131mirafiori forum

In previous years I was a much better organised person and by the end of January I had already prepared myself, in part at least, for the 3ma. This year is quite different and not just for the 3ma  :-[ I hadn't even (until today) changed my wall year planner in the office to the 2011 one. As the 2010 planner included January 2011 I was simply not planning very far ahead into 2011.  :-\ Worse still, the 131 MOT test certificate has expired and the car is sitting in the garage being used as storage space  :-[

But don't worry, because a lot of the organisation for 3ma11 has been done. We have found what seems like a nice hotel and got a very special deal for us. We have provisionally arranged for a rather special place to hold our static display on Saturday the 7th of May and we have even plotted some provisional driving routes. In fact the 3 mad amigos will be getting together this weekend for a recce to finalise both the hotel deal and the driving routes.

For those of you who have not started planning your 3ma11 visit in May, now is the time to update your calendars and year planners ;)  3ma11 is marked in orange (for the orange boys of course but all colours of Fiat 131 are welcome) in my year planner (photo below) but if the photo is not clear enough, the dates are Thursday 5th of May to Sunday 8th of May 2011.  Ignore the green stars on my planner - that's the Eurovision Song Contest in Dusseldorf. Talking of which, do we have any German members that can find me a hotel in Dusseldorf for the Eurovision? I can't find anything for less than ?250 a night! :o

Well the Irish amigo is just hitting the airport now - See you two tomorrow when I hope you'll agree to all my ideas.  :)

Just been speaking to the Irish Rugby head coaching team as they are flying to Scotland for the Scotland/Ireland game tonight. As rugby is my second favourite leisure time activity... that's distracted me from Fiats for a few minutes.  :)

I got the 'taxi' fixed today - replacement o/s/f fog light at great expense after being smashed by hitting a pheasant at high speed before Christmas ::)

Will fill the car with diesel in the morning and wash it if I get time as I wouldn't want Theo and Kevin to driven around in a dirty BMW ;D

No doubt Theo will give you all an update tomorrow evening from his 'mobile internet' enabled Notebook. ;D

nice one  :D :D :D :D

3ma= 3 mad amigos

Didn't you know that Heini? :)

Theo, simply try etap.com and find a cheap hotels. Otherwise you can sleep in my storage with the cars. Dusseldorf is less then 2 hours for you for sure.

Excellent news!
Sounds like I can fix that "tba" on the t-shirt draft soon...  :D
(http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/7936/3ma11tour.jpg)

Good luck and success with your recce!!

Ren?
(who already got his application for leave signed ;))

Excellent Rene!! 8) ;D 8) ;D Make sure that you make my shirt in XXL size! 8)

Yes, I have my application for leave signed, but only on the condition that I also bring my wife as well as my children :o :o I think we'll need those t-shirts in teenage kids sizes too! ;D ;)

I sign my own holiday applications (in fact I have my digitised signature embedded into the application form so I don't even have to sign it  ;) ) so that's the least of my problems.  ;D

Would love to come over to England in a 131 , for the third time, but unfortunatly i can't. I've been at brooklands two times with my replica. So please, for all of us who have to stay behind, make sure you all make enough pictures. Right? :'(

I hope the sun shines and frosts don't freeze  :D
   i got mine signed last year  ;D ;D,
 its all go now i have to get an other set of points
 and kick the tyres ;) ;)

There'll be plenty of free passenger spaces in the cars. If you can't bring your 131 just get yourself near to one of the 131s that are going and hitch a passenger space   ;) :D

Thanks Albert  ;) Are you also offering use of the cars to drive to D?sseldorf and back each day?  ;D That would certainly be worth all the driving...  :D

I think I might have to go for Plan B which is to drive rather than fly to D?sseldorf and stay in Cologne or somewhere else near D?sseldorf with a good selection of reasonably priced hotels. So it seems I'll spend 6 days from 4th to 9th of May driving for the 3ma (including to and from) then leave straight for Germany returning on the 15th of May. That'll be 12 days of solid driving! Nice!  ;D 8) ;D  

Theo,
The car is not the problem. I could bring my Racing WR. Lack of time and money is more the issue. :-[

Well, the 3 mad amigos spent most of today in a pub in Bristol 3ma planning. And a very successful day it was too. We have agreed on the driving routes for the 4 days of the 3ma and we have decided agreed and finalised the location for our static display. Some of the driving routes might be a bit on the long side but there's so much to see and visit in this part of the world that we wanted to get as much of it as possible into the four days. The 3ma is about driving after all! But we'll be driving some of the routes tomorrow and adjusting them where necessary. We have also approved the hotel choice and in fact I am sending this report from my 3ma hotel room  ;) Full details and booking instructions will be released in a couple of days.  :D

The rather nice red car in the photo below is parked in the hotel car park. I wish I could say it's our recce car  :D  but unfortunately it's not  :-[

Just back 24 hours from the UK and from meeting the other two MAs and I thought I'd share my driving experience from the weekend.

We had hired a car as the visit was combined with a wedding and we needed to get around a bit. The usual mundane Focus/Astra car was chosen on line and when I went to pick up the keys the lady declared that "my car was not ready and would I like an Abarth instead..?" Aside from, what a more appropriate car choice on a 3MA planning weekend, I was in sufficient control of my reaction to delay answering and instead ask what else was there? An Insignia Auto or a Galaxy I was told. That was a no brainer and minutes later I picked up Jacquie in the mad little 500 and off we went.

I have had a diesel 500 previously as a hire car but there is no comparison between the two. The Abarth is a busy little buzz box with a jiggly ride, rubbish seats, hopeless ergomonics, very little space and is a car very likely to promote passenger seat comments like "slow down ffs" or "I hope the cops catch you and lock you up, you maniac"! Actually we weren't going that fast ever but what feels like 90 mph is actually 65!

I know that most of the above sounds negative but the car does have quite a few positives. Such as it's ability to sprint away from the lights especially with the Sport button on. Second gear and roundabouts are it's forte and dry weather grip is huge along with powerful and sensitive brakes.

I'd never buy one myself, being too mature for that sort of thing  ;D on a regular basis but for 4 days over a long weekend it was great fun, for me at least!

(http://i766.photobucket.com/albums/xx305/kev132/Fiat500Abarth001.jpg)

(http://i766.photobucket.com/albums/xx305/kev132/Fiat500Abarth003.jpg)

(http://i766.photobucket.com/albums/xx305/kev132/Fiat500Abarth004.jpg)

The 131 passed the MOT test on Saturday so now one step closer to being ready for 3ma11  :D ;D

I was always of the opinion that there's no room for chrome on a 131 Sport and the first thing I did when I got my current Sport was to remove the chrome strips on the rear number-plate mount. They are not really chrome but simply strips of shiny plastic which crack and loose their shine with age. Mine were not too bad and in fact they lived on on someone else's 131 Sport  ;)

Today while I was working in my garage with the 131 on the driveway I noticed that the black paint on the stainless steel rear exhaust was beginning to peel off (I painted it as I don't like shiny exhaust silencers!  ;D) so I got out my high-temperature exhaust paint and gave the silencer a new coat of matt black paint. And while I was there I polished the exhaust pipe  :) OK, I know I said I don't like blingy shiny things but the exhaust pipe is the one thing I can accept as being shiny. Looking at the shiny exhaust pipe I remembered the number plate mount strips I was given by Marko. He had them expertly made out of stainless steel and they are a really high quality item (unlike the original plastic strips). So I decided to fit them and I'm beginning to change my mind about them now  :D So now there's two shiny bits I'm willing to accept  on a 131 Sport  ;D Before and after photos below.

Definite improvement Theo - Where is the before picture of the grubby exhaust pipe...?

Is that a new full length stainless steel system so that you can hopefully avoid crawling around under your 131 on 3MAs?  :)

I wonder why this plate was added to the Racing/Sport in the first place anyway. It would have been more suitable for the Super 1st series.

Yes and it was fitted a year ago (http://www.131mirafiori.com/smf/index.php?topic=3627.msg27874#msg27874 (http://www.131mirafiori.com/smf/index.php?topic=3627.msg27874#msg27874))  and survived 3ma10 and the trip to Germany and back with no problems  ;) ;D

HI ALL
  i only booked thurs - friday off work ,to save a bit i booked from thurs day night to sunday morning and then will head home  sunday afternoon ,
 wednesday evening after work will travel halfway to Chippenham Leigh Delamere M4 Westbound
 travel lodge
http://www2.travelodge.co.uk/search_and_book/directions_map.php?hotel_id=240 (http://www2.travelodge.co.uk/search_and_book/directions_map.php?hotel_id=240)
?19 for room and meet you all for breakfast thursday morning .. :)

Well done Jason. 8)

We're booked in at the hotel for Weds night but will probably leave work a bit earlier on Weds rather than taking the whole day off. It's only a couple of hours from mine to Devon so no need for a whole day off - unless the car isn't sorted by then.

Abarth is booked into Mark's from Saturday 26th March (when I plan to drop it over to him) for MoT and general fettling - so hopefully it will be ready for May! ::) Watch this space.

BTW Theo, I like the look fo the 'new' stainless strips.  ;D

I'm off work from Wednesday 4th May and won't be back at work until Monday 16th May as I'm off to the Eurovision Song Contest in D?sseldorf straight after 3ma11  ;D (http://quintyvanniel.nl/archief/components/com_easybook/images/smiley_singing.gif) (http://www.free-smiley.info/singing/singing-smileys-emoticons9.gif) (http://images.teamsugar.com/modules/smileys/examples/singing.gif)  ;D

On Wednesday 4th I was planning to take a leisurely drive down to Kingsteignton and the time I do so will depend on whether I can meet up with any others driving there. Our European friends will be driving south of London on their way to Kingsteignton and if they were to use the motorway route (M20, M25, M3 - Option 1 below) I could possibly meet them at the services on the M3 and drive the rest of the way in convoy. Then again they may decide to drive to Kingsteignton the "131" route (Option 2) in which case I'll probably get to the hotel on Wednesday early-ish and enjoy some of the facilities  :D

Option 2 route will be extremely slow and they are the sort of roads that once you get up behind a slow moving vehicle there is little opportunity for overtaking. >:(

Option 1 is the most obvious and in my opinion the best route and as I live less than 5 miles from Fleet Services on the M3 I'd be more than happy to meet with others there - or even at my house close to Junct 4, M3 - which ever is preferred by the majority 8) ;D ;)

Seems like a plan but I thought you said you'll be working most of Wednesday 4th May? Of course all of this depends on our European friends and if they are coming together and what time and all that....  :-\

It's been a dry and very sunny day in London today so I decided to test-drive my new stainless steel strips  ;D I am happy to report that despite all the potholes and sleeping policemen and huge speed-restricting bumps on London roads, the strips survived the arduous journey without falling off  ;D ;D
 

If people are meeting so close to me for the onward journey I'll try to fit in! ;D I wouldn't want to miss out. :o :D If I can do half a day at work then that's fine - and if I have to take the whole day off to be with "131 friends" then that's fine too! ;D ;)

Hi Theo,

i make the route 2 last year to pic up the Stratos from Portsmouth,
it was nice to drive and they are very nice landscapes.

STRATOS REPLICA FOR SALE
Contact Andrew Taylor Tel 00000000000, e-mail andrexxxxxx@dsl.pipex.com To view in Portsmouth ? 14,000 ono

Enzo  ;)

Hello Enzo,

Portsmouth is only half way to Kingsteignton and being on the south coast route 2 is the obvious way. It is very nice countryside in Kent and East/West Sussex  :D

Are you not doing the route this year and joining us for 3ma11?  ;D

Theo,

unfortunate i cannot come, I have too much work.  :'(
but I make organ transplant (New Engine) in to Robert's orange WR.
Roberto comes and show you,  and all the others the work,  and so a little from me are also be there.

Saluti Enzo  ;)  

Hello everyone,


Holger, Gerald, Ernst, Jan & me just got our booking confirmation !

Looking forward to meet you all !!

Regards,
Ren

That's excellent news Rene. 8) I can't wait to see you all again and have another beer with Ernst! ;) :D

Just over 48 days to go for 3ma11  :D You still have a couple of weeks to book your hotel rooms so do it now not to miss out  ;D Booked hotel rooms can be cancelled with no penalty if things don't work out for you. Details at http://www.131mirafiori.com/travelacc.htm#Accommodation (http://www.131mirafiori.com/travelacc.htm#Accommodation)

Are you on the way so soon :o Do you need 48 days to get there? :D :D :D :D :D :D

People who know me will tell you I'm always late; I was even born 15 days late!   8)
So this time I want to make sure I'll be there on time  ;D

There's a first time for everything I suppose! ::) ;) ;) :D :D :D

(http://www.131mirafiori.com/photos/gamma.jpg)

Oops! Wrong car! But using my Gamma after a 27 month restoration (wasn't meant to take that long but the work was a lot more than anticipated and stalled several times for various reasons)  is the main reason that I haven't had the time to devote to the 131 and make sure it's ready for 3ma11.  But unlike temperamental Gammas (did I really say that?  :-X shouldn't tempt fate like that  ;)) 131s are very dependable so I have no doubt my car is up to the task of driving a few hundred miles around Devon, Cornwall and Somerset  :D

So the Gamma was used today (so it IS part of getting ready for the 3ma  ;D) to liberate the 131 from it's storage garage.

(http://www.131mirafiori.com/photos/gamma_sport.jpg)

So the 131 is home, had an oil change (don't know why I bothered as it leaks so much the oil is always fresh  :-\ ),  tightened all the exhaust clamps and brackets (my car has a habit of leaving behind parts of its exhaust at 3mas  ;D), emptied the oil breather catch-tank and adjusted the throttle linkage (must get new return springs, the Mini springs I fitted last year don't seem strong enough).

Off with the old

(http://www.131mirafiori.com/photos/P1.JPG)

and on with the new  ;D

(http://www.131mirafiori.com/photos/P2.JPG)

Looking good Theo!  8) Glad to see that you are at last making time for the 131 again! ;D ;)

Andy C and his lovely wife Nita stayed with us for a couple of nights across Good Friday and we went in our 131s to the Rushmoor Wheels Show at Aldershot. The weather was superb and the attendance was HUGE but the organisation was poor. :( Despite us getting in the queue good and early it took almost 40 mins to do about half a mile to the entrance, only to find that traffic was being let in to the single gate event entrance from the other way - effectively two lines of cars trying to get into a single gate. Utter madness.

Then when Andy and I tried to leave the event we found that the cars had been parked without any clearly defined 'emergency access' routes - so emergency vehicles couldn't have got in and we struggled to get out!  :o

Had a great time with A&A however and they gave their 131 a good blast to get to us from Eastbourne - and will do again for AI next weekend - which also coincides with Nita's birthday (note for the diary!). ;D 8)

Only a week left until 3MA11 starts properly, so we should start to get excited now ;D ;D ;D ;D

Kicked the tyre's,  washed it and got a janspeed exhaust trimm  ;D ;D sorted

3ma11 starts in a week from today  :D ;D In fact, less than a week to go  ;D ;D

Just looked cornwall on uk weather  :-[ its umbreller ella ella time :)

But only for sat and sunday now ,its staying still off the atlantic  :D :D

Looking forward to seeing you all again on Weds - don't worry, the sun always shines in Cornwall (well I would say that, wouldn't I???!!) I am sure Kev can't wait to set off in the early hours of Weds - and I plan to chat and sing in his ear all the way from Co.Clare to S.Devon....safe driving everyone...

Well at least some where in cornwall for 10 mins at a time  8)
 look forward to seeing  you Jacquie and kev again its only been a whole  year  :D

It was a day of car washing and polishing today.  :D
Car cleaned up well and almost ready for 3ma11 now.  ;D

(http://www.131mirafiori.com/photos/H%20%281%29.JPG)

(http://www.131mirafiori.com/photos/H%20%283%29.JPG)

(http://www.131mirafiori.com/photos/H%20%282%29.JPG)

Looks good Theo, see you in a few hours!

You'll be setting off tomorrow? Have a good journey and see you in Kingsteignton Wednesday afternoon. Are you getting to Kingsteignton tomorrow or stopping somewhere else on-route?