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Remember when the Super Bowl MVP would exclaim, “I’m going to celebrate by going to Disney World!?”  Well, they all should have been at the 15th Annual Mid-Florida AROC Viva Alfa Romeo held at Celebration, FL on November 4th.  This Celebration is a picturesque little town adjacent to Disney World.  Its streets and houses are so picture perfect that, as you drive along the tree canopied streets, you wouldn’t be surprised to see Mickey and Minnie sitting on a porch swing or Donald and Daisy waving at you or hearing the “Uhyuh,uhyuh,” of Goofy. 

The Viva Alfa Romeo celebration, as always, began on Friday evening with dinner at Café d’Antonio’s  on the lake at the corner of Market Street. The café provided a cozy banquet room, put on extra staff and served Italian cuisine with great service.   This year the room was packed with 59 Alfisti, many of whom had not seen each other for a year.  Good food, good wine, good memories and friends!

The next morning the cars entered at the top of brick lined Market where, at the registration booth, Patty Cowherd and her team of registrars Beth Mann, Joyce Suchy, Jane Sanford and Linda Jay quickly in-processed every car and gave them their windshield placard and goody bag.  And, as always, the Mid-Florida AROC hospitality queen, Gladys Bernstein, greeted each and every person personally. Then Phil Cowherd and Norm Burnstine led each car to a parking place and guided it in at just the right angle, just the right distance from another car and curb.  Very professionally done so the show’s  presentation would be as perfect as its setting.  Behind the cars were boutiques, gift and flower shops and restaurants, the place is post card surreal.  All set beneath a pure blue sky, 80 degree weather and spectators pushing baby carriages as they bump along the bricks, awed by the beauty of the Italian cars parked on both sides.

As usual, there was a wide range of Alfas although this year the newer cars replaced most of the cars from the 1960s: two new Giulia Quadrifolios, one ti Lusso, five 4Cs, three 164s, one 156 (the only legal one in the US), two Milanos, two GTV6s, one GTV, two Giulia spiders, nineteen  Series 2-4 spiders,  six Fiat 124 spiders (not the new one), one Fiat 124 coupe and one Qvale Mangusta.

The Qvale was the rarest in the show, only 284 were produced between 2000-2002.  The car was designed by Marcello Ghandini for Alejandro de Tomaso and first badged as the De Tomaso Mangusta after the cars Alejandro built in 1967-71. Keeping with the de Tomaso tradition the car was to have a Ford engine. The development was funded by Kjell Qvale whose son, Bruce, renovated a building in Modena for production.  The car eventually became the Qvale Mangusto. It is powered by a 4.6 L Ford Cobra SVT V8 putting out 320hp through a Borg Warner T45 5 speed transmission. The Mangusta has a unique, three way, “roto-top.”   All up and it’s a coupe.   The center panel can be removed for the “targa” configuration.  The hard, rear section electrically rotates (on a forward pivot) down behind the seats to make it a spider.  This car was displayed by Dan & Kate Morris of Jacksonville.

With all of those beautiful cars in such a beautiful venue there had to be judging and the non-concours was done by Maury Hatcher and Rick Demichina.   Inexplicably, this year the cars seemed to be even better detailed than usual making the judging both more difficult and more rewarding.  The Fiats were in exceptional finesse.  

And the winners were . . ..  

Pre 1982 -  Closed: Giancarlo Fruzetti’s 1970 Fiat 124 coupe.  Maury, who has been judging Alfas and Fiats for 35 years, said, ”This is the cleanest Fiat I’ve ever seen!”    Pre 1982 – Open: tie, Harmon & Jo Heed’s 1964 Giulia spider and Bob Minton’s 1972 Fiat 124. 

1982 – 2010 Closed: John & Linda Rady’s 1988 Milano Verde. 1982 – 2010 Open: tie, Norman & Joan Burnstine’s 1985 Fiat 124 2000 and Gil & Karen Gagne’s 1991 spider Veloce.  Gil purchased this car from John Rady last year at the 2016 Viva Alfa Romeo. 

2011 – 2017: Chris & Tiffany Casto’s 2015 4C.  This was Chris & Tiff’s first Alfa event!   

People’s Choice Award: John & Cheryl Picot’s 1973 GTV 2000 which they bought new in 1973.

Giancarlo drove 550 miles down from Cary, NC.  Fortunately for the Florida AROCs Celebration is located in central Florida so not many had too far to drive for the event.  Buddy & Marilyn Guynn from the South West Florida AROC drove up 175 miles from Ft Myers  in their like new 164LS.  Armando Paredes, the South Florida AROC pres drove up 250 miles from Miami in his 1988 Milano Verde with his three sons just as he has for the past twelve years.  “My how those boys have grown!”   Also up from Miami were SF-AROC VP Noemi  Sarasola in her new 1981 GTV6 and Jeff Schuyler in his 1991 spider.  

Twelve cars from the Florida Alfa club trekked a mere 100+ miles east from the Gulf of Mexico.

There was also a celebratory drawing. Some of the prizes were exceptional, like a $200 Optima battery gift certificate and a DeWalt portable drill combo worth $300.  The Grand Prize winners, Joe and Susan Stigliano up from the SWFL-AROC, were presented with four day passes to the 12 Hours of Sebring enduro held at the Sebring International Raceway in March.

The consensus of the Mid-Florida members was the Most Valuable Player on the team was Margo Miller, the sponsorship chairwoman.  She worked the hardest even knowing she wouldn’t be able to attend; she and her husband left for Italy the day before the show kickoff.   With all of the wonderful cars, location, weather and friends everyone who attended was a winner and all got to go to Disney World to celebrate, er, Celebration!   

Harmon Heed    12 Nov 2017