Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world Fellowship of Rotarians more than 30 years old and unabated energetic !!

President’s Newsletter Vol 21, November 2024

Dear Members,

 Now that the Rallye Year 2024 is gradually going to end, we can be satisfied with our activities at home and abroad. We resumed touring at full speed and endeavour to widen our geographical scope to Japan .With the fine support of our Chapters in Germany (ROFD) and in Italy (ARACI) we presented ourselves with booths at the Techno Classica in Essen and recently at Auto Moto d’Epoca in Bologna : fairs, which attracted visitors from many European countries. Our booths have become meeting points of members and ‘acquisition’ points for new members. The success inspires us to be again present in Essen and Bologna in 2025: at the Techno Classica from April 9-13 and at the Auto Moto d’Epoca from October 23-26.

ACHAFR-RRAF-UK Europe Tour 2024

From September 9-12 we have joined the Europe Tour 2024 in the Normandy, which has been well organized by our friends from RRAF-UK . Following positive experiences in the past, the Board of RRAF-UK decided to take again the lake side Eden Park Hotel at Pont l’Evêque as the base of the tour. From there participants from the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands have been taken to impressive historical, cultural and geographical sites and recovered at the Park Hotel. A special admiration is attached to the representatives from ARACI, who took the 1500km distance from central Italy to the Normandy with their vintage cars ! The Board thanks Peter Griffiths ,Chris Ohly and their organisation team for their work, they have provided us with fine memories of the Normandy. The Tour has been  a  success and again it was a reunion of vintage car friends, which has become characteristic of the Europe Tours of our Fellowship.

During the Tour we had our Annual General Meeting, during which the Board presented the Financial Report, which shows a favourable positive balance. Members present discharged the Board and thanked for the work done. 

ACHAFR/ARACI Europe Tour 2025

During the AGM the President of ARACI, Alberto Cerrachio  presented the outline of the very challenging ACHAFR/ARACI Europe Tour 2025, which under the heading of “The Rotary in the Motor Valley” will take us from June 16-21 to the Emilia Romagna Region with visits to historic and cultural sites and by very special invitations from Ferrari and Dallara, which by great exception will  show us the ‘inside ’of the entities. We feel very honoured !

A pre-tour will take us from June 14-16 to Treviso and Venezia, where amongst others we will visit the islands of Murano and Burano and of course Piazza San Marco. 

No wonder that the Europe Tour  finds ‘stormy’ acceptance and interest by our members. By end-October already 32 non-Italian teams have applied for registration.

The Board thanks Alberto and his team for the challenging and detailed program at such an early stage! For sure the Tour will be a great success.

Tours in 2025

In addition to the ACHAFR/ARACI Europe Tour  members are invited to join tours, which are already prepared.

Our friends in Germany organise the 8^th Muensterlaender Castle Tour on May 3, the 4^th Husum Coast-to-Coast Tour from July 10-13 and the Rotary Classic Car Rallye Kevelaer in August. 

The fine weather in Italy enables ARACI to start with Tour Sicilia already in March 21-23, to continue in April with tours in Umbria (April 4-6) , Isole del Golfo di Napoli (April 24-27), in May in Romagna ( May 16-18), Calabria ( May 17-18), Sun Tour ( May 30-June 2), Coast-to- Coast ( September 4-7), Abruzzo Sardinia ( September 23-28) and to end in Sicily ( November 6-9).

Other Chapters are in progress of organising tours and those will be mentioned in forthcoming Letters and on our website www.achafr.eu 

The year-end is looming at the horizon, thus the Board sincerely thanks all organising and participating members for their involvement and enthusiasm. With you we look to 2025 and wish all of you a most happy, healthy and successful year … and are looking forward to seeing you at the tours, which have grown to become ‘festivals’ of petrol heads. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and add to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowadays’ changing environments and tendencies.

By doing so, we 

KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards

Matthijs van den Adel

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world Fellowship of Rotarians more than 30 years old and unabated energetic !!

President’s Newsletter Vol 21, August 2024

Dear Members,

This year we have resumed our activities at full steam. We have widened our geographical range to Japan, presented our fellowship at fairs in Essen and Bologna and hit the road in many countries- see my Letter March 2024 . And the ACHAFR/RRAF-UK Europe Tour is still ahead of us !!

1. ACHAFR/RRAF UK Europe Tour 2024

RRAF-UK invites us to the Europe Tour in the Normandy from September 9-12. Following positive experiences in the past the Board of RRAF-UK decided to take the lake side Eden Park Hotel at Pont l’Eveque as the base of the tour. Due to the overwhelming interest the tour has quickly been fully booked and will see participants from the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The Board is confident that the tour will be a great success and again be a reunion of the petrol head family, which has become characteristic of the Europe Tours of our Fellowship.

During the Tour we will have our Annual General Meeting. The Board will then reflect on the activities of our Fellowship in 2024 , will present the Financial Report 2024 of our Treasurer and will ask for your discharge- see the Agenda and the Financial Report in the annex.

2. ACHAFR/ARACI Europe Tour 2025

During the Tour in the Normandy the President of ARACI, Alberto Cerrachio will present the outline of the very challenging ACHAFR/ARACI Europe Tour 2025, which under the heading of “The Rotary in the Motor Valley” will take us from June 16-21 to the Emilia Romagna Region with visits to historic and cultural sites and by special appointment to  Ferrari and Dallara. A pre-tour will take us from June 14-16 to Treviso and Venezia, where amongst others we will visit the islands of Murano and Burano and of course Piazza San Marco.. We are sure that the Europe Tour will find ‘stormy’ acceptance and interest by our members.

So far this year our Fellowship and its Chapters have shown dynamism and offered ample opportunities to join a variability of tours and thus strengthened the main characteristic of our Fellowship: ‘family festivals’ of petrol heads. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and add to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowadays’ changing environments and tendencies.

By doing so, we 

KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards

Matthijs van den Adel

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world Fellowship of Rotarians more than 30 years old and unabated energetic !!

President’s Newsletter Vol 21, March 2024

Activities 

1. Presence at the Techno-Classica in Essen Germany from April 3-7,2024

For the first time our Fellowship will present itself at Europe’s largest Antique and Historic Car Fair in Essen. With the great and thankful support of our German Chapter ROFD we will attract attention of the thousands vintage cars enthusiasts from all over Europe and inform them of the activities of the Fellowship and its chapters via an own booth located in Hall 7( nr. 7-096 ). We are confident that due to the fine organization of ROFD this presence will support the acquisition of new members and strengthen our (inter-)national appearance. President of ROFD Hans-Peter Wagner and his team as well as myself are looking forward to welcoming you at the booth during those days.

2. Spreading our wings

Our Fellowship and its activities has attracted attention with vintage car owners in Japan. On February 17 I attended a meeting with the Assistant Governor as well as Presidents and Representatives of Rotary Clubs of Tokyo, Yokohama and Hayama. I highly valued the presence of the President of The Classic Car Club of Japan. Following the presentation of the characteristics and charities of our Fellowship interest in joining ACHAFR has been expressed and will be followed up. Our Fellowship will be honoured to widen its wings with a Chapter in Japan

3. Tours in 2024             

Great Britain

RRAF-UK invites us to the Europe Tour in the Normandy from September 9-12. Following positive experiences in the past the Board of RRAF-UK decided to take the lake side Eden Park Hotel at Pont l’Eveque as the base of the tour. Due to the overwhelming interest the tour is already fully booked and will see participants from the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the Netherlands. We are confident that the tour will be a great success and a  reunion of the petrol head family, which has become characteristic of the Europe Tours of our Fellowship.

Italy 

Araci  will organise the Umbria Legend 2024 from April 5-7, the 7^th Tour d’ Abruzzo from April 19-21, the 6^th Edition of Calabria on Tour from May 17-19, the 7^th Rotary Sun Tour from May 30- June 2, the 100 Miglia of Calabria from June 20-23, the 7^th Tour d’Abruzzo from Sept.19-22, the 2^nd Tour of Marche Nature and Arts from Oct. 11-13 and Around the Waters of Saturnia from Oct. 25-27

Germany

ROFD organises the 7^th Muensterlaender Tour on May 11 and the 3^rd Husum Coastal Tour on May 30 

Switzerland

The Swiss chapter RDCV organises the North-Western Switzerland Rotary Challenge from July 12-14

Netherlands

RRAF-NL organises a one day tour in mid- Netherlands on May 18 and a Tour on the islands of the Province South-Netherlands on Oct.5-6

More rallies organised by national chapters will be announced in due course, thus please regularly consult our website www.achafr.eu  

As shown in the above our Fellowship and its Chapters are showing dynamism and offer ample opportunities to join a variability of tours and strengthen the main characteristic of our Fellowship: ‘family festivals’ of petrol heads. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and add to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowadays’ changing environments and tendencies.

The Board wishes you all a very challenging and successful rally year and  is looking forward to seeing you again at one of the above mentioned tours. By doing so, we 

KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards 

 Matthijs van den Adel

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world Fellowship of Rotarians 30 years old and unabated energetic !!

President’s Newsletter Vol 20, December 2023

Dear Members,

National Chapters and our Fellowship resumed at full steam the organization of tours. We noticed that our classic cars have been well checked and conserved during the long lock-down period.

II Tours in 2023

In April the Falmouth-organized Tour of Cornwall saw participants from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands and they all agreed that our friends in Wales, who promised ‘You may well have visited Cornwall many times, but we guarantee that you will go to places where you haven’t been before’ in full delivered.

In May our German Chapter ROFD organized the Muensterlaender Castle Tour on May 5th, followed on June 2-3 by the Husumer Coastal Tour.

In Switzerland the new Swiss Chapter (RDCV-CH/FL) Chapter took members to the beautiful area of Luzern, Emmental and Berner Oberland from May 5-6.

From June 18-24 ARACI organized this year’s Europe Tour from Coast-to Coast (see below).

In September RRAF-UK invites us to its Scotland Highland Tour and on October 7-8 the Dutch Chapter ( RRAF-NL) organizes a tour through Twente- the eastern area of the Netherlands from October 7-8.

As well in Italy a tour in the Maranello area will be organized from October 12-15, which includes a visit to the Maserati factory and a visit to the Ferrari Museum.

III Tours in 2024

In 2024 we will again see tours in Germany – the Muensterlaender Castle Tour in May and the Husumer Coastal Tour in June -as well as the Coast-to-Coast Tour in Italy in April and tours in Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands lateron.

On this occasion the Chapters are again asked to inform well in time the Secretary of ACHAFR about forthcoming tours in order to announce these on our website www.achafr.eu, which proves to be THE information and booking source to members of our Fellowships.

IV Europe Tours in 2023 and 2024

This year’s ARACI/ACHAFR Europe Tour took us across the Apennines from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea from June 18-24.

With 52 cars, including 30 from Germany, Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands we started in Ascoli Piceno, stopped in the earth-quake hidden area of Arquata del Tronto to visit the Rotary Point, the facility built also with the support of our Fellowships and inaugurated in 2020 as a social gathering center, climbed the Forca di Presta to then descend to the blooming fields of Casteluccio. We continued to Assisi to visit the Upper Basilica and enjoyed the lunch well prepared by disabled young people trained at the La Semente farmhouse. In southern Tuscany we have been impressed by art and religion at the Abbey of Sant’Antimo, and of course by the cucina and the splendid vino in Montalcino. On June 23, the engines of the vintage cars have been left to rest and we took the boat to island of Giannutri and Giglio. Dinner on the beach in Orbetello concluded the event, which uni sono has been hailed as a great success by all participants, who with sincere thanks to ARACI’s President Alberto Cerrachio and his great team said farewell and “alla prossima“ .

In 2024 RRAF-UK invites us to the Europe Tour in the Normandy from September 9- 12. Following positive experiences from a previous tour it has been decided to again take the lakeside Eden Park Hotel at Pont L’Eveque, as the base for the tour. The registration fee will be Pd 950,- per team covering the 3 days hotel accommodation, breakfasts, dinners and lunches on the 2 formal driving days.

Since participation at the tour is limited to 40 teams only, members interested should register as soon as possible via the forms already available on our website www.achafr.eu. Details of the programme will be on the website in due course.

V Annual General Meeting 2023

During the Europe Tour we held the Annual General Meeting of ACHAFR on June 21 , 2023 at Chianciano Terme. The Meeting has been attended by 35 members of the Chapters, who amongst other items agreed to the Financial Report 2022 and the Budget 2023. Minutes of the Meeting have been distributed to Chapters and others on mailing list and can be applied with the Secretary.

As per May 31,2023 our Bank account showed a positive balance of € 5940,-

Since the organisation of tours nearly came to a standstill in 2020 and 2021 the Board decided not to levy the yearly fee to the Chapters in those years and thus to support them. As a consequence, ACHAFR became solely dependent on contributions from new life-time members. Expenditures, particularly for IT have been under strict control.

The Board will decide in due course whether the fees to national Chapters will be resumed for 2024.

We are very pleased that after some years of (Covid- induced) standstill, our Fellowship is showing dynamism again and offers opportunities to join a variability of tours and to strengthen the main characteristic of our Fellowship: ‘family festivals’ of petrol heads. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings, the close-knit car- family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and add to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowadays’ changing environments and tendencies.

Together, we

With finest personal regards Dr. Matthijs van den Adel

KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world Fellowship of Rotarians 30 years old and unabated energetic !!

President’s Newsletter Vol 19, Nr 2, September 2022

Dear Members,

With vaccination efforts initially showing  corona abating results and governmental restrictions being reduced, national chapters and our Fellowship cautiously resumed the organization of tours in 2022.

II  Tours in 2022

In April the Falmouth-organized Tour of Cornwall saw participants from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands and they all agreed that our friends in Wales, who promised ‘You may well have visited Cornwall many times, but we guarantee that you will go to places where you haven’t been before’ in full delivered.

From June 20-24,2022 our German Chapter organized the “Europe 2021/22 ROFD/ ACHAFR   Bavarian Lakes and Mountains Tour”. This tour brought us to 10 lakes in Bavaria and Austria, amongst which Chiemsee with a visit by boat to the impressive  Herreninsel .In Austria we tested our driving capacities on the Rossfeld Hoehenstrasse and the Gaisberg: streets where international mountain races took place in the sixties and visited Hangar 7 in Salzburg with its impressive Red Bull collection of planes, helicopters and formula 1 race cars .  

Our British friends invited us to the “RRAF-UK/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2022”, which would have brought us from 5 to 9 September to the Cheshire and Peak District (N-W England). Very much to our joint regret the Tour had to be postponed as a consequence of the low number of registration.

The new chapter Rotarian Drivers of Classic Vehicles (CH/FL) had its first Tour from July 8-9 through the eastern part of Switzerland. Starting in Winterthur, the tour went to Wildhaus and up to the Schägalp (at 1278m) and after breakfast at the Säntis (2502 m above sea-level) via Appenzellerland to Bodensee,St. Galler- and Thurgauer Land back to Zurich.

In Septembre the magnificent Tour d’Abruzzo has been held ( Sept. 15-17) in Italy. On Sept 24 our German Chapter organized its 5^th Muensterlaender Castle Tour, which attracted no less than 60 cars. By month-end  our Italian friends  invited us to the great region of Emilia Romagna and San Marino ( Sept. 29-Oct 2). On November 9^th the Dutch chapter closed the tour calendar of this year .

II  Tours in 2023

Italy:as early as March 17-19 the challenges of the mountain area of  Abruzzo in winter times can be entered, for those who prefer summer times in this spectacular region can register for the Tour d’Abruzzo taking place from September 14-17

Germany: on May 6 the German Chapter(ROFD) organizes its 6^th Muensterlaender Castle Tour, followed on June 2-3 by the 2^nd Husumer Coastal Tour in Northern Germany

Switzerland: on May 5-6 our new Swiss Chapter(RDCV-CH/FL) organizes its Challenge tour through the Luzern, Emmental and Berner Oberland area

Netherlands: on May 13 the Dutch Chapter (RRAF-NL) organizes a tour in the area of the south-western islands  and on October 7-8 a tour through Twenthe-the eastern area of the Netherlands.

Belgium: our new Belgium Chapter (ACHAFR- Belgium) may again organize the great oldtimer weekend-event: ‘Everything Old on Wheels’ in early September.

Europe Tour 2023 – Italy

The highlight of the year will certainly be the 2023 ARACI/ACHAFR Europe Tour, which  will take us from Coast to the Coast from June 18-24, starting in the Ascoli across the Apenines to Orbetello at the West Coast of Italy. During those days we visit multiple historical, religious and cultural places, experience culinary highlights, taste splendid wines in Montalcino and be impressed by the magnificent landscapes of Umbria and Toscana before boarding to the Island of Giglio, where we will visit Roman ruins- see the detailed program in the annex.

III Europe Tours in 2024 and 2025

In 2024 the 2424 RRAF/ACHAFR Europe Tour will thankfully be organized by our British Chapter from September 9-12 and will take us to Normandy. Full details and application forms will be sent outnext April/May. Thus you are invited to already now to notify these dates for planning purposes.

In 2025 our Belgian chapter intends to organize the Europe Tour through Belgium.

For information and booking of tours at home and abroad in the forthcoming years, please turn to our website www.achafr.eu

We are very  pleased that after some years of (Covid- induced) standstill, our Fellowship is showing dynamism again and offers you opportunities to join a variability of tours and to strengthen the main characteristic of our Fellowship:  ‘family festivals’ of petrol heads. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and add to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowadays’ changing environments and tendencies.

The Board wishes you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Prosperous and above all Healthy 2023

…. and is looking forward to seeing you again at one of the above tours and thus jointly we

                                                                     KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards

Dr.Matthijs van den Adel

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world Fellowship of Rotarians 30 years old and unabated energetic !!

President’s Newsletter Vol 19, Nr 2, September 2022

Dear Members,

With vaccination efforts initially showing  corona abating results and governmental restrictions being reduced, national chapters and our Fellowship cautiously resumed the organization of tours. Thus, we took our classic cars to the road and experienced, whether we successfully checked these during the long lock-down period.

II  Tours and AGM in 2022

In April the Falmouth-organized Tour of Cornwall saw participants from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands and they all agreed that our friends in Wales, who promised ‘You may well have visited Cornwall many times, but we guarantee that you will go to places where you haven’t been before’ in full delivered and took home impressive memories from the beautiful and varied coastline of the south coast and the north coast with their villages and valleys in  between.

From June 20-24,2022 our German Chapter organized the “Europe 2021/22 ROFD/ ACHAFR   Bavarian Lakes and Mountains Tour”. This tour brought us to 10 lakes in Bavaria and Austria, amongst which Chiemsee with a visit by boat to the impressive  Herreninsel .In Austria we tested our driving capacities on the Rossfeld Hoehenstrasse and the Gaisberg: streets where international mountain races took place in the sixties and visited Hangar 7 in Salzburg with its impressive Red Bull collection of planes, helicopters and formula 1 race cars . In addition, we passed by mountains of well beyond 2500 m high during those days. With 54 teams the tour has been fully booked and with special gratitude to Hans-Peter Wagner and his team we enjoyed the revival of the petrol head gatherings, which is such a central element of our Fellowship.

During our stay at the impressive Gut Issing Hotel we held the Annual General Meeting of ACHAFR on June 21, due to the pandemy the first one since 2019. Thus, the Board reflected on the years 2020-2021 during which Covid led to a complete standstill of tours by chapters and consequently the Board decided not to levy the yearly fees to the chapters for the years 2020-2022 and thus support them. Despite the lack of ‘income’ the financial position of ACHAFR remains solid. Furthermore, the chapters unanimously voted for the Board members to continue until 2025. Thus, I will be your president for the next three years, so will Johannes Zilkens be as Treasurer and the very valuable Secretary will continue to be Michael Rye. We thank you sincerely for your confidence and we will do our utmost to honour it.

Our British friends invited us to the “RRAF-UK/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2022”, which would have brought us from 5 to 9 September to the Cheshire and Peak District (N-W England). Very much to our joint regret the Tour had to be postponed as a consequence of the low number of registration. We thank David Spencer and his organizing team for all the preparatory work for the challenging program, which unfortunately has not come to life.

The new chapter Rotarian Drivers of Classic Vehicles (CH/FL) had its first Tour from July 8-9 through the eastern part of Switzerland. Starting in Winterthur, the tour went to Wildhaus and up to the Schägalp (at 1278m) and after breakfast at the Säntis (2502 m above sea-level) via Appenzellerland to Bodensee,St. Galler- and Thurgauer Land back to Zurich.

With an eye on next year’s Europe Tour Araci’s president Alberto Cerracchio and his team in Italy organized the Sun Tour 2022, which brought us from Orbetello  (at the west coast) to Ascoli ( close at the east coast) across the Apenines and through the magnificent Monti Sibellini and its National Parc. We gained a challenging pre-view on the 2023 ARACI/ACHAFR  Europe Tour from June 17-24,2023 . It will start in Ascoli and  show historical, cultural and culinary ( incl wine) highlights and exciting landscapes of Umbria and  Toscana before boarding to the Isola del Giglio on the west coast.

Details of the program and the registration form will be on our website (www.achafr.eu)  in due course.

In the forthcoming weeks there will the Tour d’Abruzzo from September 15-17 in Italy, the Muensterlaender Castle  Tour on September 24 in Germany , the Tour Emilia Romagna e San Marino from Sept 29-Oct 2 in Italy and the autumn tour from Oct 15-16 in the Netherlands.

II  Europe Tour in 2023

As mentioned above the 2023 ARACI/ACHAFR Europe Tour will take place in Italy from June 17-24,2023

III Europe Tours in 2024 and 2025

In 2024 our British friends intend to organize the 2024 RRAF-UK/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2024 in Bretagne and Normandy and the new Belgian chapter intends to organize the 2025 ACHAFR Europe Tour through Belgium

Information and booking of vintage tours at home and abroad in the forthcoming years you can find on www.achafr.eu.

We are pleased to resume the main characteristic of our Fellowship: to have ‘family festivals’ of petrol heads. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and add to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowadays’ changing environments and tendencies.

After two years of no joint motoring, the Board wishes all of you success and pleasure in resuming to

                                                                     KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards

Dr.Matthijs van den Adel

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world Fellowship of Rotarians 30 years old and unabated energetic !!

 President’s Newsletter Vol 19, Nr 1, May 2022

Dear Members,

With vaccination efforts initially showing  corona abating results and governmental restrictions being reduced, national chapters cautiously take preparatory steps to organize tours. Thus, gradually we can challenge our classic cars, which we were able to check more intensively during the long lock-down period.

We resume the organization of tours also in order to cope with the backlog in the 2020-2021 tour agenda. Since the annual Europe Tours 2020 and 2021 had to be postponed we will hold  two ‘Europe Tours’ in 2022: one in Germany and one in the UK.

II  Tours in 2022

In April the Falmouth-organised Tour of Cornwall saw participants from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands and they all agreed that our friends in Wales, who promised ‘You may well have visited Cornwall many times, but we guarantee that you will go to places where you haven’t been before’ in full delivered and took home impressive memories from the beautiful and varied coastline of the south coast and the north coast with their villages and valleys in  between.

From June 20-24,2022 our German Chapter will organize the “Europe 2021/22 ROFD/ ACHAFR   Bavarian Lakes and Mountains Tour”. This tour will bring us to 10 lakes in Bavaria and Austria, amongst which Chiemsee with a visit by boat to the impressive  Herreninsel .In Austria we will test our driving capacities on the Rossfeld Hoehenstrasse and the Gaisberg: streets where international mountain races took place in the sixties. There, we are challenged by the speed records those foolhardy drivers made then. We will pass by mountains of well beyond 2500 m high and visit Hangar 7 in Salzburg with its Red Bull collection of race cars and airplanes. With 54 teams the tour is fully booked. During the Tour we will have the Annual General Meeting of ACHAFR. Amongst other items, there will be the (re-)election of the Board and the presentation of the ’Europe 2023 ARACI/ACHAFR Tour’, during which we will drive from coast-to-coast in Italy.

Our British friends invite us to the “RRAF-UK/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2022”, which will bring us from 5 to 9 September to the Cheshire and Peak District (N-W England). We will stay at the fabulous Shrigley Hall Golf & Spa Hotel Macclesfield and from there we will visit the city of Chester, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Anderton Boat Lift, the Great British Car Journey Museum at Ambergate as well as the National Tramway Museum in Crich, thereby driving through beautiful parts of the Peak District National Park and into delightful highways and by-ways of Cheshire. You are urged to reserve as soon as possible, since the number of participating cars is limited !! Full details including booking forms are on the RRAF website as well as on the ACHAFR website www.achafr.eu .

Our new chapter Rotarian Drivers of Classic Vehicles (CH/FL) invites us to its first Tour from July 8-9 through the eastern part of Switzerland. Starting in Winterthur we will drive to Wildhaus and up to the Schägalp (at 1278m) and have breakfast at the Säntis (2502 m above sea-level) and drive via Appenzellerland to Bodensee,St. Galler- and Thurgauer Land back to Zurich Wineland.

The other new chapter ACHAFR Belgium organizes the Northern Belgium Tour on September 5, starting and finishing in Diest,it will be combined with the respected vintage car auction ‘Every Thing on Old Wheels’.

For those who prefer southern-European climate, culture and cucina, they should register at the Tour d’Abruzzo in Italy, which takes place from September 15-17.

On September 24 our German friends invite us to their 5th Muensterlaender Castle.

From Oct 15-16 RRAF Netherlands will hold its traditional autumn tour.

Information and booking of vintage car tours at home and abroad you find on our website www.achafr.eu .

We are pleased to resume the main characteristic of our Fellowship: to have ‘family festivals’ of petrol heads. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and add to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowadays’ changing environments and tendencies.

After two years of no joint motoring, the Board wishes all of you success and pleasure in continuing to

                                                                     KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards

Dr.Matthijs van den Adel

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world Fellowship of Rotarians  30 years old and unabated energetic !!

Dear Members,

The Covid virus with its variations continues to cause worldwide havoc in human, economic, financial and social terms.

Against the agony and lock down of regions the organization of tours by our Fellowship and its national chapters took place on  a very limited scale.

A   Touring

With vaccination efforts initially showing some corona abating results national chapters cautiously took preparatory steps to organize tours during the second half of this year..

I   Tours in 2021

Our German Chapter  has  held its Muensterlaender Castle Tour in August and the Husumer Coastal Tour in September

RRAF-UK held its Yorkshire Dales Tour in August

In Italy two tours have been organized  by ARACI  the 4^th Raduno d’Abruzzo  in September and the 3^rd Classic Car Meeting Emilia-Romagna in October

Those tours have seen dozens of participating teams, which not only faced sportive challenges, but in particular enjoyed the family spirit of being together again after such a long period

II  Tours in 2022

With some light in the tunnel and countries gradually lifting Covid restrictions in autumn, we resumed the organization of tours in 2022, also in order to cope with the backlog in the 2020-2021 tour-agenda.

Since the annual Europe Tours 2020 and 2021 had to be postponed, we will hold two “Europe Tours” next year.

From June 20-24,2022 our German Chapter will organize the “Europe 2021/22 ROFD/ ACHAFR   Bavarian Lakes and Mountains Tour”. This tour will bring us to 10 lakes in Bavaria and Austria, amongst which Chiemsee with a visit by boat to the impressive  Herreninsel .In Austria we will test our driving capacities on the Rossfeld Hoehenstrasse and the Gaisberg: streets where international mountain races took place in the sixties. There, we are challenged by the speed records those foolhardy drivers made then. We will pass by mountains of well beyond 2500 m high and visit Hangar 7 in Salzburg with its Red Bull collection of race cars and airplanes. Please look at the program on our website www.achafr.eu  and register as soon as possible, since the number of  participants needs to be restricted to 40 cars.

Our British friends invite us to the “RRAF-UK/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2022”, which will bring us from 5 to 9 September to the Peak District (N-W England). We will stay at the fabulous Shrigley Hall Hotel Macclesfield and will tour from there through beautiful parts of the Peak District National Park and into delightful highways and by-ways of Cheshire.

As early as April 26-28, 2022 , we will meet at the  RRAF Cornwall Tour and visit the beautiful and varied coastline of the south coast and the north coast and villages and valleys in between. While staying at the four star Penventon Park Hotel in Redruth, our friends promise “You may well have visited Cornwall many times, but we guarantee that you will go to places where you haven’t been before”. Well, let us challenge them !

For those who prefer southern-European atmosphere, cucina and climate ARACI offers the Tour di Umbria from April 1-3 and the Tour di Sicilia from May 12-16. More detailed informations will be distributed as soon as available.

Our very new chapter Rotarian Drivers of Classic Vehicles (CH/FL) invites us to its first Tour from July 8-9 through the eastern part of Switzerland. Starting in Winterthur we will drive to Wildhaus and up to the Schägalp (at 1278m) and have breakfast at the Säntis (2502 m above sea-level) and drive via Appenzellerland to Bodensee,St. Galler- and Thurgauer Land back to Zurich Wineland.

Against the background of the quickly spreading Omikron virus and the ‘revival ’of very restrictive measures by Governments, we can only keep fingers crossed for executing the above tours and resuming the main characteristic of our Fellowship: to have ‘ family festivals’ of petrol heads. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and add to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders..

For informations and details of forthcoming tours, please have a look at our website www.achafr.eu

B    ACHAFR spreading its wings

The organization of tours have come to  a nearly standstill in the past 18 months, but the Board continued to widen the geographical span of  our Fellowship. We have welcomed new lifetime members in Japan, India, Mexico and the Philippines. With the support of these new members we are confident to establish new chapters in these esteemed countries. With growing optimism we see at the horizon the national chapter developing in Japan.

In September the national chapter in Belgium has been re-established. In order to align clearly with our Fellowship our Belgian friends opt for the name Achafr-Belgium. We thank Herman Deroost for his initiatives and wish him most success as the first president of the chapter and of course we are confident of a fine cooperation.

In December Manuel Dubs successfully finished his initiative to establish the new chapter Rotarian Drivers of Classic Vehicles (CH/FL). Old-timer friends in Switzerland and Principality Liechtenstein are invited to join the chapter via www.rdcv.ch. Manuel, the Board wishes you as the first president of RDCV a very successful start and is looking forward to your tour in July 2022.

All new members a warm welcome to the ‘petrol-head family’, which is now present in more than 20 countries !!!

The Board of ACHAFR wishes all of you Merry Christmas and a Prosperous, above all Healthy 2022 and is confident that we will then jointly                                                    

                                                KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards

Dr.Matthijs van den Adel

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world Fellowship of Rotarians 30 years old and unabated energetic !!

The Board of ACHAFR wish all of you good health and trust that after two years of no joint motoring we continue to

KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

Covid-19 has caused havoc worldwide in human, economic, financial and social terms.

Against the agony and lock down of regions the organization of tours by our Fellowship and its national chapters came to a standstill in 2020 and the first half of 2021.

Now that Covid-19 seems to be on retreat and hopefully continues to do so, we can throw eyes on challenging our classic cars, which we were able to repair and check more intensively during the long lock-down period.

A Touring

National chapters cautiously resume preparatory steps to organize tours during the second half of this year and in 2022.

I Tours in 2021

Our German Chapter has held its Muensterlaender Castle Tour on August 21, 2021 and with 90 cars at the start -and some participants dressed up to the period their cars saw life- it has again been successful and thus a substantial amount has been transferred to victims of recent floods in western parts of Germany.

RRAF-UK August 24-27th with 27 cars enjoyed their Yorkshire Dales tour in warm sunny weather, visiting Bolton Castle, Fountains Abbey among a number of other iconic settings.

From September 23-26, 2021 our friends in Northern Germany organized the Husumer Coastal Tour. While driving from the coast of the North Sea to the Baltic Sea the participants crossed green landscapes, charming villages and historic farm-yards and did not miss museums along the way.

From September 16-19 , 2021 44 cars (including mine) joined the 4th Raduno d’Abruzzo Tour, which brought us via numerous curves and intensive shifting gears to the highlands of the National Parc of Abruzzo Lazio, Molise and Majella with its historical, cultural and natural assets. In addition we have been challenged by chrono practices !

From October 28-31, 2021 the RC Clubs in Bologna, Copparo and Parma invite us to the 3rd Classic Car Meeting Emilia-Romagna and its Myths and to enjoy culture, art, nature and automobiles and… of course the fine food of their region. We will be challenged by trials on the Riccardo Paletti circuit and meet a professional driving simulator, before taking a mountain course. We will visit the home of Verdi and after seeing the production of the Parmigiano Reggiano , taste it and learn the specialities of regional cucina ( see the program on www. achafr.eu).

The Dutch Chapter RRAF-NL will have its traditional autumn tour on October 30,2021, details to be presented shortly.

II Tours in 2022

With more light in the tunnel and countries gradually lifting Covid restrictions, we will resume the organization of more tours and thus cope with the backlog in the 2020-2021 tour-agenda.

Since the annual Europe Tours 2020 and 2021 had to be postponed, we will organize two “Europe Tours” next year.

From June 20-24,2022 our German Chapter will organize the “Europe 2021/22 ROFD/ ACHAFR Bavarian Lakes and Mountains Tour”. This tour will bring us to 10 lakes in Bavaria and Austria, amongst which Chiemsee with a visit by boat to the impressive Herreninsel .In Austria we will test our driving capacities on the Rossfeld Hoehenstrasse and the Gaisberg: streets where international mountain races took place in the sixties. There, we are challenged by the speed records those foolhardy drivers made then. We will pass by mountains of well beyond 2500 m high and visit Hangar 7 in Salzburg with its Red Bull collection of race cars and airplanes. Please look at the program on our website www. achafr.eu and register as soon as possible, since the number of participants will be limited to 40 vehicles.

In late June/ early July 2022 our Italian chapter ARACI intends to organize its ‘traditional’ coast-to-coast tour.

Our British friends invite us to the “RRAF-UK/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2022”, which will bring us from 5 to 9 September to the Peak District (N-W England). We will stay at the fabulous Shrigley Hall Hotel Macclesfield and will tour from there through beautiful parts of the Peak District National Park and into delightful highways and by-ways of Cheshire.

As early as April 26-28, 2022 , we will meet at the RRAF Cornwall Tour and visit the beautiful and varied coastline of the south coast and the north coast and villages and valleys in between. While staying at the four-star Penventon Park Hotel in Redruth, our friends promise “You may well have visited Cornwall many times, but we guarantee that you will go to places where you haven’t been before”. Well, let us challenge them!

More vintage car tours will be in the pipeline and thus, we will resume the main characteristic of our Fellowship: to have ‘family festivals’ of petrol heads. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings, The close-knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and add to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowaday’s changing environments and tendencies.

For informations and details of forthcoming tours, please have a look at our website www.achafr.eu

B ACHAFR spreading its wings

The organization of tours have come to a standstill in the past 18 months, but the Board continued to widen the geographical span of our Fellowship. We have welcomed new lifetime members in Japan, India, Mexico and the Philippines. With the support of these new members, we are confident to establish new chapters in these esteemed countries. With growing optimism, we see the national chapter developing in Japan at the horizon.

In September we have re-established the national chapter in Belgium. In order to align clearly with our Fellowship our Belgian friends opt for the name Achafr-Belgium- thus welcome to the ‘petrol-head family’, which will henceforth encompass members in 20 countries and on a remarkable scale.

KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards

Matthijs van den Adel

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world Fellowship of Rotarians 30 years old and unabated energetic !!

Dear Members,

Covid-19 has caused havoc world wide: in human, economic, financial and social terms.

Against the agony and lock down of regions the organization of many tours came to a standstill in 2020 and so far in 2021.

Now that vaccination efforts seem to show promising corona abating results in some countries, national chapters cautiously resume preparatory steps to organize tours during the second half of this year. Thus , we may challenge our classic cars, which we were able to check more intensively during the long lock-down period.

I Tours in 2021

Our German Chapter may hold its Muensterlaender Castle Tour on August 14, 2021 and is optimistic to be as successful as in 2020, when 90 cars showed up at the start with some participants dressed up to the period their cars saw life. Two BMW Dixi (1928) , various classic Rolls Royce ( incl. Phantom Silvercloud, Corniche), Mercedes (SL, Pagode R 107-R 129) and Bentley then lined up and induced favourable expectations for this year’s event. And so they did, by now the tour has been ‘sold out’ !

From September 23-26, 2021 our friends in Northern Germany organize the Husumer Coastal Tour, which will show participants green landscapes, charming villages and historic farm-yards as well as driving along the German-Danish border the coastal line of the Northsea and Balticsea .

Those members, who prefer the southern region of Europe are kindly invited to register for the 4^th Tour of Abruzzo, which will bring them from September 16-19, 2021 to the highlands of the National Parc of Abruzzo Lazio, Molise and Majella with its historical, cultural and natural assets being framed by guided tours. Drivers’ capabilities will be challenged by chrono practices ! The registration fee of less than € 700,- for 2 persons covers full board and should be exercised not later than August 5.

II Tours in 2022

With more light in the tunnel ( hopefully not the lights of an approaching corona-train) and countries gradually lifting Covid restrictions, we may resume the organization of tours and thus cope with the backlog in the 2020-2021 rally-agenda’.

Since the annual ‘Europe Tour’ 2021 needed to be postponed, we will organize two “Europe Tours” next year.

From June 21-22,2022 our German Chapter will organize the “Europe 2022 ROFD/ ACHAFR Bavarian Lakes and Mountains Tour”.This tour will bring us to Chiemsee (with the impressive Herrenchiemsee Castle),to Austria (Wolfgangsee, Salzburg and Kitzbühel) as well as to Berchtesgaden. We will test our driving capacities on the Rossfeld Hoehenstrasse and the Gaisberg: streets where international mountains races took place in the sixties. There, we are challenged by the speed records those foolhardy drivers made then.

Our British friends invite us to the “RRAF-UK/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2022”, which will bring us from 5 to 9 September to the Peak District (N-W England). We will stay at the fabulous Shrigley Hall Hotel Macclesfield and will tour from there through beautiful parts of the Peak District National Park and into delightful highways and by-ways of Cheshire.

As early as April 26-28, 2022 , we will meet at the RRAF Cornwall Tour and visit the beautiful and varied coastline of the south coast and the north coast and villages and valleys in between. The first day will cover the south-west compass quadrant-travelling close to the most southerly and most westerly points of England- the Lizard and Land’s End and on the second day we will head eastward, through China Clay country and up to the north coast, where we will visit the Cornwall Aviation Heritage Centre. While staying at the four star Penventon Park Hotel in Redruth, our friends promise “You may well have visited Cornwall many times, but we guarantee that you will go to places where you haven’t been before”. Well, let us challenge them !

More vintage car tours are in the pipeline and thus, we will resume the main characteristic of our Fellowship: to have ‘ family festivals’ of petrol heads. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and add to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowaday’s changing environments and tendencies.

The Board of ACHAFR wish all of you good health and trust that after two years of no joint motoring we continue to

KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards

Matthijs van den Adel

ACHAFR 30 years old and unabated energetic !!

Dear Members,

With sincere regret Vincent Mazzone informed me that the ARACI/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2020/21 planned in June 2021 needs to be postponed. Being a surgeon by profession and thus daily confronted with Covid patients, Vincent advised his fellow- Board Members of ARACI not to organise the envisaged Coast-to-Coast Tour, since the Corona virus will not be beaten in Italy and other European countries by May/June . The Board of ARACI thankfully accepted his advice and agreed to cancel the event as the only reasonable decision to take.

This decision finds our full consent and thus we will miss again the challenge of crossing the Apennines from east to west and not to experience the historic, cultural, geographical and gastronomical assets of the region.

With great interest we look forward to September, when our British friends invite us to the RRAF/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2021, which will bring us from September 6-10, 2021 to the Peak District (N-W England). We will stay at the fabulous Shrigley Hall Hotel Macclesfield and will tour from there through beautiful parts of the Peak District National Park and into delightful highways and by-ways of Cheshire. The cost for 4 nights Dinner, Bed & Breakfast will be GBP 920,- per couple and … your stay may induce you to visit Goodwood Revival from September 17-19, 2021.

And Tours in 2022

From April 25-27, 2022 our British friends induce us to join the Cornwall Tour. While staying at the Penvention Park Hotel in Redruth they promise : ‘You may well have visited Cornwall many times, but we guarantee that you will go to places where you haven’t been before’. Well ,we will challenge them !

From June 21-24, 2022 our German Chapter will organize the ROFD/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2022. This ‘Bavarian Lakes and Mountains Tour’ will bring us to Chiemsee ( with the impressive Herrenchiemsee Castle), Berchtesgaden and to Austria (Wolfgangsee, Kitzbühel) and we will test our driving capacities on the Rossfeld Höhenstrasse and the Gaisberg- streets where international mountain-races took place in the sixties. There, we are challenged by the speed-records the foolhardy drivers showed then.

Recently the planets Saturnus and Jupiter had been on one straight line –for the first time since 800 years !!-. Let us take this phenomenon as a good sign for 2021.

The Board of ACHAFR wish all of you a prosperous, above all healthy 2021 and is confident that we will continue to KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards

Matthijs van den Adel

President’s Newsletter Vol 17, Nr 2, October 2020  

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world

                   Fellowship of Rotarians

30 years old and unabated energetic !!

Dear Members,

Covid-19 has caused havoc world wide: in human, economic, financial and social terms.

The dramatic developments had far-reaching repercussions within National Chapters and our Fellowship, but these are of lesser importance in view of the numerous victims and casualities, which we had to deplore.

Against the agony and lock down of regions the organization of many tours came to a standstill: many rallys had to be abolished and/or postponed until next year.

Fortunately, our German Chapter succeeded to organize the Muensterlaender Castle Tour  in August, showing 90 cars at the start with some participants dressed up to the period their car saw life. Two BMW Dixi (1928) opened the 92 years car history present with various Rolls Royce ( incl Phantom,Silvercloud, Corniche) , Mercedes (SL , Pagode, R 107 to R 129) and Bentley .With the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation € 60 000,- has been transferred to the End Polio Now ; thus tours are not just fun for petrol heads but also contribute to Rotary’s activities. The success has induced the organizers to have an other Muensterlaender Castle Tour on May 8, 2021

Also our Italian friends have been able to organize the 4 days Raduno/Abruzzo tour in September ,thereby finding some  distraction from the evil of Covid, which has battered the country so heavingly.

Two ACHAFR Euope Tours in 2021

This year’s ARACI/ACHAFR Europe Tour became victim to the pandemy. No less than 60 teams from all over Europe had been looking forward to meet together while travelling to beautiful places and making them to join a very Rotarian service by many local Rotary Clubs , which felt honoured to host all of us and to show the historic, cultural, geographical and of course the gastronomical assets of their towns and regions.

We are pleased and  thankful to our friends of ARACI that they have decided to postpone the tour into June 2021 and to take some advantage of their hard work they had  already put in for some 12 + months to make this  year’s tour a memorable one. And we are sure they will do so in 2021.

Following a  pre-tour starting in Ascoli-Piceno and showing us the beauties of this former Roman city and the beautiful surrounding area- and of course a tasting at a private vinery !! – the Tour will then bring us in 5 days from Ascoli  via the fantastic lentil flower fields in Casteluccio di Norcia and Urbani’s Truffles  to Assisi and from there to Montalcino … for the fine(st) wines and  finally on a day cruise to the island of Giglio and Giannutri before saying ‘Arrivederci’ after the Gala Dinner in Argentario Osa Village .

In September  2021 our British friends invite us to the RRAF/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2021 , which will bring us from September 6- 10,2021 to the Peak District  (N-W England). We will stay at the fabulous Shrigley Hall Hotel  Macclesfield and will tour from there  through parts of Peak District National Park and into delightful highways and by-ways of Cheshire. The cost for 4 nights Dinner, Bed& Breakfast will  be +/-. € 1100,- per couple and…. your stay may induce you to visit Goodwood Revival.

Apart from these highlights we are confident that many a national chapter and local Rotary Club will organize vintage car tours in 2021. You are advised to keep a close eye on our website www.achafr.eu, where you will also find more details about the mentioned Europe Tours in 2021.

And tours in 2022

Already now we throw eyes on tours in 2022 :

From April 25-27,2022 our British friends invite us to the Cornwall Tour, From the  Penventon Park Hotel in Redruth they will promise : “You may well have visited Cornwall many times but we guarantee that you will go to places where you haven’t been before”.

In June 2022 our German Chapter  will organize the Europe 2022 ROFD/ ACHAFR   Bavarian Lakes and Mountains Tour. This 3 days tour will bring us to Chiemsee ( Herrenchiemsee Castle),to Austria -Fuschel- and Wolfgangsee, Salzburg and Kitzbühel as well as to Berchtesgaden (Rossfeldstrasse) and the Sudelfeldpass at Wendelstein .

If so, we will resume the main characteristic of our vintage car tours: to be ‘ family festivals’ of petrol heads. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and add to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowaday’s changing environments and tendencies.

The Board of ACHAFR wish all of you good health and trust that this extremely difficult period may be surpassed in the near future: then we can continue to

                                                  KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards

Matthijs van den Adel

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world

                   Fellowship of Rotarians

30 years old and unabated energetic !!

Dear Members,

The virus continues to cause world wide havoc:  in human terms as well as in economic,financial and social aspects.

The dramatic developments will surely have far-reaching repercussions within National Chapters and our Fellowship, but these are of lesser importance in view of the numerous victims and casualities, which we have to deplore.

Our thoughts and empathy are with our friends in Italy, the country most heavily shaken by the pandemy.

Against the background of agony and lock down of regions it has been necessary and logic to abolish this year’s ARACI/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2020, which was to take place in June. The tour was due to bring us from the east coast to the west coast of Central Italy along a magnificent course during 7 days. No less than 60 teams from all over Europe have been looking forward to meet together while travelling to beautiful places and making them join a very special Rotarian service of many Rotary Clubs, which felt honoured to host  all of us and to show the historic, cultural , geographical and of course the gastronomical assets of their towns and regions.

With enormous disappointment, but full understanding we supported the decision of our Italian friends to postpone this challenging tour until further notice, when the country will be ready to welcome us in a safe and happy way.

The Board of ACHAFR sincerely thanks Vincent Mazzone and his entire team for all the hard work they put in for some twelve plus months to make it a very memorable tour. We wish all of you well and your esteemed country a speedy and successful recovery.

We really hope that all the work ( reservations of hotels, lunches and dinners, guided tours and boat cruise) has not been done in vain and may be utilized at a later date, for instance in spring 2021.

The Europe Tours have been combined with the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of ACHAFR. Now that this year’s tour has been postponed, we cannot hold the AGM 2020 and will instead  forward the respective documents to the Boards of National Chapters and life time members of ACHAFR.

Also tours and general meetings of National Chapters needed to be cancelled and postponed in the wake of the virus infection.

We can only hope that tours in Germany,like the Muensterlaender Caste and Palace Tour, in  Italy,like the Gran Sasso Tour in September or the Autumn tour of RRAF-NL in the Netherlands as well as many, many tours elsewhere may take place later on this year (for information see also www.achafr.eu).

If so, we will then resume the main characteristic of those tours : to be ‘family festivals’ of petrol heads.

At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and that adds to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowaday’s  changing environments and tendencies.

The Board of ACHAFR wish all of you good health and trust that this extremely difficult period may be surpassed in the near future: then we can continue to

                                          KEEP ROTARY ROLLING.

With finest personal regards

 Matthijs van den Adel

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world

                   Fellowship of Rotarians

30 years old and unabated energetic !!

Dear Members,

now that the year-end is at the horizon, it is opportune to reflect on 2019 and to throw eyes on the succeeding year.

With the fine support of Philip Cross of Rotary Club of Wagga Wagga, it is now clarified that our Fellowship has been initiated by RC Wagga Wagga in Australia on  Aug, 31,1989 and received the official recognition  in February 1990 under its present name. Thus, we are amongst the oldest Fellowships within the Rotary and can celebrate our 30^th Anniversary next year.

During these years our Fellowship gradually spread its wings over continents and now counts national chapters in Europe and North America and representatives in many countries all over the world.

Over the years we, petrol heads (Australian expression for ‘car nuts’), have grown to become a magnificent group of friends meeting each other on various occasions. Rallies in Italy, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and in particular our yearly Europe Tours have become ‘family festivals’. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and that adds to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowadays’ changing environments and tendencies.

In addition to the social aspects we should not forget the financial/granting aspects of these gatherings. Jointly, ACHAFR and its national chapters have supported activities like End Polio Now and specific projects in member countries with substantial funds.

In 2019 our Fellowship has financially contributed  to the construction of the multifunctional Rotary-center in the heavily earth quake shaken area of Arquata. In this area housing facilities need to be built and in order to motivate young professionals to remain or to move to the region, the center will be at their disposal with work rooms, studio’s etc. Thus, we showed contents to the Leitmotiv of Rotary ‘Service above Self’

It has been an honour to be present at the opening of the Centre by the President of Rotary International on May 5. Mr. Barry Rassin and his spouse came over from Evanston to open it – with the ACHAFR cap !! 

On the occasion of the Rotary World Convention  this year’s Europe Tour ended in Hamburg. No less than 35 teams from various European countries participated in this  very special Tour, which has been greatly organized by our German friends. Teams of our Italian Chapter ARACI even tripled in distance the world famous Mille Miglia by driving 3000 km to and from Hamburg, thereby underlining their thanks-worthy affinity to Rotary and our Fellowship !!

At the Convention we run in the House of Friendship our Booth and gratefully welcomed dozens Rotarians from all over the world. Remarkably, our Fellowship proved still to be unknown to (too) many visitors ! We and our national chapters have approached many, many national and local Rotary organizations, but our information obviously has not always reached the addressees. Also, remarkably we had to notice that some local organizations have not  been quite supportive in passing on our information. Although we support the activities/charities of Rotary with financial means and other efforts the adverse of the mentioned Leitmotiv seems to be practice here and there .

Thus, our presence at the Convention has resulted in some ‘missionary work’ with more than hundred brochures finding their way to Rotarians from all over the world. With great pleasure we were able to directly welcome new members to our Fellowship.

While being in Germany we held our Annual General Meeting. The delegates gave approval to the financial statements of 2018 and the proposed budget for 2019, which hopefully will show a small surplus. Our financial means largely depend on the contributions of only three national chapters from Italy, Netherlands and United Kingdom. This is an unpleasant small platform. Therefore, the Board has decided in   to henceforth levy at the Europe Tours € 25,- per car as a contribution to ACHAFR.

During the year national chapters and local Rotary clubs have organized dozens of vintage car rally’s, particular be it in Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands or in the United States. They all have welcomed hundreds of ‘petrol heads’, who enjoyed meeting kindred souls, yet unknown landscapes and/or cultures, local cuisines and supporting activities/charities to substantial magnitudes.

We have seen our Italian Chapter growing excessively to become the largest fellowship in terms of members.

Also, we saw the re-start of the national chapter in Germany under the enthusiastic leadership of Hans-Peter Wagner. Antique car owners in Germany are invited to join the re-newned Rotary Oldtimer Freunde Deutschland (ROFD) via www.oldtimer-fellows.de 

Moreover, initiatives have been taken to re-new the Chapter in Belgium and we are confident that this will bear fruit in the coming year. 

The year 2020 will show multiple occasions for ‘oldtimer’ friends to meet each other at rally’s, be it the RRAF Cornwall Tour in April  , the Muensterlaender Castle and Palace Tour in May in Germany, the  Europe Tour in June, the Gran Sasso Tour in September or the Dutch Tour in October and many many tours elsewhere.

All the Tours and registration invitation/ form are/will be published on our website www.achafr.eu

Next year’s Europe Tour will be organized by our national chapter ARACI in Italy and it will be a challenging and impressive one. Following a  pre-tour starting on June 14 in Ascoli and showing us the beauties of this former Roman city and the beautiful surrounding area- and of course a tasting at a private vinery !! – the Tour will then bring us from June 16-20 from Ascoli  via the fantastic lentil flower fields in Casteluccio di Norcia and Urbani’s Truffles  to Assisi and from there to Montalcino … for the fine(st) wines and  finally on a day cruise to the island of Giglio and Giannutri before saying ‘Arrivederci’ after the Gala Dinner in Argentario Osa Village .

No wonder, that by now already 48 teams from various European countries have already registered their participation and since this very special tour will be limited to say 60 vintage cars only members of ACHAFR, ARACI and  national chapters are called to decide and register on very short notice and take all necessary information via  www.rotarycoast-to-coast.it

While looking into the New Year I wish you and your dear ones

a most Healthy and Prosperous 2020 and initially very Merry and Peaceful Christmas

 For sure also during 2020                WE KEEP ROTARY ROLLING.

With finest personal regards

 Matthijs van den Adel             

Touring with Rotary

Antique, Classic, & Historic Automobile world Fellowship of Rotarians

The Secretary called the meeting to order and handed over to President Matthijs who welcomed those present to our Fellowship AGM and mentioned that it was good to see some 32 members in attendance and no apologises.  And in particular members from ARACI who had driven up from Italy and introduced Vincent Mazzone who would be giving a detailed presentation on the 2020 Coast To Coast tour later.

The President then went on to give his report.

Tours in 2018

 In 2018 we attached much attention to the 30th Anniversary of our Fellowship and highlighted the success of the fellowship at the special ACHAFR/RRAF-NL Europe Tour in the Netherlands: again many thanks to our Dutch friends, who organised an impressive tour on land and at sea.

In addition to the ACHAFR/RRAF-NL Europe Tour  I met many fellowship members in 2018 at the ARACI Coast-to-Coast Tour in Italy, the Muensterlaender Tour in Germany, the Gran Sasso Tour in Italy, the RRAF-UK Normandy Tour in France and the RRAF-NL tour in the Netherlands

Promotion

During 2018 we have been at the Ri World Convention in Toronto with an own booth perfectly organised and manned by our Chairman of the North America Chapter Bob Reynolds who met and reported about new contacts with visiting Rotarians

May 5, 2019 the newly constructed Rotary Multifunctional Centre in the earth quake hidden area of Arquata has been opened by RI President Barry Rassin.  Also our Fellowship and in particular ARACI  supported this fine construction financially. The event has been reported in the International Rotary Magazine

At this year’s RI Convention Hamburg we are present in Booth number 3818 and we will welcome many of you. It was a disappointment that after many exchanges of mails with the convention team we, ACHAFR, could not have a display of our vehicles to highlight our Fellowship.

 Our presence at the booth attracted a very steady stream of  interested  Rotarians and many new members not only expressed interest but joined on the day. We have selling caps and pins and presenting the assets/activities of our fellowship(s) to many visiting Rotarians from all over the world.

Our website is visited by Rotarians and non –Rotarians of many countries; remarkably it is still largely unknown to members of ACHAFR and the supporting national chapters (also at the Convention I have frequently being asked ‘where can I find the information about the Fellowship). Therefore  again I  ask all secretaries of Chapters within our Fellowship to be more vocal in directing  personnel  to our website where they will find information not only relating to their own chapters but to the fullness of all other Chapters and their activities.

Decision of the Board

With a view on the decreasing balance sheet of our Fellowship the Board has decided to levy € 25,- per car at Europe Tours, starting in 2020

Furthermore it has been decided  to levy €25 for commercial ads

Recently we have been approached by Rotarians in Southern Germany with the request of establishing a cross border fellowship around the Lake of Konstanz in Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since we have a cross border Fellowship in Northern America the Board does not recognized objections to this request and President Matthijs put it to the AGM where it was  approved with no against. This will now be put to a meeting of prospective members within the designated area for their consideration.

With forthcoming Rotary International Conventions being held 2020 Honolulu, 2021 Taipei, 2022 Houston, 2023 either Warsaw or Melbourne and 2024 Singapore ,it is possible that due to distance that serious consideration be given to not having a booth presence at these conventions, although discussions will be ongoing with both Rob Wooley and David John in Australia should 2023 convention go to Melbourne.

Secretary report.

Under membership, it was reported that with our website now up and running a steady stream of request for memberships from across Europe and further afield was coming in, it there was a distinct lack from within the UK

There is a good exchange of mails between the Board and Chapters which is a very healthy sign of togetherness which our Fellowship encourages and all mails are dealt within a 24 hour period.

Treasurers report.

Johannes, spoke to the accounts and gave a detailed breakdown as circulate (and attached)  which has seen a continuance of our Fellowship development and confidently  believe that measures we have incorporated, are now coming to fruition and that this is not the time for pessimism. As usual it is all about strengthening our financial position so that we have a secure position to support our Fellowship. There were no questions from attending members and the accounts were accepted.

Closure

With no other matters being put forward by the attendees the President closes the meeting by pointing attention to the folllowing presentation of the 2020 ARACI/ACHAFR EUROPE Coast-to-Coast Tour by Vincent Mazzone Board Member of ARACI and the next AGM will thus being held in June 2020 in Italy.

( this presentation is now on the ACHAFR website !!)

President’s Newsletter Vol 15, Nr 2, June 2019

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world

                   Fellowship of Rotarians                                    30 years old and energetic !!

Dear Members

It is the 31^st year of existence of our Fellowship and thus we are among the oldest international Fellowships of Rotary and we really are “international”.

Starting in Waku Waku in Australia in 1988 our Fellowship gradually spread its wings over continents and now counts national chapters in Europe and North America and representatives in many countries all over the world.

Over the years we, petrol heads (Australian expression for ‘car nuts’), have grown to become a magnificent group of friends meeting each other on various occasions. Rallies in Italy, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and in particular our yearly Europe Tours have become ‘family festivals’. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and that adds to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowadays’ changing environments and tendencies.

In addition to the social aspects we should not forget the financial/granting aspects of these gatherings. Jointly, ACHAFR and its national chapters have supported activities like End Polio Now and specific projects in member countries with substantial funds.

With the great support of ARACI as well as from local Rotary Clubs in Italy and abroad, also our Fellowship has contributed to the construction of the multifunctional center in the heavily earth quake shaken area of Arquata. In this area housing facilities need to be built and in order to motivate young professionals to remain or to move to the region, the center will be at their disposal with work rooms, studio’s etc and internet connections.

In late April no less than 54 vintage cars (try to) find their way from Orbetello via the world famous Museo Piaggio in Pontederra to Fiesole- where I received the honorable  “Accademico ad Honorem della l’Accademia della Fiorentina” -. I am very grateful to the Accademia for being honoured with this high order, which I also regard as a distinction to the fine work we have exercised in our Fellowships!! From Fiesole we went via Bagna di Romagna downhill to the historic and cultural highlight Ravenna .

Again this ARACI’s 10 th Coast-to-Coast Tour brought us to magnificent country sides, winery and cucina, we otherwise would not have discovered and  highly appreciated. Vincent Mazzone, Rodolfo Torri and Luigi Olivieri and their team many many thanks for this great event, which creates high expectations for next year !!

On May 5  we had the honour to be present at the opening of the said Rotary Multifunctional Centre in Arquata. The President of Rotary International mr. Barry Rassin and his spouse came over from Evanston to open ( with the ACHAFR cap !! )the Centre, which also documented that our Fellowship adapts the “’Leitmotiv ’of Rotary ‘Service above Self’. With substantial financial means our Fellowships supported the financing of this splendid activity for Young Professionals in the badly hidden and devastated area of Arquata.

At the end of May with 5 cars  our friends from ARACI made their way with no less than via 3000 miles to and from the Rotary World Convention in Hamburg . The world famous ‘Mille Miglia’ has thus been greatly beaten by them at length!!   Initially they joined us in the Netherlands and from there with 17  vintage cars we  toured to Adendorf and integrated into the ROFD/ACHAFR Europe Tour 2019 , which started there. With 38 vintage cars from various European countries we puzzled the Lueneburger Heide and visited the magnificent Museum of Prototype Cars in Hamburg before throwing an eye on the Convention and/or its House of Friendship..

This very special Europe Tour has been greatly organized by our German friends who provided unforgettable days to the participants. Johannes Zilkens, Joachim Wendel, Hans-Peter Wagner and Friedrich Lang we owe you sincere thanks for all the work you had to exercise !!!

In the House of Friendship our Fellowship run its Booth and gratefully welcomed dozens Rotarians from all over the world. Remarkably, our Fellowship proved still to be unknown to (too) many visitors ! We and our national chapters have approached many, many national and local Rotary organizations, but our informations obviously have not always reached the adressees. Also, remarkably we had to notice that some local organizations have not  been quite supportive in passing on our informations . . Although we support the activities of Rotary with financial means and other efforts the adverse of the mentioned Leitmotiv seems to be practice here and there.

Our presence at the Convention has thus resulted in some ‘missionary work’ with more than hundred brochures finding their way to Rotarians from all over the world. With great pleasure we were able to welcome new members to our Fellowship and gathered dozens of visiting/business cards, which of course will be followed up by us. Overall ,we can be very satisfied with our Booth at the Convention: the results justified our joint efforts.

While being in Adendorf we held our Annual General Meeting. The delegates gave approval to the financial statements of 2018 and the proposed budget for 2019, which hopefully will show a small surplus. Our financial means largely depend on the contributions of only three national chapters from Italy, Netherlands and United Kingdom. This is an unpleasant small platform. Therefore, the Board has decided in 2018  to levy at the Europe Tours € 25,- per car as a contribution to ACHAFR. Also, commercial ads of non- members on our website will  need to be paid. Both decisions will be henceforth be applied.

The General Meeting finally challenged the delegates (and spouses) to positively consider their participation at next year’s ARACI/ACHAFR Europe Tour in Italy.

Vincent Mazzone held an impressive presentation of the tour, which will start with a pre-tour in Ascoli and the beautiful surrounding area- with of course a tasting at a private vinery !! -on June 14-15 and will then bring us from June 16-20 from Ascoli  via the fantastic lentil flower fields in Casteluccio di Norcia to Assisi and from there to Montalcino … for the fine wines and  finally on a day cruise to the island of Giglio and Giannutri before saying ‘Arrivederci’ after the Gala Dinner in Argentario Osa Village .

Since this very special tour will be limited to 50 vintage cars only and many members of ARACI have already expressed their interest in joining the tour ,members of ACHAFR and national chapters are called to decide and register on short notice and take all necessary informations via www.rotarycoast-to-coast.it

In the course of this year there will again be a wide variety of tours in member countries to which all  Fellowship(s) -members  are kindly invited.

For details of these tours and all other messages of our Fellowship  you may look at our website www.achafr.eu

While looking to these informations /invitations you may agree that also this year will be a successful  year and thus  jointly   

                                    WE KEEP ROTARY ROLLING.

With finest personal regards               

 Matthijs van den Adel             

President’s Newsletter Vol 15, Nr 1,February 2019

Antique Classic & Historic Automobile world

                   Fellowship of Rotarians                                    30 years old and energetic !!

Dear Members

Now that cold temperatures are fading away in the Northern Hemisphere we can throw eyes on the new Rallye Season.

Again ACHAFR and National Chapters are ready in preparing and organizing various exciting tours, which will bring many of us to yet unknown cities, villages and landscape. This is a major asset and advantage of our Fellowship.

Last year it has been the  30^th Anniversary of our Fellowship and we have attached much interest to this great occasion … and for good reason ! We are among the oldest international Fellowships of Rotary and we really are “international” and remain energetic !

Since its start in Waku Waku in Australia in 1988 our Fellowship gradually spread its wings over continents and now counts national chapters in Europe and North America and representatives in many countries all over the world.

Over the years we, petrol heads (Australian expression for ‘car nuts’), have grown to become a magnificent group of friends meeting each other on various occasions. Rallies in Italy, United Kingdom, the Netherlands and in particular our Europe Tours have become ‘family festivals’. At those joint events and adjacent social gatherings the close knit car-family attitudes prevail over nationalities and languages and that adds to Rotary’s philosophy of close cooperation and communication at home and across borders, which is extremely important and valuable in nowadays’ changing environments and tendencies.

Our friends in Italy will again take the lead in organizing a major rally: the Rotary Coast-to-Coast Tour, which will bring some 50 antique and classic cars to the start in Orbetello on April 26. After various preceding tours under various logo’s, it is this year the Thermal Tour. During the five days till May 1 the participants will visit Montecatini Terme, will cross the Apennines , will experience magnificent Bagno di Romagna and will finish in Ravenna and throw eyes on the Adriatic Sea. On the long course there will not only be challenges of driving along hidden and steep roads but also competitive “time-speeding”. During these days the teams will ‘fight’ in 3 rounds for the Trofeo Amato Olivieri – in memory of a great inspirator of rallies, such as the Coast-to-Coast Tour. For further information and reservation, see www.rotarycoast-top-coast.it

After taking some rest in early May ,in particular the Italian members will head for a long and challenging tour to the Rotary World Convention in Hamburg. They will cover no less than 1300 km vice versa, a thankworthy initiative- also reflecting the spirit of our Fellowship !

They will join participants to the ROFD/Europe Tour, initially on May 27 in the Netherlands, where ACHAFR Board Members organize a pre-tour under the logo “On the Way to Hamburg”. PP Maarten Kaptein and myself will show participants from England, the Netherlands and Italy some beauties of the Netherlands, such as the Royal Delft Porcelain Factory, the former Airborne Headquarters, from where the operation ‘a Bridge too far’ started in 1944 , the  large collection of 250 antique and classic cars at Louwman Museum, Giethoorn-Venice of the North-  before joining all participants at the ROFD/Europe Tour in Reinstorf Germany.

Thanks to the initiative of the Treasurer of our Fellowship, Johannes Zilkens, this year’s Europe Tour is organized by our German Chapter Rotary Oldtimer Freunde Deutschland (ROFD) .

On May 30 we will ‘rally’ through the Lueneburger Heide and  visit at the “Museum zur Luftbruecke”, memorizing the airlift by the Royal Airforce, US Airforce and the French Airforce during the period August to September 1949. During this period in total 277 569 flights brought 2.2. million tons of goods  ( coal-1.5. million tons and food – 0.7 million tons) to the population of West Berlin, which suffered from the Soviet blockade.

On this day we will also have our yearly Annual General Meeting, during which all members reflect  on the activities of the fellowship , hopefully in positive terms.

On June 1 the 40 teams of antique and classic cars will drive to Hamburg in order to see fascinating prototypes of car construction at the Prototypen- Museum, before  hopefully parking in front of  the World Convention in Hamburg, where the (co)drivers will be welcomed at the ACHAFR booth in the House of Friends.

As in the preceding 15 years we will again show in our booth at the Convention the visiting Rotarians from all over the world the features of ACHAFR and induce some of them to join our Fellowship and/or establish a new National Chapter elsewhere .

By doing so, we may add impetus to the objectives of ACHAFR.

In addition to the social aspects, there are the financial/granting aspects of these gatherings. Jointly, ACHAFR and its National Chapters have supported activities like End Polio Now and specific projects in member countries with substantial amounts of funds. In Italy, for instance we have contributed to the construction of the multifunctional center in the heavily earth quake shaken area of Amatrice. In this area housing/working facilities need to be built and in order to motivate young professionals to remain in the region, the center will be at their disposal with work rooms, studio’s etc.

By supporting these various activities and projects we jointly demonstrate, that vintage car owners do not only enjoy the events (and their cars) ,but in particular live up to the ‘Leitmotiv’  of Rotary  “Service above Self”.

For details of these tours and all other tours organized by ACHAFR and its National Chapters you are kindly invited to  look at our website www achafr.eu and to register your participation at one or more of the tours in 2019.

This website has grown to become an important information and ‘marketing’ channel of our Fellowship- not only to members of the fellowships, but also to ‘petrol heads’ in many other countries. Statistics and flow charts provide some evidence that the activities of our Fellowship are seen as interesting and supportive to the communicative and cooperative ideals of Rotary.

Thus jointly  WE KEEP ROTARY ROLLING

With finest personal regards                 Matthijs van den Adel