President’s Newsletter Vol 22, April 2026
Dear Members,
Now that our classic cars have been well checked and conserved during the winter period we can resume our activities, be it by ‘marketing’ our Fellowship, for instance with booths at international classic car fairs or be it on the road with tours.
With the fine support of our Chapter in Germany (ROFD) we presented ourselves at the Retro Classics in Essen in April and will do so at the Auto Storiche in Bologna in October: these high class fairs attract visitors from many European countries. Our booths have become meeting points of members and ‘acquisition’ points for new members. We thank Hans-Peter Wagner and his excellent team for equipping and manning the eyecatcher in Essen from April 8-12.
Activities Tours in 2026
- ACHAFR Europe Tour : pre-tour Sept 7-9 , main-tour Sept 9-13, 2026
ACHAFR will organise the Europe Tour bringing us to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. The pre-tour will show the beauties of Bruge (Brugge) on land and water and the brand new Squadra Abarth & Rally Collection of the owner and former rally-driver Guy Moerenhout, who collected as many as 175 classic and rally cars.
For the main tour we will stay at the superb 4 Star Castle Hotel Bloemendal in Vaals, the Netherlands. It will be the base hotel for 4 days. From there we will test the Spa-Franchorchamps Circuit, visit the southern area of the Dutch Province of Limburg and parts of Belgium and by special invitation the Townhall of Aachen, the construction of which had been initiated by Charlemagne (748-814). We will receive a special honour to visit the Townhall and the Crowning Hall and see amongst others Crown jewels memorizing the 31 King and Emperor Crownings during the period 813-1531.
Up to members from Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain and the Netherlands have already registered for the pre-tour ( 22 teams) and the main tour ( 33 teams). Of course we will welcome additional participants, who are invited to consult our website www.achafr.eu.
2. Tours organised by Chapters
In addition to the ACHAFR/ARACI Europe Tour members are invited to join tours, which are/will be prepared by fellowships
Our friends in Germany organise the 9th Muensterlaender Castle Tour on May 2, the 5th Husum Coast-to-Coast Tour from July 2—5 and join the Oldtimer Grand Prix on the Nuerburgring on August 7-9 as well as Goodwood Revival on September 17-21.
The fine weather in Italy enables ARACI to start with tours as early as March in Piemonte ( March 14-15) and Umbria (March 27-29), to continue in Sicily ( April 10-12) ,Emilia Romagna (April 23-25) and organise a very special tour in Albania !! (May 29-31).Following tours in the Apennines and Abruzzo in September, the 2nd Araci Tour Sicilia may end the tour agenda.
3. Tours in 2027
The ACHAFR-ROFD Europe Tour 2027 will be held in Germany in the period June 21-27 on the occasion of the 100 year anniversary of the Nürburgring- a very special event!
From September 3-7 our German friends intend to organise the ROFD-AlpesTour, which will start in Gstaad and bring us via many Alps pass to highlights like Chamonix, Megeve, Val d’Isere, Briançon, Saint Paul sur Ubaye, Col du Turini finally to Monaco where our classic cars meet classic sailing yachts during the fabulous Monaco Classic Week.
Thus there will be ample opportunities for members of our Fellowship to meet at 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