Bulgaria's Alfisti Hold Annual Meeting


October 8, an ordinary Saturday morning at Dolna Bania. 

Or at least it was ordinary until 10 am, when the roar of the incoming column of beautiful Italian cars approached the airfield of this usually peaceful town. This marked the start of the 2005 Italfest, organised by Club Alfa Romeo – Bulgaria (CARB).

Dolna Bania, located in central Bulgaria boasting a beautiful nature has been selected to host the second event, gathering Bulgaria's fans of Italian cars. Last years' event has been held at Jrebchevo dam. Although the official start of the programme has been set for 11 am, the most hardcore fans, had begun to flock in Dolna Bania and the nearby villages form Friday afternoon. The rest formed several columns form the various parts of the country early Saturday to meet at Dolna Bania

The official part of the programme was announced by CRAB President Petko Simeonov, who welcomed the participants – over 500 people and 300 cars, and expressed thanks the sponsors for their support – Vantortrade Auto – main sponsor second year in a  row and the media partners – Monitor and Telegraph dailies.

The first contest was for optical tuning and the jury selected the FIAT Punti GT Turbo of Georgi Stoykov winner.

Yet this pageant of excellent cars in the tuning contents was just a warm-up for the main attraction of Italfest 2005 – the promotion for Bulgaria and the Balkan Peninsula of Alfa Romeo 159 and FIAT Grande Punto, with the help of Autovips and Park Auto.

The participants gathered around those beauties and everyone was willing to give them a try.

The next concourse in the programme was for power tuning – won by Borislav Hristev with his Alfa 145 QV, which has been turbocharged to provide 220 hp. 

The car audio competition was won by Mihail Mitov with FIAT Uno Turbo. After that the songs from car's stereos were muffled by the roar of revving engines, marking the contents for retro vehicle.

FIAT 124 Spider America was selected winner and Alfa Romeo 2000 Berlina runner up.

The last official concourse was for master driving, between the cones arranged at the runway. The winner was Yavour Dragijski, who managed to outpace all, driving his Lancia Delta.

Car of the Public was voted Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 V6 24V boasting full Zender body kit and DTM wheels. 

The evening ended at a gala dinner at restaurant in Dolna Bania, where everyone could sit and discuss their favourite cars, and girls of course.

Club Alfa Romeo – Bulgaria would like to thank to everybody who attended Italfest 2005, and to the sponsors for their support, and all who contributed to the success of the event.

By Peter Doynov