On 24 August 24th there was again a meeting at Ferrari Import Kroymans combined with -hopefully- an exciting Grand Prix, this time the one in Hungary.

Ascari is the club of patrons of the Ferrari Club Nederland with its own committee. Ascari member’s for example assists at events of the club; they man checkpoints in rallies and watch over the cars during lunches, etc. This event was only meant for the first 50 members that respond by sending back the entry form. Did you receive number 51 or higher… well that was bad luck! This maximum is very understandable because there’s not enough room for more than fifty Ferrari enthusiast that gape at classic Ferrari. Fortunately I was -like in 2001- for the second time a lucky guy.

As in previous years the organizers (Robert Donkers, Dick Groenhuijzen and Carel Ruigrok) made a great effort for everyone to organize a grandiose day. Beside that one of the organizers (Carel) offered a prize and everyone who tried to answer the questions had some trouble in finding the correct answer… The day began around 11:00 am for the visitors. Arriving you could tell that people had been very busy… because about 50 chairs were waiting to be used, a beautiful large screen with accompanying equipment was ready to display the Grand Prix of Hungary and on a table in the background was everything ready for the lunch. Around 11:30 am almost everybody that was invited was present and here a critical remark is inevitable: the invitee who was not able to attend could at least give the organizers a call. This way you show a little respect to the persons who made all this happen. Of course there are different reasons to attend an event like this. One chooses the Grand Prix, another some social gathering and another just wanted to see the Kroymans collection, as I did.

I was in the second group to go to see the cars and I noticed in the first section right below the staircase some modern Ferraris. Arriving in the second section -which is normally closed and off limits for anyone- your breath is immediately taken… in the corner on your left hand side, after you almost stumble over the 250 TR replica (based on the 250 GT PF Cabriolet s/n 2059GT), was s/n 0227EL, the 212 Inter Vignale Cabriolet 2+1. This first LHD built was in a beautiful dark grey (if I may put it disrespectfully) with a really magnificent red interior. Really very beautiful! Next was the red 375 America Coupe Vignale (s/n 0327AL) and especially the backside pulled my attention: actual an ugly form of design I think and yet uniquely and charming, but I have to admit that I’m no expert in designs. Third in the row was s/n 0359GT, the 250 Europe Vignale in gloomily green with cream roof and ditto interior. Well…, it’s not my intension to spell out a inventory list, but there were lots of other beautiful Ferraris: other 250’s, 275’s, SWB, Daytona’s, 288 GTO, etc. etc. Perhaps the photos can give an impression of the Ferraris present. I was thrilled in 2001 and I was thrilled now to see all these beauties. Unfortunately Kroyman’s GTO in which he participates in the Historic Challenge wasn’t there because of some maintenance tthat had to be done for the next races.

After taking my photos (all with flash) I certainly can’t forget the red Enzo in the showroom, or the 360 Modena Stradale, or the most recent addition to the Kroymans collection, the F399. A Ferrari b.t.w., that you actually don’t want to see in a showroom. No, this one you’d rather see on a circuit … Oh yeah…, there was also a Grand Prix…, of which I didn’t see that much. However I noticed that Schumi obtained only 1 point for Ferrari and Barrichello left the race with broken rear suspension. Alonso -starting on pole- actually consolidated this position all the way and was the happy winner for Renault. And to be honest: a deserved victory! Everybody present with a Ferrari heart wanted to forget this Grand Prix as quick as possible and didn’t want to discuss it in any way.

The happy winner of the offered prize -he pretended he knew nothing- scored 25 points and received at the end of the day a nice gift: Niels Schouten, an esteemed member and real Ferrari specialist. 2nd place: Dick van de Linden (22 points) and 3rd place: J. Joldersma (19 points). Finally Willem Meinders (as a representative of the official Board of the FCN) spoke the concluding words and thanked the management of Kroymans and organizers of Ascari. He also announced that this -by now traditional- meeting again could take place next year and that produced a nice applause. A tremendous day had come to an end and a marvellous and very rare collection of Ferrari’s could go back to sleep again…