131mirafiori forum

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. ;D

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! ;D 8)

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! :)

.....

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

.....

Sev whats the grey on the roof of your car?

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 :o 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. ::)