Alfisti,

It’s been a great 2019. I want to thank everyone who made it to one (or more) of our events this year – you truly made it special. I also want to thank everyone who made our events possible – from Vince and Ruth, to Ellen, Bill and Greg, to the many clubs, museums, wineries, and restaurants that shared their venues with us – thank you!

As we begin planning for 2020, we look forward to another great year. If you have any ideas or want to plan an event, just reach out to Bob, Bill, Ellen or Greg – we’d love to hear from you and can always use a couple of hands to help out.

On behalf of the DVAROC, we wish you a relaxing holiday and a wonderful New Year!

Our fall winery tour is now set for Sunday, October 27th.

We’ll depart from Landhope Farms in Kennett Square, promptly at 10:30am.  Landhope is located at: 101 E Street Rd, Kennett Square, PA 19348, on the corner of routes 82 and 926.  There, you’ll be able to gas up, get some coffee, and use the restroom.

Our first stop will be Paradocx Vineyards, Since we last visited Paradocx, they’ve opened a new tasting room.  A four wine tasting will be $12.

From Paradocx, we’ll drive over hill and dale, to get to Galer Estate Vineyard and Winery.  Galer is new to the DVAROC.  They have a lovely facility and might even have a fire going for us.  Tastings at Galer run $15.

By the time we leave Galer, it will be time for lunch.  So, we’ll head northeast through Chester County and make our way to Trattoria Guiseppe in Newtown Square.  There, we’ll have an ala carte lunch. 

With time for tastings and driving, expect to arrive for lunch close to 2pm.

Please RSVP to me by Friday, October 25th. 

The scenery is great, the roads will be exciting, and of course, the wine and food will be delicious!

The annual Delaware Valley Alfa Romeo Owners Club picnic will be held on Sunday, September 29th at noon. Join us atop the Petit Mont where you will enjoy picturesque views of the Brandywine Valley while sharing a lovely afternoon among beautiful cars, and fellow Alfisti.  

Gourmet lunches and drinks will be provided. Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets, chairs and Alfa Romeo related items that can be given away as door prizes.  

In addition to the gathering of cars and friends, we’ll have games, entertainment and the DVAROC will hold annual elections.  If you are interested in running for a position, please contact Bill Conway at bilconway@comcast.net prior to the event. 
Don’t miss this cornerstone event of the DVAROC.

A $10 per person contribution will be requested to help defray expenses.

RSVP by September 27th to Bob Brady at robertanthonybrady@gmail.com  
Rain Date is October 6th.

September is right around the corner, and it is jam packed with Alfa events, so mark your calendars!

On September 8th, the Radnor Hunt Concours D’Elegance will be held at the lovely Radnor Hunt Club. In addition to the car show on Sunday, there are activities on Friday and Saturday. For more information, see: https://radnorconcours.org/

On September 21st, the annual running of the Coatesville Vintage Grand Prix will take place. Although not quite to the caliber of Monaco, it is nonetheless a great way to spend the afternoon. For more information, see: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/coatesville-invitational-vintage-grand-prix-tickets-62595137742 or https://coatesvillegrandprix.com/

Based on the responses to the poll on the Fall Picnic date, we are moving it to September 29th. This is one of our cornerstone events and I look forward to seeing everyone. Look for more details in the weeks to come.

For a full list of events and a calendar showing even more, go to: https://dvaroc.org/events/

Drop the top, get some sun, enjoy the ride!

The Delaware Valley Alfa Romeo Owners Club will hold our Summer Picnic and Rally at Ridley Creek State Park on Sunday July 7^th.  The event will include a fun rally, which should take less than an hour to complete, followed by a picnic in the park.  You’ll have a chance to show off your car, demonstrate your navigation skills, and enjoy some good food and friends.

We’ll gather at Ridley Creek State Park at 10:30.  Refer to the map below:

After everyone arrives, we’ll go over the rally instructions and then have a Le Mans style start.  The rally will take participants through some very pretty Chester County horse country. The course is designed to make for fun competition that won’t reward use of GPS or following another car. 

The rally course will take less than an hour to complete.  Once everyone is safely back to the park, we’ll enjoy some lunch together.

Picnic lunches – hoagies, salads and drinks will be provided.  We’ll ask each participant to provide $10 per person to the club, to help defray costs.  

If you want to attend, please RSVP to Bob Brady at: 302.420.6529 or preferably, robertanthonybrady@gmail.com  by Friday, July 6^th so we can plan food and hand-outs, accordingly.

Hope to see you there!!

Okay, I realize that some of you drive your Alfa all year round, and kudos for that. But, some (maybe most) of our little Italian pets spend most of the winter hibernating in garages throughout the Delaware Valley. So, every year, when the days begin to get longer, and the trees begin to bud, it’s time to take the covers off, and fire them up.

As is our longstanding spring tradition, we’ll gather at Nick Falcone Enterprises in Bala Cynwyd on April 20 (note the day change) for our spring Tech Session. This is always a great time, so please join us.

The weekend before, on April 13th, the Simeone Foundation will be taking out their Alfa 8C 2300 Monza out for a spin, along with some other Monza favorites.

And, finally, mark your calendars for our spring tour on May 25th. More details to follow.

For all our events, please refer to our events page at: Events

We’ve made some updates and confirmed some dates for our 2019 events calendar. Check it out at: Calendar

In addition, note that the AROC national convention is within striking distance of our chapter, this year. It will be held in Pittsburgh on July 16-21 and coincides with the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. This is an uncommon opportunity to hang out with the Alfisiti as well as enjoy a premier vintage race. For more details go to: AROC National Convention and Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix

I hope everyone had a great New Year and that your Alfa collection expanded.

We’re in the process of developing our slate of events for 2019.  Go to our events page for more details.  Here’s what we have, so far:

April (TBD) – Tech Session
May 25 (TBC) – Spring Tour (Bucks County and along the Delaware)
June 2 (TBC) – Horses and Horsepower at Brandywine Polo – Car Show
June (TBD) – Italian Festival at Rose Valley – Car Show
July 14 (TBC) – Fall Picnic and Rally – Ridley Creek State Park
August (TBD) – New Hope Auto Show
September 8 – Radnor Concours d’Elegance – Car Show
October 6 (TBC) – Fall Picnic
October 27 (TBC)  – Fall Winery Tour
November 9  – Demo Day at Simeone Foundation

If you have an idea or a suggestion, just get in touch with one of your DVAROC officers.

Our last driving event for the year will be our fall tour.  We’ve rescheduled it to November 11^th to avoid any Eagles’ fans’ conflicts – so now, you have no excuses!

This year, we’ll be visiting two wineries and will finish up at a brewery for a late lunch.

The club will meet at Wawa in Chester Springs – see map below – before 10:15am.  There, you’ll be able to tank up on gas and coffee.  We’ll leave promptly at 10:30 and drive to our first stop, Stone Barn Cellars Winery www.stonebarncellars.com where we’ll sample their wines and enjoy a few club provided cheeses and snacks.  Cost for wine tasting there is $10.  From there, we’ll hit the back roads and for a 45 minute, or so, drive to Black Walnut Winery www.blackwalnutwinery.com for another sampling of Pennsylvania’s best wines and some more cheeses and snacks.  Tasting at Black Walnut is between $5 and $10, depending on how much you want to taste.  Finally, once we’ve finished sampling, we’ll take a short drive to Victory Brewing in Parkesburg for a late Sunday lunch and maybe some beer sampling.

The total tour length is only about 35 miles, but with stops, tours, tastings and pettings, expect to arrive for lunch around 2pm.

There is no cost to participate in the tour.  The club will provide some cheese and other snacks to go with the wine tastings.  Participants are responsible for the costs of tastings and lunches – from the restaurant’s menu

If you want to attend, please RSVP to Bob Brady at: 302.420.6529 or preferably, robertanthonybrady@gmail.com  by Friday, November 9^th.

Hope you can make it!!