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The
Alfa Club Thailand has just
gathered for its year-end meeting in Bangkok which was topped off by a special
novelty in the shape of the arrival of a convoy of Alfa Romeos taking part in
the AROC Quest the Silk Trail, a long-distance tour that kicked off in Singapore
two days earlier and was busily trekking its way northwards to its final
destination in Laos.
It was typical
hot and sunny December morning as the Alfa Romeos started to
roll into the car park of the Bua Restaurant located on
Srinakarin Road in the Prawet district of Bangkok, in the
shadow of the squat concrete complex that is the Seri Center
shopping mall. By 10:30 AM the car park was filling up with
a mix of models, mostly historical, all immaculate and all
sparking in the sunshine. The level of restoration in
Thailand is very high and all the cars on show were just as
perfect as the day they had rolled off the production lines
in Italy, most from the famous but now defunct Portello and
Arese factories in Milan, the birth city of the brand birth
that produced the cars that shaped the history of one of the
world’s most evocative automotive names, as well a timeline
that included Alfa Romeo’s current hub factory, Pomigliano
d’Arco, near Naples and the hand-built low-volume lines of
Pininfarina in Turin.
The 1960s and
1970s were well represented by the a string of famous
models, the Giulia Super, immortalised in the Italian job as
the car the Italian police used to chase Michael Caine’s
gang of Minis; and its numbers included a perfect version
owned since new by the President of the Alfa Club Thailand,
stretching through to the Giulia Nuova Super which ended
the sedan’s timeline in the late 1970s, its gleaming silver
bodywork clad with this final edition’s distinct black
plastic appendages and flattened-out bonnet. A glorious
Giulia Super racer, fitted with a 2-litre Twin Spark engine,
also appeared; this beautiful machine was fresh from taking
on a horde of BMW 3-series racers in the historic racing
programe at the Bangsaen Thailand Speed Festival 2009 at the
end of last month. And it was still bearing the decals. On
the fenced-off streets of the Bangsaen resort, Thailand’s
answer to the Macau races, this bright-white liveried Giulia
Super won many new admirers. There were more elegant sedans
of the era on show in the shape of the pretty 1750/2000 Berlina.
The much-loved
Spider was also in evidence with examples from throughout
its long lifecycle, from the earliest ‘boat tail’ to the
final series 4 model that was rolled out in beginning of the
1990s as almost three decades of production of this iconic
convertible finally ground to a halt. The 105 series Giulia
coupe was also out in numbers as Bangkok has a strong and
loyal following for these Bertone-designed cars. Moving
through the 1970s and into early 1980s, a perfect GTV 2000
coupé and a jazzily-liveried sedan represented the Alfetta
family.
The Giulietta tag is set to be revived by Alfa Romeo
next year for the long-awaited replacement for the C-segment
Alfa 147, and here the last model to carry the famous name
was also out in force, the sedan chasing through from series
1 to 3, including a very distinctive canary-yellow example.
More recent models to turn up included the Alfa 156, a car
which was briefly imported into Thailand in CKD kit form and
assembled locally, meaning that these stylish sedans can be
seen with reasonable regularity on the streets of a city
where Italian cars usually a rare sight, while there was
also a pair of 916 GTVs.
An excellent
buffet lunch was provided by the Bua Restaurant, providing
the perfect opportunity to discuss the cars that everyone
present shared a deep passion for, and to helpfully engage
in the conversation out of the reach of the hot sun.
The highlight of
the day was the arrival immediately after lunch of the
participants taking part in the AROC Quest the Silk Trail, an
adventure that is involving members of the AROC Singapore,
AROC Malaysia and Alfa Club Thailand, along with support
from the regional agents, namely - EuroAutomobile Pte Ltd
(Singapore), Sime Darby Auto Connexion (Malaysia) and Thai
Prestige Ltd (Thailand).
The tour started
on December 18 with a long highway drive from Kuala Lumpur
to Danok. Members from the AROC Singapore had a real crack
of dawn start as they set off three hours earlier to
rendezvous with the Malaysian owners in Kuala Lumpur for the
official start. Sime Darby Auto Connexion hosted and
sponsored this part of the event and the crews also took
part in an Alfa Romeo Carnival Day that saw models from
throughout the ages parading, while the convoy was flagged
on its way northwards by the Italian Ambassador to Malaysia.
The second day on the road saw the cars heading north
through Thailand from Danok to the royal coastal resort of
Hua Hin.
And so while the
Alfa Club Thailand members were serenely rolling into the Bua Restaurant, the cars that made up the
Quest the Silk Trail column were pounding northwards once more, this time
from Hua Hin, on a day that would see them continue, after
this short Bangkok lunch stop, onwards to the Thailand-Laos
border town of Nong Kahi. At times driving through Bangkok
can be as much of a challenge as any back road in Laos, but
eventually the convoy rolled into sight.
Two-and-a-half
days into the trip and the Alfa Romeos were in caked in a
sea of grime that bore evidence to the arduous trip they are
making. The Thailand, Singapore and Malaysian Alfa Romeo
clubs’ are all closely linked and there was much enthusiasm
all round. The enthusiasm of the tour members belied the
long days of driving and short nights of sleep already under
their belts and everyone was soon swapping stories, people
from three Asian countries bound tightly together by a
shared passion. The brightly decaled and mud-covered
17-car-strong convoy was made up of a swage of recent
models, including the 159, 159 Sportwagon, Brera, 156, 164,
GT Coupé and 155; and with a few problems that had been
sorted out en route, the toughness of these Italian cars was
really being put to the test, and so far it was all good.
“It’s been a
wonderful trip, we’ve done two days, we’ve still got one
more night [in Thailand] then on to Vientiane for two days
then back to Bangkok,” says Rashid Karyeo, the enthusiastic
President of the Alfa Romeo Owners’ Club of Singapore, who
is behind the wheel of a red Brera 3.2 V6 and is carrying
diagnostic equipment with him; for sure this tour is
well-prepared and highly organised. The AROC Malaysia
President, Othman Zainal, is also on the tour – he’s driving
a 166. With the lunch stop over, and with the ranks swelled
by three members of the Alfa Club Thailand who were joining
the tour, Ron Nathan, the capable and highly-organised tour
leader, as well as being, by a considerably margin, the
tallest man present, expertly marshaled everyone back to
their cars and soon this dynamic adventure was rolling back
onto the road, heading north out of Bangkok, and off to
stretch sporty legs and put these Alfa Romeos over terrain
that the designers at Alfa Romeo Centro Stile never
envisioned.
ItaliaspeedTV:
Thailand
Alfissimo Meeting 2009 & AROC Quest the Silk Trail: Kuala
Lumpur - Bangkok - Vientiane: the 4300 km Journey; Bangkok
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