 |
International Boxer-meeting 2007 in Skælskør (DK) 31.08. - 02.09.2007 |
After many Boxer-meetings in Germany and one meeting in the Netherlands in the
year 2006, the 2007 edition of the Boxer-meeting for the first time was held in
Demark. "Dr.
Alfasud" Peter Dyrelund (he was awarded this title some weeks ago by the
Danish car magazine "BIL
magasinet"), very engaged member of the Alfaklub
DK
had promised shortly after the Boxer-meeting in Mechelen in 2006 to organize the
meeting in 2007 with the support of the Danish Alfa Romeo Klub
(short Alfaklub DK).
In 2007 there was again an important birthday to celebrate; the oldest Alfasuds
were meanwhile 35 years old. For an Alfa Romeo, the Alfasud,
but also the Alfa 33 have been very popular cars in Denmark. Before the Alfasud
was launched, only very few Danes could afford to buy a new Alfa Romeo because
of the luxury-tax everyone has to pay when buying a new car - the Danish state
added 180 % of taxes to the price of a new car. With the introduction of the Alfasud
this situation changed. Today, the Alfa 33 is still the third-most frequent car
in the Danish Alfaklub.
In proportion to the number of Danes, there are quite a lot of members in
Denmark's Alfaklub which counts about 1.900 members. No German Alfa-Club has so
many members in proportion to the total number of Germans. Due to the geography
of Denmark, the Alfaklub DK is divided into three sections Fyn (Funen), Jylland
(Jutland) and Sjælland (Zealand).
The 2007 edition of the Boxer-meeting took place in the South of Zealand in Skælskør
in a well equipped youth hostel which included a restaurant. The locality was
called Skælskør Lystskov
Vandrehjem
(further information at www.lystskoven.dk).
Only 125 km away from Rødbyhaven where the ferry from the German
town Puttgarden arrives, the meeting was easily reachable also for German visitors. The Lystskov Vandrehjem
which was idyllically embedded in a small forest at the shore of
Skælskør Nors offered ideal
conditions for a car meeting. Unfortunately the cold and wet summer of 2007 did
always show itself from its better side, so the sunny hours where rare.
Many participants used the possibility to arrive already on Friday evening and spent the rest of the day in the nearby city centre of Skælskør where a festival took place at that time.
As
usual, participating in a Boxer-meeting meant going on a tour through the
surroundings on Saturday morning. Before the tour started, everybody had some
time to take photos and have a chat with other participants. Everybody who
answered all the questions in the tour-book had the chance to win a cup. The
tour went northwards on small and very small country roads towards Tølløse
which is situated in the West of the famous town Roskilde. It is the home town of
Peter Dyrelund. So, his house was the place to make a break for lunch and some
more tasks. His house also houses the club-home for all Alfaklub DK members who
live in Zealand. After lunch the participants had to find five 1/18 scale model
miniatures in three of Peter's glass cabinets full of model miniatures.
Peter had marked five very special cars which have made history. It was the
participants' job to find out the name and brand of the cars. "Dr. Alfasud" did
not choose Alfa Romeos but such rare and curious cars as a Panhard PL 17 or TVR Sagaris
many participants had never seen before. The next job required even more speed
and skill. All participants had to make five fast laps on a virtual
Alfa
156 2.5 V6 24V. Don't worry, not on Tølløse's
roads but on the monitor of three Nintendo Playstations... Driving a car on a
TV-monitor was quite a challenge for the majority of the participants... Another
job waited in the garden of Peter's house. One had to throw ten tennis balls
from a distance of about two meters into a bucket. Quite banal but difficult!
After one had done all the jobs it was time to go back to Skælskør.
Waiting there was already an Alfasud Sprint 1.5 Veloce. The
car had been in a workshop for getting a service about 7000 km ago.
Unfortunately nobody had noticed the worn front brake pads -
meanwhile they were totally gone and metal had started to brake on metal.
After the tour, the Sprint got a new set of front brake pads in Swiss-German cooperation of
two participants (thanks Gaudi!) who mounted them.
There was something else which awaited the participants who had returned to Skælskør.
Some Alfaklub DK members had taken their Boxer-engined race cars to Skælskør.
They were raced
in the club's own series. There were a Sprint,
two Alfasud Ti series III and one Alfa 33 of each series (905 and 907).
In addition, the German Alfista Carsten Heilig nicknamed "Spider Edy" had
brought his Alfasud Ti race car on a trailer towed by
his Alfa 166 the long way from the Ruhrgebiet to Denmark.
After a very fine dinner in the hostel's restaurant, Peter
awarded the winners of the tour and of the most beautiful Boxer concourse. It was
again Gaudi Fischer from Switzerland who won a cup for owning the most
beautiful Boxer-Alfa. He had come with a giallo pompeij Alfasud L, he had bought
some months ago in nearly perfect first-hand condition. To make it a
concourse-winner he had worked on it nearly all the winter. The cars of Thomas Hoffensetz
(Alfa 33 series 905 with 1.7 16V engine and power steering and Rolf Schnider (completely
restored Alfasud Sprint 1.5 Veloce
1981 were awarded second and third most beautiful Boxer-Alfa but did not get a
cup. Maybe Rolf's Alfasud Sprint should have been paid more attention to. If
one can say about a car that it has been completely restored, then it can be
said about this Alfasud Sprint.
The car had been completely knocked down several years ago. The body had been
sandblasted and every rusty piece of metal had been replaced by an Alfa Romeo
spare part.
In addition the Swiss workshop that restored the Sprint opened all box sections in
order to remove Alfa's corrosion
promoter number one, the cavity foam once
applied in the factory. The apprentice who learned his profession while working
at the Sprint became "Schweizermeister" (best man in his profession) one year after
the Sprint's restoration had been finished.
The winners of the tour all did not come from Denmark:
1st place: Carsten
"Spider Edy" Heilig and Frank Rörentrop on Alfasud Ti, 166 points,
2nd place: Klaus Fassing and Tim Rauen on Alfa 33 1.4 IE L Imola, 151 points,
3rd
place: Erika and Rolf Schnider (co-pilots in Tim's Alfa 33), 143 points.
The cup for the longest way to the meeting went to Daryl Staddon (Alfa 33 1.7 16V) and Nicholas Lear (Alfasud Ti 1.5 GCL) who came all the way from Great Britain.
More participants would have found a bed in the Vandrehjem.
Unfortunately only a smaller number of cars and people came together to join
that years Boxer-meeting. Maybe the long travel from some parts of Germany or
the bad weather avoided the meeting from becoming bigger.
35 persons (without guests on Saturday) with 16 Boxer-engined Alfa Romeos, five
club race cars with
Boxer-engine and three non-Boxer Alfas had found the way to Skælskør.
There were only two Sprints - Rolf Schniders Alfasud Sprint
1.5 Veloce and the green race car. By coincidence there were two Alfasud series
I which were painted in giallo pompeij. Besides Gaudis already mentioned Alfasud
L, Troels Øhlholm had come to Skælskør in his Alfasud
N. Troels' Alfasud was quite particular. He bought it from its
first owner who had "improved" the car with some curious modifications. The car
was equipped with two additional klaxons: one
compressor-driven
two-tone fanfare and a ringing device which was once used in a tramway. The
second one was intended for pedestrians who did not want to get out of the
Alfasud's way. To have a better control about the engine's condition, the
preowner installed some additional gauges in a specially made centre console.
Some features, e.g. the ashtrays were lighted by little green lights. Obviously
no one ever used the ashtrays... The car also had a very massive tow bar. It was
not intended to tow trailers but to save the rear of the car from being damaged
by other cars when parked.
Although it was a quite wet journey in 2007, Zealand is worth a holiday. Some of the participants visited Copenhagen and other sights before or after the meeting. You can drive through Zealand comfortably in one day without any hurry. There are many interesting places and towns which wait to be discovered.
Interesting links
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Last Update: September, 23rd 2007 Created: September, 17th 2007
© Text and Layout by Tim Rauen. Fotos by Tim Rauen and Klaus Fassing.