Report
from the Lancia Gamma and Montecarlo Meeting
in
Hohenroda, July 7th - 9th
by Bernd Häussler
...it started with bad news from the weather report:
heavy rain for the whole weekend. What a terrible perspective!
The whole year I try to prevent water to get on my good old Italian
sheet metal but it happens at almost every Lancia meeting. Not
to forget the worst case which happened last year with snow on
Brenner Pass and the snow chains on the Gamma on the way to Italy
to last yearís meeting of the Lancia Gamma Coupe Club in
Urbino. Indeed, that caused deep tyre traces on my Gamma soul.
The next degree of pain would already be a damage because of an
accident.
So far so good. I started on Friday afternoon at 4:45
p.m. from Rüsselsheim which is Southwest of Frankfurt with
raincoat and 3 umbrellas (3 because it is always good to think
of your club colleagues). From the distance it would have been
very easy to be at Hohenroda for dinner which was scheduled for
8:00 p.m. But before my engine oil had reached operating temperature
I was already in the first traffic jam, at "Frankfurter Kreuz".
As I had to learn later this was just one of many other traffic
jams on the way to Hohenroda, I left the Autobahn several times
and drove smaller roads in order to keep the schedule but with
the average speed which could be achieved under these circumstances
it would have been hard to beat a snail at a race competition.
At 8:45 p.m. after only 150 km of driving I gave up the idea of
joining the Lancia people for dinner and stopped for overcooked
Spaghetti Bolognese. At 10:00 p.m. I finally arrived but I was
not the last one. Foreigners listen: I cannot really recommend
driving in Germany on a Friday afternoon!
Still expecting heavy rain I wanted to do something
good for the brave Gamma and asked for a garage at the hotel but
there was no garage ñ so shit on the garage, sooner or
later a full restoration will come anyway and since we have to
think positive: a full restoration would rather come sooner because
when you are so old that you cannot move anymore (self) restoration
becomes a torture.
Finally the day ended at the bar where the other Lancisti
and me cured our dusty throats from screaming and yelling at all
those people driving superfluously in front of us.
The next morning it was possible to get an overview
about the meeting and its participants, there where approximately
20 ñ25 people in 4 Gamma Coupes, 4 Beta Montecarlos, 1
Beta Coupe VX and some non classic modern cars from people whose
Lancia classic cars were temporarily not drivable ñ first
of all the (Japanese!) presidents car.
The organised program began and we drove through a
beautiful countryside to Eisenach to Wartburg castle. It is everytime
a fun to drive car procession with other classic car enthusiasts
ñ no rain the whole day, 3 useless umbrellas in the Gamma
trunk.
The history of the Wartburg was impressive. It started
in the 11th century as a simple wooden castle, which became an
important centre of power in Middle and East Germany later between
the 13th and 15th century, where also many cultural events were
hosted such as the famous competition of some of the most important
singers (Minnesänger) of the Middle Ages. However, in the
16th century the castle became meaningless and unimportant and
was almost uninhabited. Thatís why political strategists
decided to hide Martin Luther on Wartburg Castle, where he translated
the Bible.
In the afternoon, after lunch break and the exposition
of our cars on Eisenach market place we went to see what is left
from the Wartburg automobile factory. They started to build cars
in 1898 and built the one and other spectaculous model till its
unavoidable death shortly after the German reunification. The
last sophisticated approach from a technical standpoint was the
legendary Wartburg 311 from the 50ties, which was developed unofficially
by a Swabian car enthusiast called Zimmermann. He was the former
Wartburg chief engineer, who took the risk to lose job, career
and everything by leading this development in the former so called
"German Democratic Republic".But when it was shown on
the Leipzig Autoshow by him personally and was considered a big
success by the public, the government didnít dare to stop
him.
In the little Wartburg Museum I got the impression
that the Wartburg Club People where happy that car tradition in
Eisenach continues nowadays with an Opel plant. Unfortunately
a visit of the production was not possible for non Opel employees
due to a model change of the Opel Corsa, the pilot line is currently
running. And since styling and pilot line are the most carefully
kept secrets in the Automotive Industry Eisenach Plant will not
open its doors for the public again before October.
In the evening there was another delicious big dinner
accompanied by expert discussions and then of course we went to
the bar, where people like me who canít find their beds
can spend a lot of time.
Next morning: breakfast and then a big "Ciao"
to everyone.
The meeting had a nice size with respect to the number
of visitors. So it was possible to know new people and to know
people personally who I knew only by phone and mail or rumours.
Special thanks to the organisation and to our new friend Gerhard
Masutti who had the farest way from Styria / Austria with his
red Gamma Coupe.
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