Late on to this topic, sorry, I've been away on a family holiday to Rhodes and just recently back.
The "35th Anniversary of the 131" trip to Turin is something that we Three Amigos (Kev, Theo and myself) have been talking around for a while now. We even muted it prior to 3MA07 but were clearly not going to even mention it to others until we had proved that a) we could organise such an event in an English speaking country and b) we could prove that people would commit in numbers to a "131 only" touring event.
Overall, the three of us were extremely pleased with the response to 3MA07 amongst the 131 fraternity - but as organisers we have many serious considerations when putting together such a trip, not least that of time and cost of organisation and recces which have so far been borne by the three of us. The bigger the trip the greater these become.
Initial responses for Scotland 08 have been encouraging, so a trip to Italy in 2009 may well be the order of the day, but as with other large events of this nature, we shall be seeking some sort of sponsorship if only to keep the overall costs of all participants to a realistic level.
The final routes and location of the base for 3MA09 are something that still require a great deal more thought and consideration. I for one have no desire to drive through (car hating) Switzerland! I have driven the Italy - UK route on quite a few occasions now in 131s and for getting to Turin would favour the France, Germany, Austria, Italy route. We hope that we will have good participation from our Irish 'members' so driving down to the Med and across would be an extremely lengthy route for them.
I have a couple of contacts in Northern Italy and we are also hoping to get FIAT Auto themselves to buy in to our trip - although this may prove more difficult to do than say!
We will of course be looking for suggestions and comments closer to the event - but lets get 3MA08 under our belts first eh??