131mirafiori forum

Members,

Is there anybody around who knows something about the 131 Volumetrico who was owned by Gianni Agnelli from Fiat?  The story goes he had a Supermirafiori Volumetrico in silvergrey. There must be even a film in which he drives this car. I'm extremely interested in the registrationnumber of that car because my blue customized Volumetrico could be his former car. That car was originally also silvergrey. It is fitted with airconditioning(not common on a Volumetrico because the aircocompressor is normally at the place of the Volumexcompressor). From my italian friend Mauro I heard he knows of only 1 more car with airco.The car is first registered on the Fiat auto spa in Torino. The modifications on this car are plentyfull but done so properly it must have been an extremely careful and expensive job. A few parts are from Lancia, in the time the car was converted Abarth at Corso Marche changed into Lancia Corse. This car is fitted with Delta Integrale wheels, meters from 131 Abarth Stradale combined with Lancia Delta ones,a blue?? original headlining(I never saw that on any other production car), blue carpets and a full beige leather interior, at the front are Recaro's with pumps to bush the back like a Ford Granada(Scorpio in Holland). There is even a temperaturemeter for the inside for the passengers. When the car is out of storage I take pics from the details. I hope anybody can help or want to answer anything anyway.

Hi Albert - Wow - What a stunning car - I've never heard of this car or one with this kind of spec straight from Fiat.

Yes please - More pictures when you can, would be very appreciated.  ;)

Good luck with your search for more info - How did you find the car in the first place? Has it been through many owners before you bought it?

Hello Albert,

I remember seeing the program with Gianni Agnelli driving his Silver 131 and saying it's his favourite Fiat and explaining why (although I believe he has claimed several other models as his "favourite Fiat"). He was driving round a test track when he was talking about the car and I think it might have been the Lignotto roof top track. I am also fairly sure that that car had bullet proof windows because I remember him claiming that "the extra weight has not affected the superb handling of the car".

Whether your blue car is the same one or not doesn't detract from the fact that your car is an absolute stunner! The combination of the dark blue colour outside and the light tan/cream leather interior is superb! I don't think the car would look as good in Silver so please don't be tempted to change it to Silver.

I feel a strong urge to get in my 131 and visit Holland! It's one of my favourite countries and if there was any chance of being able to see your great selection of 131s then I would be over there very quickly!

I have to agree with Theo - the car in blue is stunning! ;D ;D I love the leather interior - but am surprised to see the grille/headlamp arrangement. I thought that the slatted grille and four same sized headlamp set-up was unique to the Series 3 diesel and later 2000TC Panorama models ???

I too like Holland - perhaps a trip is in order - via Belgium? :o ;D ;D :D :o :D

Other way round I think. Visit Albert first and convince him to join us on our onward visit to GM in Belgium... When shall I book the ferry?  :D 8) ;D

Out late Friday night and back late Sunday night - for any weekend in September Theo ;) ;D ;) :P

(Just don't tell the wife!) ;)

GM's place (number 3 on the map) is almost on-route to Albert's (number 2 on map). So I'll meet you in the Brewster's carpark just off Junction 4 of the M20 (number 1 on the map) and it's just 600 miles round trip so easily do the less than 300 miles to Dronten, Flevoland, Netherlands on Friday night...  ;D

Ok Theo - you're starting to get scary now ;D I think we could actually do it quite easily, but it would mean an early shoot from work on the Friday, or a drive through the night so that we arrive early Saturday morning - albeit extremely tired :D

When and, perhaps more importantly, how much?? 8)

It doesn't take much to get me going especially when 131s are involved!  ;D ;D
But I am joking (almost!) or only being half-serious...  ;D
We need to be invited first anyway...  ;D ;) 8)

You are invited both, no problem! My girlfriend liked very much the so called discussion after the question I asked. Soon there will be a lot more pictures of this great car. I can tell you how I came to it. I visited with my friend Remo a 131 meeting in Lugano, switzerland.  Remo owns the grey Racing with red interior which is under restoration now. He is a long time Fiatfan with a large brochurecollection and an quite incredible knowledge. Our german friend Hans Josef also wanted to visit the meeting but couldn't. He heard of a blue Volumetrico with airco in a carpark in Torino. If we wanted to give the car a look. OF COUSE WE WANTED! So, after the meeting we went with Mauro, our italian Volumetrico guy to Torino. We knew that a  Supermirafiori Volumetrico has to be silvergrey and airco was normally not available. Because of that we expected an Abarthised normal car with Lancia parts or some other hulk. We had to go into a closed underground carpark. In there was a small carbusiness where the car was under a lot of dust. The inside was incredibly dirty but all intact and the dirt was only from standing.Can you imagine what I felt when I was around this car?? There was some 7800km on the clock, original or not? I really don't know.Not damaged at all, in great condition, only dirty and with all the original details, so a real Volumetrico. It looks on the documents that it had 3 owners before in Italy.Mauro was very surprised about the car and I expect he was happy we saved the car for the future. A friend of him with a small workshop picked the car up because it didn't run for years. There they found out that the waterpumps inside was almost completely rotten away. Because of that we took even more care, changed the belts,oil, coolant, waterpump and even the head came of. Luckily that was still in great shape. So the car had the service, then Mauro drove it to me in Holland.

Theo, the program you saw is the one I'm searching for, does anybody have it on tape or dvd or so??

There is a second theory about this car, be sure it's ONLY a theory. This car could be made especially for a carshow or so, Geneva? to stand on the Abarth stand OR can be made for a special client from Fiat, maybe some celebrity from  Foorballclub Juventus(owned by Fiat) or so?  I'm just try to sort out the early history. Brings fun, the car is magnificent.

 :o Why didn't we know about this? Lugano, sun, and lots of 131s! What could be better ?



I remember seeing the program but that's all. I can't remember what it was called and it must have been at least 20 years ago! I'll go emule searching to see what I can find... (I'm quite good at finding these things... ;) :))

Would be great!

Lugano was in 2001,I know this site only 1 week!

More looooovly 131's, an other road trip ,im missing out again ??? :(

Dont forget meeeeeeeee! I wannnna come 222222222!

Well !! - Maybe a visit to Nortern Eurpoe would be more interesting than Scotland...!!? :o ;) ;) ;)

(Although when I say I wanna come, it's as a passenger with Si or Theo). Unless we can get a convoy from Ireland to keep me company!

Jason - Just buy the white Sport on Ebay and paint it gun metal - Forget the price - You only live once and look at all the great fun you're missing out on!

 :o yes yes yes sod the kids, wifey, morgage.....och! that hurt. yes dear i'll get of the computer now.... :'(

This evening I was active trying to do some pictures from old dia's. The result is not perfect but shows at least something.  Here is the subject of this discussion at the Motor Klassik Concours at Wolfsburg, Germany. I reached a second place after an immaculately restored BMW 3 Alpina, shame but the owner was an incredible nice guy and his car for sure stunning too. Nice to tell when I showed the car that nobody of the jury, and there were some wellknown persons could place my car. Did you do this at home? Fiat nor Abarth ever did this, a supercharger conversion??? My moment of glory was a talk with Dirk Michael Conrad,former editor from Auto Motor und Sport as he is a man with a great knowledge. He said it was a converted car until I showed him the factory brochure! Any questions mister??  I love my mysterious blue beauty.

Little thing I love so much at thyis car are the winddeflectors at the front doors show"ANTITURBO". It means anti turbulence but is so REAL on this cars technique!

Albert - Are you saying that Fiat produced a brochure just for this special one off blue car...or do you mean for Volumetricos in general?

For the Volumetricos in general but there were 2 different ones for the Racing and the Supermirafiori.

I now have a program called "Vite Straordinarie" (Extraordinary Life)  about Gianni Agnelli. It's a documentary about Agnelli and doesn't seem to be the program I remember, in fact it looks like a very recent program. It's in Italian (so makes no sense to me :-\) and it's 1 hour 40 minutes long. I'll watch it to see if it shows Mr Agnelli's Silver 131. It seems worth watching just for the Italian lady presenter 8) I'll report back once I've watched it...

Great Theo, thank you!! I hope we find something more!

No, not a single 131 in the programme  :-[ The search continues...  ;)

We will find the article, be sure!
Thanks Theo!