Italian Car Fest

From Jerry,

Today, I checked my 1978 Lancia Beta Coupe over in preparation for ItalianCarFest (affectionately known here as "ICF"). ICF is one of the highlights of the year for those of us at Vick Autosports.

It began with the Italian Car Club of the Southwest (ICCS). It was my privilege to organize the club at the request of our company’s first owner, Robert Vick. Of course, this was long before I bought Vick Autosports. The club was originally formed as the Fiat Club of North Texas and later grew into the ICCS. But that’s another story...

Anyway, ICF began in 2003. The first show was at Cross Timbers Winery, a lovely setting in Grapevine. Since then, the show moved to Lake Grapevine, and later to its current home at Nash Farm, an early twentieth century living-history farm.

Without question, the most exciting element of ICF is that it is open to the general public. It's wonderful to show off the joys of Italian cars and two-wheelers to those who are not familiar with them. To date, over 40,000 people have attended the annual event. A rain storm put a damper on one year’s event, and the show has gone on despite two droughts that made the grassy display area iffy. Of note, for the first year (scheduled at the lakefront), the club watered the field for a month beforehand, utilizing a water buffalo (a 500 gallon tank) towed behind volunteers’ trucks!

The club was wise in organizing ICF in conjunction with a well established regional event, Grapefest. The two events compliment each other. The City of Grapevine has been generous in assisting ICCS with ICF. And Vick Autosports (VAS) has helped out, too. VAS is the “Senior Sponsor” of ICF and is the only company to have sponsored ICF every year.

Vick Autosports appreciates the effort of the current organizers to make ICF an event unmatched in the region!

It is with this in mind that I give the Beta Coupe an inspection. The car hasn’t been driven much lately. It has gotten dusty in the garage. It will be on the show field and although not up for judging, I want it to be presentable...

Jerry