131mirafiori forum

Arived with us a couple of weeks back but what with being busy and christmas we finally had a decent day to take some pics of our latest "Fiat" aquisition. A nice condition 131 "Volumetrico". She was still in use by her Italian owner right up to the point we finally convinced him to sell her to us.So we had a cam-belt change and oil and filter service carried out in Italy then Paul jumped in her and drove her back, through some of the worst weather Europe has had for years, not even a hick-up and if he had not of stopped to wait for the shops to open for his duty frees, he would of been back in a day  :) not bad for "one of them old Fiats!" She is very original and as with all the cars we buy, very solid on the floors etc with no sign of welding etc. She is now MOT'd, the tester bought to our attention that the tyres werte all getting low and old, so as we were having the original Abarth wheels refurbed, we took the oportunity to get them shod with a new set of Pirelli cinturato's. Sorry there are no interior shots, interior is good with a very nice roof lining etc, the electric windows work but the central locking does not and I have not had a chance to investigate yet, but will do. On the road the "Charger" can really be felt, not in a kick you in the arse turbo feel, just a whole load more bottom end and with the close ratio gearbox, it all makes for a very relaxing way to go quickly, less gear changes needed with higher gears being used through the wigly bits, all at legal road speeds of course ;) I know by now you will be saying "How much?" to be honest not sure yet as there are still a couple of things to address prior to sale, nothing major just like the centeral locking etc so do not know how much is needed to spend finishing her, but no not cheap and looking at the way prices are going on these exceptinally rare cars I would estimate around the ?15K mark, all registered and ready to go and believe me at that we will not be retiring as I know what just buying her cost! Still, i hope you like the pics. G

reference the central locking, there is a purple wire that runs under the carpet from the switch in the centre console to the relay box at the bulkhead. this will be broken.

Thanks for that, i will have a look and let you know. Cheers. G

Nice to have an other voli in the uk .

Yes and only 10mins down the road from you Jason. G

Engine Pics as requested. Please note this is exactly as driven back from Italy, not cleaned or even wiped off  G

Some interior shots now we had a chance to clean the dust out!

What a shame Fiat never made the Volumetrico in RHD and in 2 door form they would blow 131 Sport prices out the water.
Real nice motor Graham  8)

They did make a 131 racing volumetrico Angus ;D
mega rare ;)

I know a man that could make a Volumetrico RHD ;)

Sid I was going to disagree but you are right I remember seing them on Google images.
c.a.c131 what would the cost of making a UK 131 2door Volumetrico RHD be to speck  :o :o

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fiat+131+volumetrico&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=4IbQUsGAK4aqhQe0soCwBA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=632#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=dIEyO5zmyDYTaM%253A%3B5kz8B6Xb2RRnhM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Faltikulac.com%252Fvolumetrico%252Fimages%252FAbarth%25252520Volumetrico%2525252026.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Faltikulac.com%252Fvolumetrico%252Fexterior.htm%3B800%3B600
Some nice one's

Rumour was they made apx 25 of them, all series 2 shells obviously, no one really knows how many their were though. Got to say though, why devalue one by converting to RHD? Be like a right hand drive integrale or a rhd Corvette, just wrong!  ::) G,
PS We have a very early series one 132 and another 131 Super , on their way, should be here next week.  :)

Gents,

all the info on the Volumetrico and the Volumetrico Racing is right here on the website, written by a real specialist: http://www.131mirafiori.com/131storyVx.htm

I believe i read somewhere that 200 silver Supermirafiori Volumetrico's were made and that 50 gun metal grey Racings were withdrawn to be converted to Volumetrico. I will check my books again for proof.

Aye and even Albert cannot get to the bottom of the numbers! As he says, there "seems" to be more than the 25 if you go by the number that have been for sale? Even where the 4 doors are concerned,there seems to be many combinations where "badging" is concerned (again according to Albert) some have plastic Abarth badges some metal, some a mix of both, some only have the Abarth badge on the l/h front wing others both. The numbering system inside  the bonnet louvre is meant to be on the left, ours has it on both sides! Personally i think its great that although they were only available in one colour/trim co-ordination (well in theory anyway) each car seems to be different. Kinda makes a rare car even more special.  :) G

Thanks for reminding us what a great article that is.  Possibly the most informed article on the internet.

Nice to see more 131s coming to this part of the world Grahm. I hope the Italians don't discover how much of their motoring heritage is being exported and slap an export tax on classic cars!!  :)

As a matter of interest, how are your 131s selling? The asking prices seem a "little" higher than if someone sourced the cars themselves. Of course you've done the hard work of transit and you have to be paid for your time but I'd be interested if your prices reflect market value with actual sales?

Hi Kev. Yes sales of all the Fiats is fairly good, bearing in mind they are not as sought after as things like Fords etc, Price wise? Well yes, obviously our prices will be higher than if you went yourself to get one. Trouble with that, by the time you factor in all the costs, not only of shipping but hotel bills, food, fuel etc while you are driving 100s of kms round Italy, looking at 20 cars to buy 2, yes Italians are just as bad at describing things as people here can be, paying for the deregistration/transfer of ownership and all the other paperwork you have to do to get it out of the country. Then, once here, bringing it up to an mot standard, replacing tyres that are 20 years old, etc etc servicing it,paying for the MOT itself and then the first reg fees, number plates , road tax (if applicable) etc, there is no great saving for all the effort. We then have to try and sell it for something that by the time the government have had their pound of flesh aka vat out of the profit, leaves enough to make it worth it! All in all there is not alot left out of a 6/7K car.                                                  Sales of  classic cars are never a quick thing, people tend to know exactly what they want, the colour combination, model year etc and as such will normally take alot longer over the buying process, than say a 5 year old mondeo, so we know often a particular car may be in stock for a while, its not a problem as we would rather it that way than the pressure sales some people bring to the classic car market. Do our cars represent market value? Well there is a question. A car is only worth what someone is prepared to pay on the day, everyones perception of the value of a classic is different. Did i think a MK1 Escort would ever sell for over ?100K? No. do i think it was worth that? No, but its buyer did, so the market value is entirely driven by the percieved value of each individual car. Ours do sell, yes you can find cheaper or do it yourself for less, if you look hard enough, but they all sell so we cant be to far out  ;) Prices in Italy are definately on the way up with less and less cars being available and cars that are wrecked now selling, my advise to all is buy now before the rest of the world wake up to the fact that a good 131 knocks an escort etc into a cocked hat for a fraction of the price! G

Guys,

Thanks for praising the Volumetrico article I made a few years ago with help from my italian friend Mauro Balcet, without him it would be nearly impossible to do the research we did. It was difficult to get correct information about Volumetrico's and there are still some gaps. Production figures is Always a problem with Fiat, also nobody knows how many Racings were produced.
Mike(mirafiori76) whatever you will find about those numbers 200 Supers and 50 Racings, it is not official. The highest number I saw on a Super was 185, but did they use all numbers?????? And were Racings separately numbered or not(I expect not) The most cars don't wear their number anymore. But at all the production was very very marginal and the cars almost all sold in the Torino area, the last Racings beinig registered as my one in 1984.

Angus(106usj) Yes, there was a Racing, but I wanna ask something and I asked it already before to other members. Don't see it as critic but everybody, me included, only watches the last pages on the forum. And there is a wealth on interesting 131 information in all that pages further back. This way it keeps of course the forum alive but there are such wonderful discussions written in the past, also about Volumetrico's. My Racing Volumetrico was an attendee on 3MA2010 in Southern UK and is posted in the showroom section. The second Racing Volumetrico I sold to Guy Moerenhout in Belgium. What I wanna tell all members once again here, spend a nice evening or windy/cold day surfing through all those pages and enjoy all interesting discussions/ information!

In the meantime there are a few Racing Volumetrico's less with us, one is now an replica Abarth in France, for sale when I am right.
One is bought in Hungary, taken apart and used as a base for another Abarth replica.............
That I realy don't understand, with other cars they speak about scarce with production figures in their 1000s, even if there were produced 500 it would be extremely scarce and it is far far less what is produced in total. Let's be carefull with the cars that are still under us!

Graham, we have contact!
Feel free to ask everything about these great and special cars!