as this one was!

(Click on the thumbnails below for a larger view,
and then use the arrow buttons to navigate)