AI shoot three 131s!!

[simon131]

Today three avid 131-ers drove to what used to be called the MVEE (Military Vehicle Engineering Establishment) Test track at Longcross, Surrey, for a photo shoot for Auto Italia. Michael Ward was the photographer and Matt Zollo will write the words (which I hope will be nice! ).

The cars were Bobby Sev's green Sport from Derby, Graham Franklin's Volumetrico from Canterbury and my Abarth Stradale, so a pretty good cross section of 'performance' 131s. Thing is that the track is a pretty fast one, so my car will probably not fair all that well against a twin carb'd or supercharged 131 - goes better round twisty, turny roads than on a fast track, but we'll see.

Didn't take any pics myself as didn't see much point. Mike's pics will be far better than mine. I'm sure that Bobby took some though, so perhaps he'll post some up. I've also asked Mike to send us a CD each, so we'll see what hits the mat - eventually.

Good to see you again guys, and I hope you both had a safe and trouble free journey home. Here's to the next meet!

[Sev131]

It was early start for me and a well worth one I hope!

Good to see you lot today. Simon, think I must of gone wrong somewhere as the orange fuel light was on for a while and starting to worry me! I couldn't find a petrol station for ages. I finally found one in town centre opposite a Renault dealer, even had a chap come over to look at the 131 and a chit chat!

The drive home was a bit of a hit and mis. M25 traffic stop start, temp gauge rising- fan not cutting in and then 30 miles from home, severe down pour which some how resulted in the rev counter jumping and intermittent misfire. I had to stop to refuel near Leicester and saw that the ignition Bosch module was wet. I cleaned the excess water and wrapped a rag round it and carried on my journey. It was a lot better but have a problem somewhere. I think the dizzy cap is damp or a wire problem.

The hole in the bonnet is not helping and the oil cooler needs some sort of guard around it. Anyway after a 300 mile round trip i'm home.

As we all know, 131's may not be running right but always get you to your destinations!

Had a few compliments on the M25 from a biker and a seat belt maker on the M1 in a van!

[Sev131]

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[kev131]

Lovely photo and great to see more recognition of the Fiat 131 - Where was Theo for this one..?

[Sev131]

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[sid131]

Sev whats the grey on the roof of your car?

[simon131]

I assume Theo was at work Kev

I thought the Lancia Motor Club may have asked him to provide his Trevi for the afternoon Lancia shoot, but instead a rather tired looking brown one arrived having made the 'three hour' drive from Birmingham A shame for a number of reasons but not least because a) Theo lives within about an hour and b) his Trevi is better than the one used for the shoot.