(617) 263 .. 1691

Duetto Meeting
and Campout
• A gathering for owners of
'67 to '69 Spiders is being planned
for the second weekend of October
(Oct. 11, 12 and 13) in
YOSEMITE NA 110NAL PARK.
Although the emphasis is on
'67}69 Spiders, anyone with a
Spider of any year is
welcome-or any Alfa, for that
matter.
Those interested in attending
are urged to contact Chris at 406
King Ct., Santa Paula, CA
93060 or call The Alfa Doctor at
(805) 525-0625.
• We're not trying to be
troublemakers, but we were
wondering if we should be suspicious
of the Colorado chapter
holding almost all their functions
at the Zang's Brewing
Company ...
Events
Calendar
• In our ongoing effort to
develop a usable events calendar
in the pages of ALFA OWNER,
we again ask chapter presidents
and newsletter editors to send us
up-to-date schedules of what
your group has planned in the
near future. The deadline for
Events Calendar material in the
December 1980 issue is Tuesday,
Oct. 14. Send material to:
EVENTS, ALFA OWNER,
3019 S. Orange, Santa Ana, CA
92707.
Oct. 2. Ohio Valley chapter meeting,
Century Motors. Add'i Info. (513)
683·9960.
Oct. 4·5. Amanti Alfisti Oa'lI Indiana
car display at Glenbrook Mall. Add'l
Info. (219) 485·2062.
Oct. 7. Colorado chapter meeting. Zang's
Brewery!! Add'i Info. (303) 42 J.4225.
Oct. 11. So-Cal Inter·marque Concours
(charity benefit), Chadwick School, Palos
Verdes, CA. AOO'llnfo. (213) 449·1665.
Oct. 18.19. Kansas City chapter
OIOzarks Run." Add'llnfo. (913) 649·1156.
Nov. 1. So·Cal Time Trial, Riverside,
Raceway, CA. Add'l In(o. (213) 539·0700.
Nov. 1. Chicago chapter rally. Add'l
Info. (312) 848·3037.
Nov. 20. Chicago chapter annual dinner
and elections. Add'l In(o. (312) 848-3037.
Nov. 28. So·Cal Chapter meeting and
"White Turkey Auction." Add'l In(o.
(213) 832·4764.
• Member Ed Nersesion of Clayton, R.I., sent us an interesting
letter and the accompanying postcard. It seems Ed was visiting
the Newport Auto Museum (l Casino Terr., Newport, RI (401)
846-6688) when he came across this rare and noteworthy 1941
Alfa Romeo 6C-2500 Roadster.
Unfortunately, member Ed was without his trusty camera and
by the time he made his next visit to snap some shots for these
pages the cars had been shipped to the British museum in London
where it will be on loan for six months.
What follows are a few interesting facts from the back of the
postcard:
Only three cars of this type were built: one for Benito Mussolini, one
for Adolph Hider and one for Mussolini's mistress, Clara Petacci. This
particular car was presented by Mussolini to Hitler on Hitler's 52nd
birthday, April 20, 1941.
Hitler kept the car until September 1943, when it was presented,
with Mussolini's approval, to Major Otto Skorzeny for his daring
rescue of Mussolini, who had been deposed and was guarded by 250
men at a sports hotel 10,000 feet high on the Gran Sasso in the town of
Abruzzi. Skorzeny landed by glider with 50 paratroopers, stonned the
hotel and freed Mussolini. He was flown out in a tiny Storch spotter
plane to Rome, then transhipped in a Dornier to the Wolf's Lair,
Hitler's Eastern Front headquarters in Rastenburg.
Skorzeny perfonned many feats of daring for the Fuhrer. Among
them was Operation Frief, the plot to infiltrate the U.S. lines with
English-speaking German troops during the Battle of the Bulge.
Ed said he's eventually going to get us those photographs and
gave a hearty recommendation to fellow Alfisti to visit the
museum which boast over 60 fine automobiles.
• As in the past, the Capitol
Chapter is sponsoring a paddock
area at Watkins Glen for the
USGP. The paddock is open to
AROC members and guests and
to non-members driving Alfa
Romeos. The paddock is a fenced
area and provides a good spot
for camping or parking an Alfa.
Alfa Romeo Incorporated has
donated enough money to
insure that the paddock has
enough beer for the weekend.
There is a chance that AROC
members will be able to see the
cars up close in the garage and
AROC Paddock
USGP Oct. 3,4,5
meet the team members. We've
also been invoted to dine with
the team members at 'LaAuberge',
near Ithaca on Saturday night.
A lot depends on how much free
rime the team has during the
weekend, so we'll have to be
flexible. 'LaAuberge' is a fine
restaurant, so bring some decent
clothes and expect it to be
expensive.
The paddock is easy to find;
it's located near the old Kendall
Tech Center across from the
officials' camping area.
• A recent rumor credited to
a well-placed source finds Mario
Andretti in the cockpit of an
Alfa Romeo Formula One car in
1981.
Arnold H. Engborg
1905 • 1980
• Arnold H. Engborg, 74,
passed away on July 8 after a
brief illness.
He was a member of the Alfa
Owners of New England and
one of the seven founding memo
bers of the Sports Car Club of
America (Feb. 26, 1944). He was
one of the SCCA's early secretary/treasurers
and a charter
member of both the light Car
Club (founded Jan. 30, 1949)
and of the Vintage Sports Car
Club of America (although not a
founder of the latter).
Some of Arnold Engborg's
cars were a 1926 Alfa Romeo
T ourer Tipo 6C 1500, an Alfa
Romeo 1959 2-liter Spider, a
1927 Bugatti Grand Prix 39A
and a 1954 Siata 208-S 2-liter
V-B.
Mr. Engborg is survived by his
wife, Maude J. MacQuarrie
Engborg of Cape Porpoise, Me.;
two sons, Paul B. Engborg of
Cape Porpoise; and Alan R.
Engborg of Sudbury, Mass.; and
five grandchildren.
OCTOBER 5

(ABOVE) ALFA OWNER columnists Joe Benson (L) and
Fred DiMatteo (R) try to look civilized at Sunday afternoon's
awards luncheon. Yau be the judge of whether they were
successful. (RIGHT) One reason everybody was in such a
good mood for Saturday night's banquet was . . . Saturday
evening's cocktail party.
both from the Detroit chapter. Well
attended also, these two sessions were more
technically oriented and covered a wide
range of Alfa performance and servicing
topics. The enthusiastic support of the
workshop series at this convention amply
demonstrates their value to members and
argues well for a repeat of the program at
future conventions.
A variety of competitive events throughout
the weekend kept the conventioneers
constantly on the go and well entertained.
Included were a really, funkhana, Concours
d'Elegance, autocross and time trials, the
latter two being run on a one-quarter mile
banked oval stock car track at Westboro
Speedway. There was a very competitive air
as all events drew large fields. The autocross
which ran almost the entire day on Friday
10 ALFA OWNER
saw 4S entrants vying for trophies in seven
classes. With the timed trials immediately
following the autocross, it was natural to
expect that familiarity with the one-quarter
mile banked track would result in some fast
times being recorded. The field was reduced
somewhat through attrition, roll bar requirements
and driver exhaustion caused by the
heat. Our new preSident of the national
club, Howard Rockstad, surprised everyone
with fastest time of the day.
The rally on Saturday morning drew an
exceptionally large field of 47 cars. The
weather was ideal; the rally route wound
through scenic woodlands and farmlands
and several New England seacoast villages
with their beautiful white-steepled churches
and cedar-shingled cottages.
Later Saturday afternoon, a rather large
(LEFT) A full house for the Saturday evening's annual meeting and
banquet ... Will the holder of ticket stub number 179 please step
forward to claim this beautiful unidentified pre-war gasket set donated
by Joe's Auto Imports. (BELOW) Acknowledgement for past AROC
President Dave Yeager, presented by outgoing President Tom Suter.
FEATURED SPEAKER:
AROC's own legal eagle,
George Whitcomb, entertained
us with reminiscences of our
club's early days.
group appeared at the upper parking lot of
the hotel for the scheduled "Funkhana!'
The course, as everyone proceeded to walk
through, looked simple enough: several
plastic buckets interspersed in a zig zag field
of yellow-painted rubber pylons. Drivers
would soon discover, however, that a little
daring, some manual dexterity and considerable
luck were needed to toss sponge
balls into the buckets from a moving car
dodging pylons. Pre-competition trials had
indicated that contestants had at best one
chance in 20 of successfully completing the
course. When the last car was in, however,
an amazing seven of the 4S competitors had
combined enough Yankee ingenuity with a
desire to win to achieve a perfect score.
The annual meeting and banquet on
Saturday night were the highlights of the
Continued on page 12

Bob Little addresses the banquet audience.
ttA View
From Arese"
WHAT FOLLOWS are noteworthy
excerpts from an address to the
AROe membership at the annual
meeting and banquet on July 5, 1980 by
Mr. Bob Little, New York Metropolitan
Area sales manager for Alfa Romeo Inc.
"I described my remarks this evening as !fA
View from Arese." We have just a few days
ago returned from a working vacation in
Milan and Rome and would like to share with
you some of our experiences and let you know
how we view our present circumstances and
our future plans."
!fAlfa Romeo has been faced with the
enviable problem of straining to fulfill its
European production commitments, a significant
factor in effectively preventing our U.S.
organization from embarking on more aggressive
marketing strategies. Recently the factory
has changed its priorities, triggered by changing
world economic forces. It became possible
to upscale our marketing activities. We've
learned of these new initiatives in Rome last
week at the 1st International Alfa Romeo
World Conference.
In changing its priorities, the factory has
acted upon our recommendations to prepare
new offerings; a new fuel-injected 2.5-liter
V-6 engine is slated for a Sprint Veloce Coupe.
Furthermore, we expect to introduce changes
in our future U.S. product line over the next
10 years."
!fOur most immediate concern is to inform
the American public about our product line
despite our small advertising budget. Although
our advertising expenditure per car is high by
industry standards, it is not sufficient to clarify
our product identity at this stage in our marketing
endeavors. However, this is offset by our
growing family of Alfa Romeo owners, the
!fAlfisti," who have been so loyal to us and
without whose continuing and unswerving
support the inroads we have made since 1961
would not have been possible. Your cars and,
in particular, your enthusiasm for our marque
reinforce in North America the strength of our
heritage and our commitment to the future.
And you make this statement each day to
thousands of Americans who see you whiz by."
"Not only do we have profitability objectives
to meet in the early '80s, but we must
also overcome the obstacles we share with our
competitors ... that is, the production of a
fuel-efficient vehicle which will be palatable
to the American public. Alfa Romeo's challenge
goes one step farther: retaining the
essence of our 70-year tradition of automotive
excellence while cOfiforming to government
regulations." "Let me share with you our
enthusiasm for new GT 6 cylinders to be introduced
in a few short weeks in Europe. In my
personal opinion, I know it will absolutely
humiliate a Porsche Turbo 924. And it will
be here the first quarter of '81."
"Our continuing efforts, in spite of increasingly
difficult federal regulations, are aimed at
building a little bit of your Giulia Sprint, your
1750 or your short wheel base Giulietta
Spider into each and every new Alfa Romeo
we build. That commitment comes to you
direct from our president in Milan - Mr.
Masacesi."
"Let me briefly give you some miscellaneous
notes I hope will give you some idea what
Arese is trying to do for you.
The new Alfa 6 assembly line is computerized
from a quality control standpoint.
Terminals are set along the line every 200 feet
displaying chassis number, any shortcomings
noted and corrective actions taken each step of
the way. The result of this and many other
activities involving our commitment to quality
has resulted in what I view as the production
of an automobile equal to that of the finest
automobiles in Germany or anywhere else in.
the world.
This A to Z quality control program will be
gradually phased in to other assembly lines at
Arese. We feel this concept combines the best
of Italian craftsmanship with the latest technology
the world has to offer us. One out of
five people, roughly speaking, in the manufacturing
and assembly division is employed
by our quality assurance department. In the
plant, they wear green overalls, continually
putting pieces or subassemblies on test jigs,
engines or dynamometers or test driving each
finished product. Now that leads me to one
other interesting fact:
Alfa Romeo is the only manufacturer in the
world to test:
• 100 percent of the engines produced each
day on dynos or test stands ..
• 100 percent of USA production is now
emission tested before.. it leaves the factory
Undoubtedly one of
the stars of Alfa Nor'
East was this ARIprovided
example of
the new Alfa V-6
Sports Sedan.
door for its test drill on proving ground.
• Team engine assembly is the practice now
where three to four people will assemble a
given engine and sign onto the computer
their names as having performed the work.
• At the present time, Alfa Romeo is building
the most advanced engine design and
emission control laboratory in all of Europe.
• Alfa Romeo is now producing the most
technically advanced turbo diesel in the
world - the !fVM." "
!fOn behalf of the men and women who
represent Alfa Romeo in America, Arese and
around the world, thank you for your very
kind reception this weekend. I think the Alfa
Nor'East organizing committee headed by Gil
Gagne has produced a picture book weekend.
We're proud to have played a small role in its
success." •
OCTOBER 11

__________________ the center of a dry lake bed. I got behind the
I
F YOU HAVEN'T served on your local
Alfa Owners board of directors, you
wheel, put the pedal to the metal and on my
are missing half the fun of ...... all the
third run was able to miss the cone at full
fun! Meeting once a month, rotating houses
speed. At the end of the day, I deflated my
so the neighbors don't get too bent out of
passive crash helmet and compared the test
shape over the Le Mans start that woke up
results with the factory spec sheets. Mario
their kids about II :00 p.m. Answering ques­
beamed proudly as he pointed out, "Our
tions such as "What were all those little
specs are traditionally conservative."
Italian cars parked outside your house last
BY JOHN IRELAND
CAR: Alfa Romeo
night?" (And you answer, "No spica da
______________ WIDTH: WEIGHT: 2.3 10' 8" Tons
Englissh!") All it takes to be a member of
the board is that you be a member of the
MODEL: 1K9 Sports Sedan
club and have a little more enthusiasm than CHAPTER SIX
LENGTH: 20' 5"
the average Alfa enthusiast. And the payoff --------------- HEIGHT: 8' II"
is you'll have a lot more fun, because board
ILLUSTRATION BY PAUL PFANNER
HORSEPOWER: 40 bhp @ 5000 rpms.
members get special privileges. Such as the
one I had last month when Mario Silvi,
head of ARI's Western division, called to
ask if I wanted to road test the prototype for
the 1990 Alfa Romeo Sport Sedan.
This is Generation Five in the EPA/DOT
plan for your next car. (Current research
estimates that in 1990, today's auto
enthusiasts will be a ragged band of zealots,
clustering together by marques, living in
squalid shacks next to abandoned pre-jet
airports, frequently resorting to criminal
acts because of their addiction to petroleum.)
Now I was standing before the 1990 Alfa
Romeo. Not since welfare had the government
legislated such a well-running, perfect
machine. 1990 marks the year that emission
standards require all cars to produce 100
percent pure oxygen and carry six passengers
in virtual invulnerability. Mario
explained that the world auto makers will
make two totally different approaches. The
German way, which places the six passengers
neck-deep in a gel-like substance, the passengers'
breathing creating waterbed-like
movement, which starts magnetized beebees
in the tires to rock back and forth, exciting
the positive and negative forces in the
beebees. The excited beebees make the car
start moving, which excites the passengers
who breath more rapidly, which excites the
beebees more, etc., etc., etc. Radar devices
guide the car to a preprogrammed destination,
the speed controlled by drugs (pacifying
and/or stimulating) being injected into the
encapsulated passengers.
The 1990 Alfa Romeo, however, uses the
Third World/Zen Approach ... Socialized
Mechanical Anarchy. The car itself resembles
the 1968 Giulia Super, only twice as large,
to scale. Think of an Italian Willys-Buick.
Since passive restraints are required, the
Alfa has 700 individual air bags built into
various hidden compartments (all disguised
as ash trays or radios) throughout the car's
interior. No less than 50 of these air bags are
for head protection, forming a passive crash
helmet. Control of the vehicle will be located
in the right rear passenger seat. (This
actually will be the result of the 1984 Nadar/
Claybrook Passengers Rights Act ... "The
Back Seat Driver's Law.") The engine is
located on the roof, where it offers protection
from falling DC·! 0 engines. Exhaust
gasses pass through a series of filters that
delay the exit 0/ the gasses so long that the
Song of
The Alfa
emlsslons tester incorrectly reads the
ambient fresh air as the car's exhaust.
The 1990 Alfa's handling is also to scale,
turning four lane highways into twisty driveways.
Mario explained that I would notice a
slight loss in straight line power since the
engine has been downsized to 900cc. The
familiar five-speed gear shift was right where
it's always been; however for 1990 it will be
connected to the stereo speakers as a balance
control. The engine transmits power to the
wheels through a continuous belt drive, and
while the engine appears the same from the
outside, in fact only one of the cylinders is
used for combustion. Mario explained that
a turbo model with increased performance
capable of going from zero to 60 miles per
hour would soon be available in less than 12
months or 12,000 miles.
Since the EPA will require cars to blend in
with the environment by 1990, Alfa will
offer the Sport Sedan in four exterior pack.
ages ... painted to look like the side of your
house, painted to look like a large bush and
painted to look like a very large dog. The
slalom course will also change over the next
10 years. By 1990 it will be a single cone in
Mario was right, the car really weighed
2.5 tons. However, we both showed the
same elapsed time for the. quarter mile from
a standing start. Two weeks. Now some of
you see all this as the inevitable flow of
progress. Some of you see this as another
step in a conspiracy to confiscate personal
freedom. I see it as proof those that can, do.
And those that can't, go to work in the
government. Only one problem, those that
can no longer have the power and those
that can't do.
Now I'm not proposing political action,
God knows; I can barely find the time to
change my oil, let alone the political destiny
of the automobile industry. But I am proposing
that we all begin seriously thinking
of ways to beat the annual inspection systems
already in effect or about to be put in effect,
(if California wants any more federal highway
money ... and what politician doesn't).
And it isn't just us, the car owners; it will
also destroy the aftermarket folks like Jafco
and Shankle and D'Amico & Sons and Bobcar
and all the tool companies (since we
won't be allowed to work on the cars) and
all the specialty companies (if the car won't
go over 40mph, what do you need Konis
for?), etc., etc., etc. And if you think Ralph
Nadar is the way to a bright future, just look
at a picture of him. He never smiles!
That's right, because constipated people
can't smile. Not in public, at least. Even his·
eyebrows look constipated. But do you
know who was smiling? Just about everyone
who took part in the Alfa Romeo Owners of
Southern California Concours this year.
The first was at the famous Briggs Cunningham
Museum; the second was at the Will
Rogers Historic Park in the Santa Monica
Mountains. Both days were outstanding. So
while you are sitting there sucking on a
bottle of ice cold beer and reading these very
words, realize that the future of you and
your Alfa is in your hands. All it takes to
have fun is your participation and that
comes from your enthusiasm. And your
board of directors needs that enthusiasm
and participation to make your club a
success. It really is more fun than work and
I'll prove it. Right now, go out to your car,
crank over the engine, let the oil warm up
and head for an open stretch of road. Now,
I don't see any cops, do you?
AAIIFFaaRroooMMEEOOooo!
John, Alana, Marcello, and Doggy.
OCTOBER 13