Alfa Romeo owners bring Italian flavour to centenary celebrations

Examples of Alfa Romeos dating from 1929 were on show in the city's streets yesterday, all displaying the car firm's legendary cross and serpent logo.

York was chosen as the ideal location for the event because of the city's Roman heritage, and despite the overcast skies, the rally was given an added flavour of the Mediterranean with an Italian street fair.

The Yorkshire section secretary of the Alfa Romeo Owners' Club, Colin Metcalfe, helped plan the rally with York Council.

Mr Metcalfe, who brought with him a 1997Alfa Romeo 145, said: "We wanted to have 100 cars to help celebrate Alfa Romeo's centenary. While we didn't quite manage to get a car for every year, it has been a wonderful turnout. York is the perfect place to stage something like this, and there was a real feeling of a Little Italy during the day."

The oldest model dating from 1929 was a hand-built Zagato bodied 6C 1750, which has been valued in excess of 200,000, while the latest Alfa Romeo on display was an 8C Competizone, which has a list price of 238,000.

Other cars on show included the classic Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider, a model of which was used in the film The Graduate.