Many thanks to club member Sam Brown for sending this great report of the classic car show at Alton, Hampshire that he attended recently.

The Alton show differs from others I have attended in that the town centre is closed to traffic and becomes one big car show, more fun than baking in the middle of a field.

Over 200 attended this year and although the theme was French, it was open to classic cars of all variety. 

There were some really astonishing cars that would not look out of place at Pebble Beach.

A stunning silver birch DB6 Vantage,  Facel Vega HK500, Simca Aronde, a beautiful Citroen DS23, a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II convertable, and Americana well represented by a 1959 Chevrolet Corvette amongst others.

It was also interesting how many TR6s, Stags, MGs had come out to play and whilst I acknowledge these were somebody’s pride and joy, the volume of them blurred their impact, not so the little barchetta!

I was fortunate to observe some lovely comments. MIAs black paint did look good in the sun. 

Those who did not know what a barchetta is just loved the design, and I did a trade in demonstrating the trademark door handles and the vanishing hood. Those that did said they had not seen one in 20 years or so, and some stopped to chat about their ownership of a Fiat Coupe, or Punto, back in the day.

It was also fun to hear people struggle to pronounce barchetta whilst reading the information I put in the windscreen. A lovely Italian lady hit it straight out of the park, saying barchetta with a beautiful accent.

With the barchetta one of only three Italian cars at the show (a beautiful white Lancia Fulvia Rallye, a Fiat Gamine Noddy Car and our Phase 2 barchetta) we seemed a defacto meeting point for Italian locals. 

Quite a few Italians stopped to chat. One couple admitted to owning two Italian classics, and the discussion progressed to his rare RHD red Montreal which they take to club meets all over Europe and his De Tomaso. 

It would be good to have some club collateral, a branded sun parasol maybe or club info I could give out, to plant barchetta in people’s minds, certainly today I think we have done our bit to inform the people  Hampshire and environs about our beautiful barchettas, our mission continues! 

Sam Brown