International Boxer-meeting in Extertal 11. - 14. 09.2009

The 2009 edition of the Boxer-meeting was organized by the "Sektion Ruhrgebiet Ost" of the German Alfaclub. Delia und Bodo Fast had found a little holiday park with small houses and a restaurant, situated in Extertal, near Rinteln; an idyllic region close to Bielefeld and Hannover.

The first participants arrived at Rinteln on Friday afternoon. After everybody had gotten the key to their houses one met at the restaurant at 8 o'clock to enjoy an Italian buffet. Some participants arrived until late in the evening. There were participants from the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland and Great Britain. Some travelled more than a thousand kilometres to join the meeting. Nearly every Boxer-engined ever developed by the Milanese brand could be admired on Saturday morning. Besides two Alfasud and two Alfasud ti of the first series, there were several Alfasud of series III, one Alfasud Sprint second series and a few Sprint of the third series. Next to several Alfa 33 of the series 907, a 33 1.7 IE, a 33 1.7 QV and two 33 1.3 S of the series 905 could be admired. A Minari from Great Britain was there as well. The Minari is a typical English kit-car with a fibreglass roadster body on the basis of an Alfa 33 or an Alfasud. Not only the power train, but also the chassis, the exhaust system, the tank and many other components from the interior of the Alfasud and the 33 were used in this car. The Minari that joined the meeting had a Boxer 16V engine, equipped with a special ecu system which also controlled the ignition.

For the late Saturday morning Bodo and his colleagues had planned a trip to the nearby clubhall of Alfaclub. After having gotten the roadbooks and a ballot for the election of the most beautiful Boxer, the Alfisti started their drive to Bad Salzuflen. The roadbook led the drivers through many small, quite scenic roads to the club hall. Since there weren´t any tasks planned during the drive, the arrival was way too early, but after a short waiting time they were received with a warm welcome as well as coffee, cake, an open club shop and enough time to shop, talk and make pictures of all the cars parked outside. One other attraction could be found there, quite hidden in a corner: a V10 engine taken out of  a Procar 164 prototype. Even though the roadbook failed with any tasks, the Alfisti had to solve one riddle: Bodo presented 15 photos showing details of different Alfa Romeos which had to be identified. Around 4 o' clock in the afternoon a second roadbook led the participants back to the holiday park Extertal; the drive went again on small roads through the idyllic landscape - even a small, beautfiul castle was passed. 

After a sumptuos barbecue dinner Bodo went ahead with the award ceremony. The award for the picture riddle was devoted to Wim Timmer. Wim, known to many Boxer-drivers as the "Dutchman with the camera", died all of a sudden and very unexpected on August, 2nd in 2009 at the age of 52 by a heart attack. He joined many past Boxer-meetings and took a great number of very nice pictures during them with his professional photo equipment, as well as he also helped a lot with the organisation of those meetings. For the Alfaclub Sektion Ruhrgebiet Ost, where he was a member, and for many Alfisti his dead meant that a good friend left forever.
Since there were several correct solutions of the picture riddle, one of the youngest participants drew the lucky winner: Hardy Busch and his wife. The title "Most beautiful Boxer" went - once again - to Gaudi Fischer from Switzerland with his perfect "better than new" Alfasud L. There was no second place, since the owner of the choosen Alfa 33 1.7 IE obviously left before the ceremony. Rainer Frees made the third place with his restored Alfasud Sprint 1.5 Veloce trofeo. Of course, the farthest arrival won a price as well: Mark Pollard with his Minari arrived from the British county Devon, situated in the west of the United Kingdom. After finishing the award ceremony the party went on until the early morning hours of Sunday - the last Alfisti went to bed at 4 o'clock in morning.
Consequently there was a little delay on Sunday morning. Several participants left after breakfast, but quite a lot (over twenty) took part in the programm offered by Bodo and his team and visited the summer rodeling track in Bodenwerder to be on the fast track - even without their Alfas. After getting back to Extertal and having dinner, the first pictures, partly taken by participants and partly taken by Marc Grieving and Maik Schmidt during the trip on Saturday, could be viewed together on a tv. A lot of Alfisti used Bodos offer of an extended stay and spent the night from Saturday to Monday in Extertal as well.

The next Boxermeeting organised by Bodo is announced to take place in 2012 and surely a lot of Alfisti are already looking forward to it.

Further information on the holiday park at Extertal: http://www.ferienpark-extertal.de/.

Further 26 photos
 

Last Update: October, 10th 2009     Created: October, 10th 2009

© Layout, photos and text by Tim Rauen.