Story and photos by Jonathan Sharp
The organizers of the annual Brooklands/Auto Italia Italian car day like to coral the marques and models together, So…. “Fiat 500 sir? Next to the Concorde please, Lancia! Top of the finishing straight next to the banking by the flight shed. Maserati, over there, next to the bottom of the test hill. Moretti 2500SS! Wow, in front of the club house please.”
However by the time I arrived, and I was earlier than usual, the place was nearly full so my Alfa had to go at the end of a line of Abarths. When it comes to numbers, the Alfa Romeos outnumbered the other marques by at least 3 to one. For a marque that is not that common on the roads of the UK there was an awful lot of them in their coral.
For me, the show is not about the 20 modern Lamborghinis on the finishing straight, or the Ferraris in front of the Jackson shed; it is the as-new, early model Fiat Panda parked on the banking, the group of Fiat 131s by the Shell petrol pagoda, the Bianchini below the members bar.