About Us
The
Alfa Romeo Owners of Oregon – AROO – is one of the oldest, largest, and
most active chapters of the U.S. National Alfa Romeo Owners Club
(www.aroc-usa.org).
In the late 1950s, two
Giulietta Spider Veloces came to Portland. They were featured on a
local TV show to promote a sports car race, participating in a race
which they dominated, winning converts in the growing sports car scene.
As interest and knowledge of Alfas grew, Alfa fans – known as “Alfisti”
– began to gather at Rambo Motors, the new Alfa dealer in Portland,
which trained mechanics and supported a racing team. In the early 1960s,
Bob Rinde, Rambo’s sales manager, joined the national Alfa Romeo Owners
Club and others followed. By October 1968 there was enough local
interest for Bob McGill to apply to start a chapter, making AROO the
sixth AROC chapter in the United States.
Today AROO has 200
memberships and over 300 members. Although most live in the Portland
metro area, the roster includes members in several western states and
British Columbia. AROO’s business is conducted at monthly meetings by
a 10-person Board of Directors.
AROO holds a monthly
membership meeting (replaced by a summer evening tour in June and August,
and by the Holiday Party in December) and driving events nearly every month.
We typically kick off the “touring season” with a Valentine’s Day Tour
in February followed by the Old Spider Tour in April. Members lead
other tours throughout the year, taking advantage of Oregon’s many
scenic back roads from the Pacific Coast to the mountains and deserts
in the east side of the state. The touring season closes with the
Old Super Tour in September.
The rally season begins in
March with the AROO Rally School, followed by the “AROO Cup” Rally
series of monthly half-day TSD rallies through the spring. Late June
brings AROO’s premier annual event, the Northwest Classic Challenge,
the longest running classic TSD rally in America, now preparing for its
35th running in 2024! And the rally season is closed out with the running
of the Dirty Rat rally in October.
AROO keeps its members
informed through the monthly newsletter, the ALFA BITS, whose current
edition is downloadable from this website, along with all issues since
mid-2012 available in the archives. We are working on digitizing all issues
from 1979 to mid-2012, and some issues from the mid-1970s.
