Auto Italia at Brooklands, 29th April (Part 1)

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Spacenut
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Auto Italia at Brooklands, 29th April (Part 1)

Post by Spacenut »

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”.

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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 :D

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…

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It’s a customised Alfetta bonnet, of course. But is it art?

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Blue Monty was at the show last October. Looks much better in bright sunshine :D

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Favourite Alfasud of the day was this fabulous 1.5 Ti. Fantastic!

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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…

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Well-known Moretti coupe is a good start…

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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?

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Tidy dashboard of the Lamborghini Silhouette (one of only 52 cars made during the darkest period in the manufacturers history)…

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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…

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Lombardi Man was there again, I love these tiny little cars. Abarth scorpion on the nose hints at motive power…

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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 :D

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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.

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Spacenut
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Re: Auto Italia at Brooklands, 29th April (Part 2)

Post by Spacenut »

Speaking of Lamborghinis…

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Jane Weizmann brought her very well-known Miura S, otherwise known as the “Twiggy” car because it used to belong to Twiggy’s manager. She also has plenty of other exotic, and not so exotic machines in her extensive collection, and told me that they had been invited by Lamborghini UK to bring their LM002 off-roader to the official launch of the hideous new Urus SUV. Naturally Lamborghini UK thought that by associating the new car with it’s predecessor they would sell more cars. Jane told me that the presence of the LM002 had completely the opposite effect – as soon as the potential buyers realised that this enormous square-rigged, fibreglass bodied Countach V12 powered, 120 mph 4WD monster was a Lamborghini, they all started asking where they could get one of those instead!

My, how we laughed. That is quite easily the funniest story I have heard all year :D. Jane has been a big fan of the Nova since she contemplated buying one in the early 80s. OK, moving on…

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This Delta Integrale managed to break a rear driveshaft on the notoriously rough concrete of the Brooklands Test Hill. Fortunately the car came with a portable garage stuffed with spare parts and a number of mechanics, and other people fresh out of the bar offering advice, so the driveshaft was quickly replaced. Then, just as we were thinking of heading home, this turned up…

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Was I dreaming? Is this real? I had to check…

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It wasn’t of course (although I have seen an 037 Stradale at Brooklands before), but talking to the owner, this amazing recreation is so much more than a kit replica. For a start, the original Montecarlo wheelbase has been extended, so that it could fit the Lampredi twin-cam in-line with a ZF transaxle, just like the original. That’s why there is acres of space in front of the transverse engine. And look at those picture-perfect wheels – just like the original Speedlines, and made from scratch…

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From every angle this car looks the part, definitely one of my favourite cars of the day.

And so it was time to leave. I wondered back to the car, still surrounded by curious groups of people, fired up the engine and headed home. Total mileage was 71.2, with an average fuel consumption of 39.1 mpg.

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In spite of being parked well away from all the supercars and surrounded by innocuous modern Alfas, the Nova received quite a lot of attention and made it onto the AROC gallery and into the official AROC event video, which was good to see.

OK, that’s your lot for now. Ciao tutti :D

Lauren

junior
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Re: Auto Italia at Brooklands, 29th April (Part 1)

Post by junior »

Brilliant some great shots there of some interesting cars. Thanks for posting. :D

Kegsti66
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Re: Auto Italia at Brooklands, 29th April (Part 1)

Post by Kegsti66 »

As always Lauren, a great selection of photos of some great finds.
Very nice S2 green Sud, what a gem.
Any Sixties model looks great with eye lashes, and I can imagine an LM002 would sell better now if launched as a new model than in the seventies. It is all about big and brawn on the roads now a days.
Love the 037 as well.
I say it every year, but I must get down to this event one year.
Thanks.

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