Amerivespa 2003

11th Annual National Rally
May 22nd - 25th
Madison, Georgia

Review by Michael McWilliams

What started as the tiniest proposal for Amerivespa, grew to become our largest, and most successful event. Amerivespa 2003 originated from an obscure set of posts on the International Scooterist BBS followed by several conversations on Yahoo Instant Messenger.

Atti Bethlenfalvy was the idea man behind our most successful rally to date. Atti mentioned his idea to Bruce Weiner (owner of the Dubble Bubble Microcar Museum), and me in mid 2002. Bruce was in the planning phases for his second bi-annual microcar festival "Micros in Madison". Bruce and I were supporters of the idea, but the National Microcar and Minicar Club had to give their seal of approval. (Bruce had already arranged for the National Microcar and Minicar Club National Rally to be part of Micros in Madison.)

The idea of bringing microcar and scooter enthusiasts together isn't new. The first Micros in Madison drew a handful of scooterists. Amerivespa has seen its share of microcar participation in the past 11 years. However, combining the USA's largest microcar event and one of the largest scooter events was unheard of.

We had big plans… we could not invite several hundred enthusiasts to rural Georgia and expect them to camp and roast wieners. The event must be catered. The event must have entertainment. The event must be fun.

Months later, our plans were implemented. Over six hundred enthusiasts joined us for our party. Rally participants were treated to 5 exquisite meals (ok, 3 if you slept through breakfast, or don't like Krispy Kreme). Lunch and dinners offered a fantastic selection of fine food not typically found at scooter rallies. Vegetarians were treated with respect I can assure you.

The rally site, Bruce's weekend home, offered all the amenities you'd expect from the Deep South. Of course we had Concours d' Elegance and Gymkhana, but we also had Bruce's Microcar Museum to visit. There was a petting zoo for the kids. In the evenings we enjoyed beverages provided by the Imperial SC members (Thank you Imperials!) while listening to a pair of fantastic live acts.

Blacktop Rockets provided a solid set of Rockabilly, but had to cut short their appearance due to another gig in Atlanta. The second band, Cat Fight, provided two solid sets of rock ala The Donnas style.

Amerivespa attendees represented Connecticut to California, and Washington to Florida. Andreas Krenn and Simon Ritter (Vespa Club Touring Linz) traveled from their home country of Austria.

Amerivespa 2003 was a fantastic rally, one of the few that I will talk about many years from now. I thank all participants for attending, Imperials SC, Fist City, and the Georgia crew for helping plan the event. Even bigger thanks go to Hallie Fisher and Cameron Colthrap for their personalized help to Robert and me. Most of all, I thank Bruce Weiner for hosting the event. Bruce went out of his way to help create a fantastic weekend.

See you next year!

Further Contact:

Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum
2950 Eatonton Road
Madison, GA 30650
link it
The Microcar and Minicar Club
Post Office Box 43137
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043-0137
link it