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In the fourth year of its existence the Alfa Klub of Croatia organised the fourth meeting of Alfisti in the City of Split; with fast growing support this year's meeting easily outgrew the last one and the gathering lasted for three whole days.

In the fourth year of its existence the Alfa Klub of Croatia organised the fourth meeting of Alfisti in the City of Split. This meet was also the sixteenth official meeting of the Alfa Klub and every year the now traditional Split meet has seen more and more visitors taking part. This year's meet outgrew the last one and the gathering lasted for three whole days.

A great number of Alfisti had arrived in Split already on Friday and they joined together in an informal meeting, which is usually held weekly by Split Alfisti, with barbecue and entertainment. Even greater numbers of Alfisti joined on Saturday, when a sightseeing and tour guide of the City of Split was organised. After the sightseeing trip the whole group went together on a sailboat on which they then cruised to Trogir and to a party called "AR WAVE PARTY", with a delicious dinner with grilled fish, fine wine and fun until late at night.

Sunday was the main day of meeting and most visitors arrived that day. Together with the Alfisti that arrived on Friday and Saturday, there was the largest number of Alfa cars all together compared to the previous events. As usual Alfisti had arrived from all parts of Croatia, but also greater number from the neighbouring Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The meeting started around 10.00 a.m. with a gathering of more then hundred different models of Alfa Romeo cars in the parking area in front of PSC Autocommerce Croatia, the general representative for the Alfa Romeo brand. The meet started with the introduction of new members and the traditional browsing around various models of Alfa Romeo cars, but almost every member anxiously expected to see for the first time live presentation of new Alfa Romeo model MiTo. The new Mito drew much attention but so did the new Lancia Delta as well, which was also presented to members. The official presentation of the MiTo as well as the Lancia Delta had taken place in Croatia just couple of days before the official meet in Split.

At around 13.00 hours all the cars headed towards the central meeting place, to the stadium Poljud's spacious parking area. After a group photo, the election of the two most beautiful Alfa Romeo cars in two separate categories took place. First category was for current models, which are still being manufactured, while the other category was for cars no longer in production. After the voting, started the section that for many visitors was the most interesting part of meet –the skill drive. For the skill drive there were more than 40 competitors, and their driver skills were to be more important than the horsepower they had under the hood in order to reach the finals. The fastest 10 drivers entered the finals and after the final race the winner and two runner-ups were pronounced.

After the trophies were awarded to the skills winners the raffle got underway and the luckiest visitors won valuable prizes, which were sponsored by many of the Alfa Klub's sponsors. Due to the larger than expected number of drivers assigned for the skill drive it was impossible to perform the “surprise drive” as scheduled, so at around 17.00 hours ended the 16th official meeting in Split and the general impression was that it was the most successful ever, and Alfisti will remember it with good memories for a long time. For more information on the Alfa Klub visit www.alfisti.hr

by Neven Djurovic