AMERICAN LANCIA CLUB EAST COAST REUNION 2017 – STONEWALL RESORT, WEST VIRGINIA

Rain, rain, rain!  It rained every day the week before our 2017 East Coast Reunion in Weston, West Virginia.  The forecast was just as bleak and we kept mulling over alternative activities all day Thursday.  Fortunately, the sun shone brightly on us Friday as we met at Jim Bandy’s Garage to celebrate the Welcoming Wine Party and to admire his marvelous collection of French, German, English and Italian automobiles.  Better still, the sun kept shining for the rest of the weekend.

Weston is the County Seat of Lewis County in the middle of West Virginia, seemingly an unlikely place for a Lancia meet, but it proved to be an ideal venue for this event both for driving and for attractive, interesting destinations.

After travelling the world with US Army Intelligence, Jim Bandy, our host and guide, retired in his hometown and purchased a large brick building in the town center that was formerly a car dealership from the 30’s.  He lives on the upper floor and houses his collection of cars in what used to be the showroom.

Jim has a long history with Lancia cars going back to a time when he did some work with Tom Sheehan and Bob Williams in Pittsburgh.  During that period, he also became friends with Walt Spak, our ALC East Coast Vice President for many years.

Having lived in Europe for quite a while after leaving the Military, he broadened his interests to incorporate all European cars, especially French ones.  Jim owns two Fulvias, an HF Coupe and a Sport Zagato.  Other cars that we inspected while enjoying our wine and canapes included Citroen, Salmson, Saab,  Porsche, a very rare 1960 Deutsch-Bonnet, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls-Royce, Jensen, Volvo and Panhard.  With the street and parking lot filled with Lancias from Aurelias to Betas it made a fitting background to renew old friendships and meet new members.

The Thyme Bistro was our destination for dinner.  It was only a few blocks away so most of us walked in the summerlike evening.  Two excellent cooks were our hosts and the food was exquisite.   Fine Piemontese wines provided by our member Greg Moore were gratefully consumed during the meal.

Our lodgings for the Reunion were at The Stonewall Resort about 10 miles south of Weston.  This Resort, completed in the late nineties, was a joint venture between the State of West Virginia, the Army Corps of Engineers and some private investors as a part of a flood prevention Project that is now a State Park with a large man made lake.  It was the first arrangement of its kind in the United States and has become very successful.  Stonewall refers to the nickname of the Confederate General, Thomas Jonathon “Stonewall” Jackson, who grew up in Lewis County near Weston.  Besides very comfortable rooms the complex included boating in the lake, nature and bicycle trails, two swimming pools, a golf course and three restaurants.

It was an early start on Saturday for the Rally.  Jim Bandy had mapped out two routes with different attractions.  One went east to the town of Phillippi where the first land battle of the Civil War was fought (Western Virginia did not secede from the Union and was made the 35th State in 1863).  This route passed through one of the few covered bridges built for two-way traffic.  This “double-barreled” covered bridge is still in daily use as part of US Route 250.

The other route went west through some pretty rolling countryside and rural scenery – farms, livestock, an artfully painted barn and dense wooded areas.  Our cars taking this route enjoyed rougher, muddy patches that recalled the Lancia Rally successes in Europe of some 50 years ago.  It was much fun (with a few interesting adventures).  Everyone and all our cars survived, and the mud washed off quickly.

Both routes ended up at Lambert’s Fine Winery located in the town of Jane Lew (the hometown of the Union General, Joseph Andrew Jackson Lightburn), north of Weston, for a picnic lunch and a taste of West Virginia wines.  While there we planned the various activities for the afternoon.

For a small town, Weston has a wide variety of choices.  The Jackson Mill, where Stonewall Jackson spent his youth, was quite close.  The site has been restored and maintained by West Virginia University and this Saturday they were conducting a demonstration of the preserved waterwheel driven mill with wooden gearing. This ancient technology of  grinding corn and grains proved quite interesting.

In Weston, the huge antebellum Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, now a museum, attracted many to take the history tours and to view the special Halloween exhibits.  A few blocks away is a very comprehensive American Glass Museum.  Glassware manufacture of all types was a main industry in the area employing immigrants from Czechoslovakia, Switzerland and Germany in the 19^th and early 20th centuries.  Locally made glassware as well as that from other regions of the United States are displayed in the museum while glassblowing demonstrations are available at other sites in town.  The largest Antique Store in West Virginia attracted some as did the myriad of small specialty shops.  Some paused to take a final close look at Jim Bandy’s garage.

Returning to the Stonewall Resort, it was time to prepare for the Reunion Dinner but, naturally, we first spent some time in the parking lot with our cars going over the adventures of the day.  The Octoberfest Themed Dinner, served in a private room, was excellently prepared and very welcome after our long day.  We dined to a background of music from the 50s, 60s and 70s.  After dinner and a few remarks, it was time to pick the raffle winners and continue our table-hopping conversations.

Sunday morning was the time for all to choose their favorite cars in the Concours.  The results were as follows:

Category                                              1^st place                                                               2^nd Place

V4 Lancias                              Stan Feigenbaum’s  Fulvia Coupe                      Mark Wolff’s Fulvia Sport

V6 Lancias                              Jim Harn’s Aurelia B24S Spider                          Greg Moore’s Flaminia PF Coupe

TwinCam inline 4 Lancias    Bert Straus’s Scorpion                                        Dick Lancia’s Beta Zagato

It was no surprise to anyone that Jim Harn’s 1956 Aurelia B24S Spider won both the Ladies’ Choice and Gentlemen’s Choice awards – what a beautiful car!

Despite it being mid-October, the day was still sunny and warm as we said our farewells and started our cars for the trip home.  We somewhat regretted not seeing the colorful Autumn leaves that we expected since they were still green in an unusual Summer extension, but we all enjoyed the fellowship and the wonderful weekend of dry, warm weather.

Written by East Coast VP Richard Lynn

This month photo is of Richard and Dorien Lancia’s Beta Zagato.

He bought the car in 2012 as he describes; “After lusting for a car with my namesake since High School.” They spent the next five years getting all bugs worked out, thanks to a bunch of Lancisti folks and especially Kevin Harper. The car originally was a special edition with gold trim, but the previous owner resprayed it all black. They love driving it on special occasions with the targa top off and the rear window down.

The ALC West Coast After Tour 2018

Southern Delights and (Lynn’s Frights…lots of curvy but spectacular roads!)

Dick and Judy Buckingham, Eric Lynn and John Young, Alan and Shellagh Hornsby, Jeanne and Steve Katzman, Hank Koning, Kjell Nelin, Lynn and Steve Peterson, Paul and Vicki Tullius

Day 1:Hank Koning put together a fabulous “after tour” for 14 of us  that took us from the sometimes foggy, chilly coast to the heat of the desert, traveling around 800 miles over a period of  5 days and nights. Our group and several other reunion participates left Lompoc and headed to Buellton for a fun lunch stop at Industrial Eats.

We said arrevaderci to Tina, John Richards and the Schutzbergers and headed down the road towards Port Hueneme for an overnight. On the way Hank lead us through some of the devastating mudslide area of Montecito and then to his friend’s lovely beachbeach cottage in Mussel Shoals for drinks and snacks.

An evening seaside dinner saw us early to bed .

Day 2: Our first stop was in Simi Valley at a fascinating folk art collection called Grandma Prisbey’s Bottle Village.  A light rain stopped our idea of a picnic lunch but we luckily found a great little authentic, family Italian restaurant in Sunland!  The curvy roads began here! Up we went through Big Tujunga Canyon to Angeles Forest Highway to Angeles Crest Highway down Lone Pine Canyon Road and up again (with an unexpected detour) to Crestline. What a drive! Our overnight in pretty cold temps found us in a tavern eating freshly smoked dishes and enjoying each other’s adventures of the day.

Day 3: Oh boy more of those roads ahead! CA 18 and 38 take you through awesome country with amazing vistas .. sometimes high above the clouds. Down we headed to the apple growing foothills of Oak Glen and Riley’s Farm for a colonial repast. We arrived in time to witness a mock recreation of the 1775 Battle of St. George’s Tavern being enacted by hundreds of students. A big bang for our buck!

We then drove to Rancho Mirage in the Palm Springs area and gladly welcomed the pool and AC at our hotel. Bill and Marlene O’Sullivan invited us to their lovely artful home for a Mexican buffet that evening.

Day 4: We now were 10 having said goodbye to Eric and John and Vicki and Paul. Up and over the Banning/Idyllwild Highway then down to Temecula with a lunch stop at a taco shop and more driving up a twisty road to the iconic facility of the still functioning 70 year old Palomar Observatory. Wow!

Down, down to the desert we arrived in Borrego Springs in time for a quick dip to cool off before a nice evening dinner.

Day 5: Up early with a cooler temp drive to Thermal where Lancia member Rico Varge and Chris Bergsma entertained us with morning coffee and donuts and a tour of Rico’s garage full of interesting cars!  We said goodbye to our Aussie friends Alan and Shellagh who were headed to Europe for the sliding pillar meet in England! We stopped at Oasis Date Farm for milkshakes and picnic supplies before driving through Box Canyon and Joshua Tree National Park where we picnicked. Yes, it was hot , but the temps hovering around 90 were about 10 degrees cooler than expected.

Hank finally used his self-designed Lancia car swamp cooler!  Car envy!  A stop at the Noah Purifoy Outdoor Art Museum held a few of us in awe of what Noah accomplished with sculptures entirely from junked materials on the desert floor.

We headed on to our final night at the high desert historical Pioneertown. A true western meal at Pappy and Harriet’s and then star-gazing and conversation concluded the fantastic , fabulously fun, the one and only Hank tour! Such a great group and so much fun! Thank you Hank for making this happen!                                                                                   (Hank, the Katzmans, Kjell and the Petersons drove the same way home for a bit and stopped in Lucerne Valley for breakfast. Café 247 is a hoot!)

Hi all,

The West Coast Reunion is behind us and we were treated to a great event with the start in Atascadero Friday afternoon. Most of the Northern Group and some of the Southern Group got together at the hotel for some catching up and good wine and food. Met some new and old friends and as usual, had a great time.

Saturday morning with an early start we got lined up and with most of us having detailed maps of the roads, we took off with Hank in front. The roads were great and we soon were going in a speed that separated the group and of course, the leader in the “behind” group missed one turn and got separated from the front. Thanks  to what I understand GPS, they were back on track and joined us, just as we had made a stop for stretching our legs and for some others, a cup of coffee.

After the break we took off on some great roads to the Lunch stop and a bunch of Southern Cal. members. A lot of great cars were lined up along the road and lunch was catered by a local restaurant.

A chance to meet both new and old friends. After the lunch and a lot of car talk, we lined up and took off towards Lompoc where we were spending the night. This time we had more lead cars so when we were “lost” we were lucky to have a back-up to guide us back on track and to the hotel.

We had a chance to freshen up and get ready for dinner at the “La Botta” restaurant. Dinner was great with plenty of food and wine and we extend our thanks to the organizers, Hank, Adan and Ed for their work on getting it all together.

Sunday morning started with a great breakfast at the hotel and we mingled before it was time to get the cars ready for the Concours.

Because we had to race back home to greet some friends who were arriving from Europe we had to skip the rest of the day and the “After Tour”. That report will come later.

Here are a couple of pictures we received from the Concours

Thank you again for a great event,

Leif and Barbara Neuman

Here are the final instructions (blurry Maps) for the ALC West Coast reunion that is coming up in a hurry!

As the pictures are poor in quality(not because the photos are bad) please go to the Norcal Website to be able to get a better look. www.norcallanciagroup.com

Hope to see some new as well as old faces at the reunion.

The April Calendar car, Lancia Fulvia 1970 1.3 Rally S was Imported from Italy about 15 years ago. The pictures on the rocks was taken in Bibo, N.M. and the picture when diving somewhere west of Albuquerque, N.M.

Owner: Club member Stephan Protzen

The International Castlemaine, Australia Lancia Event October 2017

By Vicki Tullius

Castlemaine

Paul and I were introduced to Castlemaine many years ago by our good friend, Gary Byrd.  Thanks to Gary, we have made wonderful friends in Australia as well as from several European countries by attending the biennial Castlemaine rally events (our first Castlemaine event was in October1985).  We cannot say enough about the generosity and hospitality extended to us from our “Aussie friends” during this event. Upon our arrival, we were provided lodging, entertainment and tours of the amazing cities of Melbourne and Ballarat by Anna and Chris Long and Shellagh and Alan Hornsby. Paul and I were loaned Chris Long’s precious little Ardea Sedan to use for the Castlemaine rally and the following tour around the Island of Tasmania.  This is not expected, ever, but we were touched by Chris’s generosity this year and that of Peter Renou 2 years ago when he loaned us his newly restored Appia sedan.

Prior to the Castlemaine rally, we attended the Motor Classica, the International Concours d’Elegance and classic motor show where Lancia featured 110 years of Lancia innovation. It was an exceptional display of 43 Lancia automobiles that included Tricappa, Lambda, Aprilia,, Aurelia, Augusta, Ardea, Appia Saloons, Zagato, touring and Vignale bodied cars. A favorite of the show was a beautiful Aprilia Ghia sport owned by Brian and Dorothy Hawke of Australia.

(Older photo of a “young” Brian and the Beautiful Aprilia)

The Castlemaine event occured over 3 days beginning with a luncheon on Friday at the historic Buda House and its elaborate 19^th century garden. This Victorian mansion was built in the 1860’s and is said to be the most complete survivor of its period.

An evening reception and social followed at the impressive art gallery in the town of Castlemaine, a home to many writers and artists from Melbourne.  Perhaps the highlight of the weekend was the rally that took us to a private estate where we had a fabulous lunch of paella that was followed by a talk from the guest of honor, Bruno Cena from Italy.

Bruno shared his experience as an engineer at Lancia in the 80’s and 90’s.  He was instrumental in the improvements in the development process at Lancia.  Participants came from all over Australia, the US, UK, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland and France.  The event ended with a dinner in the town hall where overseas guests were acknowledged, special honors were given and concours awards were presented.

The Following Two Tours Through Tasmania

Tasmania is an island with less than 600,000 inhabitants and where 1/3 of the land is not habitable with a temperate rainforest in the south-western part of the island.  There are great roads for Lancia driving and with little traffic.  Fortunately, we experienced little rain and great weather while traveling.

Alan and Shellagh Hornsby and Elsa and Neil Pering enjoying a break during the first Tasmania tour

No rally would be complete without a tour of car collections. Our tours included a fabulous collection at the home of Chas Kelly

( See attached photo of Jeff Hill)

and of the National Auto Museum in Launceston.  We ate our fill of seafood and drank interesting Tasmanian wines.  Our tours included overnight stays in Cradle Mountain (where we had our first glimpse of wombats), and in Strahn in the southwest wilderness on Macquarie Harbor.

Chris and Anna Longs in their Lambda headed towards Cradle Mtn.

During the boat tour through the harbor, we explored the convict prison at Sarah Island (established in 1821) and strolled through the rain forest on the Gordon River.

On the second tour, we traveled to the East Coast to the Freycinet Peninsula with its national park and the famous Wineglass Bay.  While touring the Bay, we had a great view of fur seals, little penguins, dolphins and wales.  Basically, we covered the entire area that is habitable on this amazing island.   While in Hobart, the annual “Display Day” took place on the lawns in front of the Parliament House.  This all day event is sponsored by the Club Motori Italia of Tasmania.  While our beautiful Lancia automobiles gained attention and the owners chatted and shared their stories with one another, this woman went Christmas shopping in the famous adjoining Salamanca Market!

The Spirit of Tasmania

The Spirit of Tasmania is a massive auto ferry that has daily routes to and from Melbourne, Australia and Devonport, Tasmania. It is obviously an essential part of the trip leaving in the evening and docking early the following morning.  The ferry provides meals during the ocean trip, comfortable sleeping cabins and plenty of time to socialize with one another. It is quite an experience in itself!

Sebastain Simon provides amore detailed account of the Castlemaine rally and tours in the Lambda World Register Newsletter January 2018.  www.lambdaworldregister.org.

Lancia Drive 2/28/18 The Delta Tour

What a treat!  6 beautiful Lancias showed up for a day of exploring the Delta.  If you are not familiar with the Delta, it comprises a labyrinth of waterways east of the Bay, formed by the confluence of the San Joaquin and the Sacramento Rivers.  Often overlooked, it is a fascinating place to spend a day driving old Lancias.  We started in the tiny town of Rio Vista, and followed ‘the Sacramento’ north.  We had Tom Gilmore in his Audi; hop-scotching us so that his passenger, Steve Snyder, could take pictures. Thank you Steve!  The Lancias were: Joe Hurwich’s B24 convertible, Vicki’s and My convertible, David Word and Judi Beisler in his B20 Coupe, Gary and Holly Dowling in their Flaminia convertible, Leif in his Flavia convertible, and Neil and Elsa Pering in their Fulvia coupe. Such a treat to see such a wonderful collection of Lancias navigating the byways around the Delta.

Driving the Delta always creates a challenge for me.  The river twists and turns so much, that in short order I cannot tell which side I am on (Vicki: “that bridge took us over a tributary, not the river”, Me: “Oh, . . . never mind”).  There is much to see. Numerous historic draw bridges, highlighting a myriad of engineering solutions to facilitate maritime navigation on the river.

The Historic Grand Island Mansion, where next time we will have our lunch.  And two wineries, where we had a chance to talk, drink some wine, and eat some cheese and crackers, generously supplied by Leif.

The drive back took us across a few more waterways, and then to a ferry, and a short run into Rio Vista for a late lunch.  From the Ferry stop, I could see the high towers of the Rio Vista drawbridge.

As I started to pull out of the queue waiting for the ferry. . .  you see, I thought I would just run down to Hwy 12 and into Rio Vista beating the crowd for lunch, Leif explained that we were on an Island, “either wait for the Ferry, or drive miles back to the bridge that got us on the island”, (Ryer Island).  As I said, the Delta challenges me.

Well, the Ferry ride was interesting, and we had a fine lunch, with great people, and wonderful cars.  Can’t wait to do it again.

Paul Tullius