Auto Italia at Brooklands, 29th April (Part 1)
Posted: Sat May 14, 2022 5:51 pm
The May Bank Holiday weekend saw a number of car-themed events on the calendar, but for me the highlight had to be the return of the Auto Italia show at Brooklands. This is traditionally the biggest event in the Brooklands calendar, and following cancellation in 2020 and a revised Autumn slot last year, it was certainly back to its pre-pandemic prime!
Once again the weather was superb and after an uneventful drive I arrived at the site just before 9:00am, and was greeted by members of the AROC Surrey section who fortunately are quite familiar with the Green Machine and efficiently directed me to my parking spot in the Alfa Romeo “car park”.
Following the successful trial of my extendable “broom handle” from a couple of weeks previously, I propped the rear louvre open so that my transaxle was visible for all to see
After fielding lots of questions it was time for a wander. Although largely populated by modern Alfas, the AROC car park did have a number of classics as well…
It’s a customised Alfetta bonnet, of course. But is it art?
Blue Monty was at the show last October. Looks much better in bright sunshine
Favourite Alfasud of the day was this fabulous 1.5 Ti. Fantastic!
GTV and Berlina outside Arese, 1968. But hang on… WHAT is that thing parked behind? Reality strikes, it’s 2022, and the world is full of enormous milk floats announcing their arrival with loud clicking noises. That’s progress for you
Right, onto the main site, and this year Auto Italia have set up the “Nuvolari Paddock”, populated with the cream of the crop of Italian cars (in their view). Let’s see…
Well-known Moretti coupe is a good start…
This beautiful Ferrari 250 (GTO?) looked great from every angle, but for me, this rear three-quarter view was utterly sublime…
Yes, the posh paddock has definitely delivered. Other highlights were a DeTomaso Mangusta (a regular attendee), a Series 2 Iso Grifo (the one with the Gandini makeover, which I prefer to Giugiaro’s original) and a Pantera GTS in a retina-searing shade of orange. While in this area I met up with my friend Sean (who had ridden shotgun in the Nova at the Easter Classic a couple of weeks beforehand), fellow Nova owner John Rand and Maserati Mark, here today in another ultra-rare example from his collection (he is a Maserati specialist), a Karif. OK, what else?
Tidy dashboard of the Lamborghini Silhouette (one of only 52 cars made during the darkest period in the manufacturers history)…
Countach Anniversary. Not my favourite Lambo by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like the orange paint. Hard to imagine Horacio Pagani cut his teeth on this one, although I wouldn’t call the Zonda or Huayra (is that how you spell it?) a thing of beauty either. Moving on…
Lombardi Man was there again, I love these tiny little cars. Abarth scorpion on the nose hints at motive power…
Nicely turned out rally replica. I suppose a Stratos was just too expensive for your average rally fan back in the day, but I know which one I would choose
Well, how about this then? The original Carrera Sport Lamborghini Countach LP400S. Even when parked amid a sea of “new money” Huracans with lairy paint jobs this car attracts attention like no other. Note the original Silhouette wheels, only fitted to the early big wing models and later supplanted by OZ teledials. If you look closely you will also see the windscreen is cracked, and that pristine engine bay soon betrayed an embarrassing secret, when copious amounts of steaming coolant, looking very much like a frothy Italian latte were released from the radiator expansion tank. Yup – head gasket.
Once again the weather was superb and after an uneventful drive I arrived at the site just before 9:00am, and was greeted by members of the AROC Surrey section who fortunately are quite familiar with the Green Machine and efficiently directed me to my parking spot in the Alfa Romeo “car park”.
Following the successful trial of my extendable “broom handle” from a couple of weeks previously, I propped the rear louvre open so that my transaxle was visible for all to see
After fielding lots of questions it was time for a wander. Although largely populated by modern Alfas, the AROC car park did have a number of classics as well…
It’s a customised Alfetta bonnet, of course. But is it art?
Blue Monty was at the show last October. Looks much better in bright sunshine
Favourite Alfasud of the day was this fabulous 1.5 Ti. Fantastic!
GTV and Berlina outside Arese, 1968. But hang on… WHAT is that thing parked behind? Reality strikes, it’s 2022, and the world is full of enormous milk floats announcing their arrival with loud clicking noises. That’s progress for you
Right, onto the main site, and this year Auto Italia have set up the “Nuvolari Paddock”, populated with the cream of the crop of Italian cars (in their view). Let’s see…
Well-known Moretti coupe is a good start…
This beautiful Ferrari 250 (GTO?) looked great from every angle, but for me, this rear three-quarter view was utterly sublime…
Yes, the posh paddock has definitely delivered. Other highlights were a DeTomaso Mangusta (a regular attendee), a Series 2 Iso Grifo (the one with the Gandini makeover, which I prefer to Giugiaro’s original) and a Pantera GTS in a retina-searing shade of orange. While in this area I met up with my friend Sean (who had ridden shotgun in the Nova at the Easter Classic a couple of weeks beforehand), fellow Nova owner John Rand and Maserati Mark, here today in another ultra-rare example from his collection (he is a Maserati specialist), a Karif. OK, what else?
Tidy dashboard of the Lamborghini Silhouette (one of only 52 cars made during the darkest period in the manufacturers history)…
Countach Anniversary. Not my favourite Lambo by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like the orange paint. Hard to imagine Horacio Pagani cut his teeth on this one, although I wouldn’t call the Zonda or Huayra (is that how you spell it?) a thing of beauty either. Moving on…
Lombardi Man was there again, I love these tiny little cars. Abarth scorpion on the nose hints at motive power…
Nicely turned out rally replica. I suppose a Stratos was just too expensive for your average rally fan back in the day, but I know which one I would choose
Well, how about this then? The original Carrera Sport Lamborghini Countach LP400S. Even when parked amid a sea of “new money” Huracans with lairy paint jobs this car attracts attention like no other. Note the original Silhouette wheels, only fitted to the early big wing models and later supplanted by OZ teledials. If you look closely you will also see the windscreen is cracked, and that pristine engine bay soon betrayed an embarrassing secret, when copious amounts of steaming coolant, looking very much like a frothy Italian latte were released from the radiator expansion tank. Yup – head gasket.