More than 800 cars recently gathered for Europe and Hungary’s biggest Alfa Romeo owners' meeting, AlfaCity09, which took place in the superb settings of Fort Monostor on the banks of the Danube in the historic border town of Komáron. The event was organised by the Hungarian online Alfa Romeo owners' community, Alfa Amore, and this year it acquired a real international flavour as more that 20 percent of the participants drove their Italian cars from other countries.

Now a well-established event on the central European Alfa Romeo owners' calendar, for this year's edition of AlfaCity the organisers decided to move to a new venue that could guarantee enough space for the many cars of the rapidly-growing society. One of the event’s key goals this year was an ambitious record breaking attempt: to make it into the Guinness Book of Records.

It was to be a very pleasant morning in Komáron, with warm weather and just a scattering of small clouds to interrupt the clear blue sunny skies, as the Alfa Romeos and their occupants started to roll in. Fort Monostor was built in the 19th century and it fortunately survived the wars of the 20th century unscathed. Today it is in immaculate condition and with its long straight walls, towers, moat, buildings below ground level and historic artefacts such as cannons and military vehicles, it is quite simply a splendid location to hold any event.

To achieve the record breaking challenge, from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM a photograph was taken of every Alfa Romeo at they went through the entrance with the organisers recording the information the cars that entered. According to this database 764 cars arrived during that period, and this data was duly countersigned by Dr. Zsolt Forray lieutenant-colonel commissioner of the City Police of Komárom. Next will come the official authentication by the Guinness Book of Records judges' that will then seal this feat in its annals.

Following the closing of the official attempt of breaking the record at 2:00 PM even more Alfa Romeos kept streaming in to join the event, meaning that by the time the event finished nearly 900 cars had participated AlfaCity09.

This year more foreign Alfa Romeo owners' took part than ever before with lots of cars making the journey from countries including from Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic. The cars that rolled up to Fort Monostor represented so much of the marque's amazing history and visitors were able to wander round in the pleasant surroundings and see a real timeline from the the last three decades. Starting with the Alfasud, you could see many of the Alfa Romeo models through more that quarter of a century of carmaking tradition, such as the Alfetta GTV, 75, 155, 156 and 166. Bringing everything right up-to-date were representatives of the current range: the Alfa 147, 159, 159 Sportwagon, Brera, Spider and GT Coupé as well as a quartet of the brand-new MiTo model, one of which took up pride of place on the main stage. As well as the newer cars there were several fabulous "oldtimers" that drew many admiring glances all day: three examples of the Giulia GT as well as a Giulia sedan and a Spider Duetto that dated from 1967; these cars took a starring role in the event's proceedings. Beside the many Alfa Romeos there was strong representation from Maserati, including a numbers of Biturbo models, a few little Fiat 850s and a very rare Lancia Flavia Coupe and Berlina that were also the stars of AlfaCity09. Dotted around the grass were several customised cars including an immaculate silver-and-bronze 155 with wheel-hugging arches and a black-and-red 146 as well as another example with scissor doors.

As has been the tradition for the past four years, the organisers of AlfaCity held a "beauty contest" which was won by an Autodelta Alfa 156 that had come from Slovenia. According to its delighted owners it was their first appearance since the car had undergone the demanding Autodelta conversion. To watch video click here or for more information on Alfa Amore please visit www.alfaamore.hu

by Teddy Körtvélyes