Gamma Consortium AGM and Rally 2009

FRIDAY 25^th SEPTEMBER to SUNDAY 27^th SEPTEMBER

Our weekend started with a visit to Prodrive on the Friday evening, Bletchley Park on the Saturday and a tour of the countryside and lunch at a local hostelry in the Banbury area on the Sunday.

Our hotel for the weekend was the Whately Hall Hotel in Banbury. The hotel is right in the centre of Banbury not far from the cross, and is a lovely old stone coaching inn with private secured covered parking which was ideal for our Gammas.
 

We’ve chosen Banbury because it’s the home of Prodrive (http://www.prodrive.com) who most will know as the team responsible for the Subaru Impreza rally cars over many years, and more recently for the Aston Martin Le Mans cars, as well as numerous other racing motors over the years including Alfa 155 Touring Car preparation in 1994 winning the BTCC with Gabriele Tarquini.

We’ve had a private tour of the Prodrive facilities on Friday evening. The tour included the museum, body shop, engines, preparation areas and even a glimpse of as yet still partly secret projects which we were not allowed to photograph and we are not allowed to mention! 



On Saturday we visited Bletchley Park (http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/) the home of the WWII code breakers. The drive from our hotel to to Bletchley took in some of the lovely countryside and secret villages of north Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, including Juniper Hill, the location for ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’ recently made into a popular BBC drama series. We spent most of the day at Bletchley Park with two private tours separated by a lunch break in the local canteen.

Sunday 27th September, the last day of the Gamma Consortium 2009 Rally, saw us take a leisurely drive in the Cotswolds to Bourton on the Water where we spent some time exploring and enjoying its many attractions (and of course coffee!). A further picturesque drive through the Cotswolds took us to our lunch stop at the Kings Head in Blenington.

Click here for a slideshow of photographs taken at the Gamma Consortium 2009 AGM and Rally.

AGM and Rally - 19-20 April 2008

For 2008 local consortium member Geoff 'The Colonel' Holmes organised a memorable AGM and rally weekend based in Southampton and the New Forest National Park.

Saturday morning started with a drive to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu for lunch, taking care to avoid the New Forest Ponies and cattle that have the unfortunate habit of standing in the road. Besides the Gammisti attending the event, we were also joined by Lancia Motor Club amici from the Monte Carlo consortium and Simon Lavis who brought his Ferrari 400 along - quite fitting since both the Gamma and the 400 were styled by the same designer. In the evening pre-arranged mini-buses took us from our hotel for a gala dinner at the excellent club house of the Royal Southampton Yacht Club in Southampton's Ocean Village. The food and the company was good and the location superb, with a fabulous view of a few million pounds worth of exotic sailing machinery tied up in the marina. Amongst the prizes awarded was the Fitzgerald Trophy for greatest distance travelled to attend the AGM & Rally, which this year went to Dutch couple Johan and Alma Alkema. They had brought their handsome dark blue Gamma coupé all the way from Friesland in the northern Netherlands. The dinner was preceded by the business part of the weekend, the AGM itself.

After the poor weather endured on Saturday, Sunday dawned bright and warm and we enjoyed another pleasant run through the New Forest to spend some time on foot in Lymington, followed by lunch at the RSYC's 'other' clubhouse in a secluded location on the Beaulieu River. After a good traditional Sunday lunch and with the weather still warm and sunny, no-one was in any particular hurry to leave and time was spent chatting and enjoying the views of the river and wildlife until departures could be delayed no longer and people headed for home.

Our Dutch visitors were spending a few days more in England, but said of the event: 'The whole weekend was fantastic. It was very good organised and it was great to meet all the friendly members of the Lancia Gamma Consortium...We had also lots of interesting conversations, specially of course about the Lancia Gamma Coupé. The villages and the nature in the New Forest are beautiful. We enjoyed it very much. And it makes it also special to drive through your country with so many Lancias. What a great car the Gamma is and so relaxing to drive.' And we can all agree with that!

The 2007 Gamma Consortium Spring meeting took place in North Wales over the weekend of 21-22 April although most members arrived on Friday 20th April. We chose the the Bryn Howel Hotel as our base for the weekend.

On Saturday we set off at 10.00am on what must be some of the best and most beautiful driving roads in the country through Llangollen with its picturesque setting on the river Dee, steam railway and canal, on to lake Bala and the Snowdonia National Park to arrive at Portmeirion where we spent some time looking around this extraordinary village described as “a glorious medley of Italy, Wales, baroque, reason and romance” (could also be a description of the Lancia Gammas). Portmeirion is famous for the 1960’s TV series the Prisoner. After our tour of "the Village" we had an excellent lunch at the nearby Castell Deudraeth and then  continued our drive through Blaenau Ffestiniog with its slate mines, Betws-y-coed, the North Wales coast and returned to our hotel for dinner.

On Sunday we visited Chirk castle where the National Trust agreed to allow us to photograph the cars outside the main Castle entrance. No visit to Wales would have been complete without visiting at least one castle! 

Finally a drive up the horseshoe pass and then a superb lunch at the 15th century Bodidris Hall.