October 8th 2005, an ordinary Saturday morning at Dolna Bania. Or at least it was ordinary until 10 am, when the roar of the incoming column of beautiful Italian cars approached the airfield of this usually peaceful town. This marked the start of the 2005 Italfest, organised by Club Alfa Romeo – Bulgaria (CARB).

Dolna Bania, located in Central Bulgaria and boasting beautiful natural scenery, had been selected to host the second gathering of Bulgarian fans of Italian cars. Last year's event having been held at Jrebchevo Dam. Although the official start of the programme had been set for 11 am, the most hardcore fans, had begun to flock in Dolna Bania and the nearby villages from Friday afternoon. The rest of the participants formed several columns, departing from the various parts of the country early on Saturday, to meet at Dolna Bania.

The official section of the programme was announced by CARB President Petko Simeonov, who welcomed the participants – over 500 people and 300 cars, and expressed his thanks the sponsors for their support – Vantortrade Auto – the main sponsor second year in a  row, and the media partners – the Monitor and Telegraph dailies. The first contest was for optical tuning, and the jury selected the Fiat Punto GT Turbo of Georgi Stoykov winner.

Yet this pageant of excellent cars in the tuning contents was just a warm-up for the main attraction of Italfest 2005 – the promotion for Bulgaria and the Balkan Peninsula of the Alfa Romeo 159 and Fiat Grande Punto, with the help of Autovips and Park Auto. The participants quickly gathered around these two beauties and everyone was willing to give them a try. The next concourse in the programme was for power tuning – won by Borislav Hristev with his Alfa 145 QV, which has been turbocharged to provide 220bhp.
 

Among the power tuning runners up, were two Fiat Puntos, which have been tuned to in excess of 300bhp. The car audio competition was won by Mihail Mitov with his Fiat Uno Turbo. After that the songs from car's stereos were muffled by the roar of revving engines, marking the contest for retro vehicle. A Fiat 124 Spider America was selected winner and Alfa Romeo 2000 Berlina runner up. The last official concourse was for master driving, between the cones arranged at the runway. The winner was Yavour Dragijski, who managed to outpace all, driving his Lancia Delta. Car of the Public was voted Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 V6 24V boasting full Zender body kit and DTM wheels.

The evening ended at a gala dinner at a restaurant in Dolna Bania, where everyone could sit and discuss their favourite cars, and girls of course. Among the cars to participate at Italfest 2005 were Alfa Romeo 2000 Berlina, Alfa Romeo Sprint, Fiat X1/9, Fiat America Pininfarina, Fiat 128, Alfa Romeo GT, Alfa Romeo Spider, Alfa Romeo 166 facelift, Fiat Panda 4x4, Lancia Lybra and FIAT Barchetta. Club Alfa Romeo – Bulgaria would like to thank to everybody who attended Italfest 2005, and to the sponsors for their wholesome support, and all those who contributed to the success of the event.

By Peter Doynov