Alfa Romeos at Lime Rock, 2026

Story and photos by Sean Smith

For the uninitiated, their only frame of reference to an Alfa Romeo is Dustin Hoffman’s character Benjamin Braddock frantically driving his Alfa Duetto Spider 1600 to stop the girl of his dreams from marrying another man. That was the beginning of Alfa history for some. Present company excepted. Still, you may never have witnessed a gathering of Alfas like the ones that came together at the 44th Lime Rock Historics and you may never see them again. Unless Santo Spadaro has something to say about it.

A year and a half ago at a VSCCA event at Lime Rock, Santo floated the idea to Skip Barber that Alfa Romeo would make a popular marque of honor at the Historics. The car corals were always full of Alfas. There were plenty of Alfas participating on the track. There is a lot of enthusiasm for Alfas, but they were never honored at the track. Skip was guardedly skeptical. But Santo persisted. Skip wasn’t sure there would be enough Alfas to fill the grid. He needn’t have worried in the end there were 48 race cars doing battle on the track. Some ran in the small-bore Alfa group and the larger-bore cars ran in the B Sedan group.

Santo had a large list of Alfisi to contact and hoped for the ripple effect. He called a friend; they called two friends on and on. From there it created its own momentum, both on the racing side as well as the show car side. Everybody at Lime Rock jumped in. Skip Barber, Charles Mallory, Dicky Riegal and all of the front office people, Janette, Georgia, Emily and many more were all part of making it happen. Then there was Lowell Paddock. Lowell took on the project and was a man of many hats, from corralling owners to logistics, and being a big part of Sunday in the Park. His energy never faltered. Some events focus just on race cars. The 44th Historics focused on the track as well as the show field.

On the track, the marque’s history ran from pre-war to a 1987 T75 Evo IMSA car. In the two tents, a collection of cars was brought together that took your breath away. There was a packed timeline of very important cars. Shared by collectors Paul Gould, Laurence Auriana, Ven Fonte, Nick Soprano, John Goodman, Joe Nastasi and The Revs Institute, featuring RLs, Testa Fissas, Monzas, 33 Stradale, TZ1, and TZ2s, GTAs, and a Targa Florio winning 33/3. The Alfa cognoscenti were out in force. A comprehensive history of the marque in two tents. This exploded the myth that Alfas are rusty, fiddly, and a secondary name in the car world. I mean Enzo Ferrari learned his chops in an Alfa race car. And you know what he went on to do.

The weekend was a history lesson and a master class in the world of Alfa Romeo. Not only in the tents or the show field, but on the track where people could see what these cars were built to do. We watched a TZ1 on skinny tires driven by Joe Colasacco start from the back of the pack, take the lead within a few laps, and go on to win against more powerful cars with wide tires. It put a spotlight on a man in harmony with his Alfa.

Keith Goring, a shining light in the Alfa world, was honored at a dinner for his contribution to the community. The artist Barbara Gill-Vayo created an unofficial official shirt for the event.

Alfa’s history is something that inspired some of the other featured groups to get into racing. Like the collection of ARCA cars that fermented their beginnings pre-war in the Northeast, they can follow their roots back to Alfa race cars. We can’t leave out Formula Jr, Historic Trans Am or the Wings & Slicks cars and Historic World Challenge. Sunday in the Park brought the Alfas out of the tents and put them on the Sam Posey straight to glitter in the sunlight and inspire fantasies. That weekend in Connecticut was Alfa Land. It was a deep infusion of the cars from Milan. It transformed regular people into Alfisti, and it gave the true believers a weekend that will live on in their dreams for a very long time.

Others

* Vittorio Jano’s all-new six-cylinder engine appeared in 1934, a twin-overhead-camshaft design displacing 2,309cc, with a seven-main-bearing crankshaft and an output of 76 horsepower at 4,400 rpm.

Carrozzeria Touring, founded in Milan in 1926 by Felice Bianchi Anderloni and Gaetano Ponzoni, set up shop within walking distance of Alfa Romeo’s own works and quickly became one of the marque’s preferred coachbuilders, a relationship so close that Touring’s bodies came to define the visual identity of Alfa’s most special models. This aerodynamic saloon, built a few years before Touring patented its landmark lightweight “Superleggera” tubular construction system, was produced in a handful of examples, four or fewer, each wearing flowing lines that earned the model its evocative nickname, “Soffio di Satana,” or Devil’s Breath. Among its earliest owners was the celebrated Italian poet Gabriele d’Annunzio; another went to soprano Gina Cigna. This car was built for Barone Mariano Pagliaro, who specified “Blu Notte d’Oriente” livery with blue leather upholstery to match his coat of arms, and won its class at the 1934 Targa Abruzzo before delivery to the Baron.

The Baron kept the car into the 1970s, when it passed to an Italian collector and restoration commenced. The engine was consigned to specialist Luigi Bonfanti; after restoration, the car was displayed at the Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance. –Thanks to Lowell Paddock