Despite the 24th of June being a regular busy Thursday the small but dedicated band of Sri Lankan Alfisti braved the usual heavy traffic, scorching heat, and humidity and gathered at Green Path; a leafy road in Colombo 3/7 to celebrate the centenary of their favourite marque.
The buzz of the centenary was in the air with the “Museo” in Milan contacting one of our members and showing a big interest in the Sri Lankan celebrations. They were keen that it coincided with Milan’s mega bash along with other Alpha clubs around the globe that were synchronizing wherever possible.
A centenary comes only once in a lifetime and Alfa Romeo enthusiasts are known to be the most passionate ones, about their marque the world over. This is amply proved by Alfa Clubs being the most numerous (300+) throughout the world.
Alfa Romeos on exhibition with all their splendour |
Not surprising then that our local Alfisti took a break from work and gathered at Green Path from 3.30 pm onwards. By 4 pm the cars had lined up and Green Path looked a lot more exciting than it usually does on a Thursday afternoon. Notable, and out for the first time was a series 1 Yellow Alfa Sud Ti gleaming in the sun. The Sud was Alfa’s most popular model of the 70’s and 80’s and brought Alfa ownership to the masses.
To give you a brief history, in the pre-war years Alfa Romeo was a marquee synonymous with motor sport, incredilble passion, exotic and hyper expensive race bred sports cars and Grand Tourers.
They dominated almost all spheres of racing at the time, be it Grand Prix racing where they often humbled Bugatti, Maserati, Mercedes and Auto union among others, or grueling road races like the Mille Miglia.
The post war years however panned out to be somewhat more chequered with continuous poor management of the company.
However the passion and the motor sport success remained, with extremely dominant forays into Touring car racing and to a lesser extent in sports car racing. It is almost a certainty that if Alfa decides to race they would win. Alfa Romeo is considered the brand that has the most number of race wins if it were all added up. Yes many argue that the numbers are greater than even mighty Ferrari.
All this has given rise to a serious number of followers of the marque more than any other. Back to the event now, after a short run around Colombo, the Alfisti in their Alfas headed to the ‘Il Ponte’ at the Hilton Colombo which is easily the best when it comes to authentic Italian cuisine. With an Alfa Romeovideo playing on screen the members had scrumptious Pizzas that only Colombo’s premier Italian spot, the ‘Il Ponte’ makes and delicious wine.
At 5.30 pm there came a telephone call from Milan, from the Alfa Museum and the centre for the centenary celbration. The curator Marco Fazio greeted the Sri Lankan Alfisti and then turned on the volume so that Colombo heard the countdown to Alfa’s birth time. With more wine and pizza the passionate discussion about this remarkable marque continued into the evening that was Alfa’s 100th birthday!
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