Macchinissima II
I missed last year’s inaugural Macchinissima, but after seeing the photos and hearing about the quality of cars curated by Mike Baum and Bronson Page, I made it a point to attend the 2024 edition, even though it was in the heart of Los Angeles. The new venue was the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens . I got an early invite and immediately purchased the ticket so that I would not miss out again. I received a text message from a fellow Abarth owner notifying the Socal Abarth group that we had been invited to show up to 6 modern Abarths inside the show and I took advantage of that instead of parking two or three blocks away and having to walk in the heat.
The biggest negative is driving into Los Angeles followed by trying to get out of LA in the middle of the afternoon. The road into the city are atrocious, with roadwork going on 24/7 which makes the traffic horrendous in both directions. The venue was beautiful though, with lots of shade throughout the grounds and even an air conditioned building where the rest rooms were located, so one could get some relief from the heat. Food was provided by a pizza establishment part of Nancy Silverton’s empire and was very tasty. Service was fast and fairly efficient so there was no inordinate amount of wait time!
The cars that were on display were some of the best examples of Italian automotive artistry in all of Southern California. Everything from an award winning Alfa Romeo 1900 CSS Zagato to a very rare Fiat Topolino Woody and a Maserati 450Si that ran the very last Mille Miglia in 1957. The Maserati was fired up for the enjoyment of the crowd, what a glorious sound it gave.
An Alfa Romeo dealership had several new Giulia, Stelvio and Tonale for attendees to test drive as well.