Autobella 2013, Melbourne Australia

We welcome such event reviews from Australia. Currently VeloceToday receives articles from Vince Johnson and Andrew Coles, who normally cover events in the South Australia region, so we are happy to see some responses from the not-so-nearby Victoria/Melbourne region.

We are also encouraged by the growing numbers of Italian cars and events in Australia. Fiat, Ferrari, Alfa and others have strong new car sales in Victoria and South Australia, making their events even more popular.

At the same time, we’ve noted a growing number of vintage race enthusiasts from the U.S. who have participated in events Down Under; Joe Nastasi, Peter Giddings, and Amilcar historian Ed Godshalk. We’ll hopefully have more articles about the pros and cons of going to Australia with your vintage race car.

For now, we wanted to publish this before it loses its timeliness. Here is a short description of the autobella event by Peter Bartold. [Ed.]

Fiat Car Club of Victoria and autobella
By Peter Bartold

Every year since 1998, the Fiat Car Club of Victoria has held autobella in Melbourne. First and foremost, it is a show and concours for the club and other Fiat owners, but over the years it has become not only the annual concours for the club, but also a display for all Italian cars.

The display has grown in popularity each year and 2013 was the most successful yet, so much so that we had to close the gates to people wishing to display their cars!

The cars range from the early Fiat 501s and Balillas to the most recent models, including Abarths and even an Alfa 8C. The most popular era is the 1960s and 70s with many Fiat 124s, X1/9s, 850s and the ever-popular 500. The concours is divided into two sections; the majority of cars competing in the peer-judged section, and the best cars competing in the Concours Originale. Here, the cars are judged individually on appearance, and of course originality. This year a 500D and a 500F were both so excellent that they were given equal first place, something that has never happened before. Both owners being Italian, Joe Cippolla and Luigi Manzo were ecstatic to say the least.

Other interesting cars on display included a Fiat 8V, an ex-works Lancia Stratos, a Maserati Birdcage, many of the new Abarth 500’s and a few 20v Coupes. There was also a big contingent from Ferrari, Maserati, Lancia, Alfa, and a few obscurati including an Alfa Sprint-based V8 Giacattolo.

The Fiat Club organizes the entire day of the event, including the catering. It’s all hands on deck but worth it, as it provides a boost to the club’s funds each year.

The club was founded in 1957 and survived the pull out of Fiat in Australia in 1989 until it re-emerged about 5 years ago (much like the situation in the U.S.) and now that Chrysler and Fiat have merged we have Fiat Chrysler Australia doing its own importing with a corresponding big increase in the dealer network. This will no doubt make the club grow even stronger. Today the club has around 300 members, many from around the world and we have a strong Vintage/veteran membership.

Visit the club’s site.