There's now a very active group called South West Abarth Group (SWAG)........ search for them on Facebook......... who organise regular meets in the area from Cornwall up to Bristol/Wilts.

Those of you who were at the Sharnbrook Pizza event will already have heard Ciro give some more details about our Abarth Spring Festival. Here is what you need to know

We are now ready to take confirmed bookings, so here is how to secure your ticket and a little more detail on what to expect.

The Abarth Spring Festival is a joint event with Yakushi, so as well as a stunning array of Abarths you will get to see the very best of the JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) scene in association with Petrolheadonism, led and championed by our good friend Ciro Ciampi. There will be a number of trade stands present.  The Festival takes place at the Whilton Mill Karting & Outdoor Activities Centre, at Whilton Locks near Daventry. The venue is huge and can easily accommodate 1200 cars - so there's no limit on numbers!

Display cars - the Abarths and the JDM cars - will be parked on hard standing on the twin karting circuits, so you need have no fear that you will be on grass or mud! Entry for the Show Cars will be through the main entrance from 9am (please do not arrive earlier than this - there is ample space, so no need to come and queue thinking it will guarantee you a place).

There is a smaller karting track, and there will be a limited number of places for participants to demonstrate their prowess in a kart.

For those who wish to attend, but who will not be coming in an Abarth, or a JDM car, then spectator tickets will be available. There will be a separate booking page for these. It is important that you purchase the correct ticket. Note that Spectator admission will be from 11am (please do not arrive earlier than this).

For Abarth Owners, the cost is £25 (plus booking fee) per show car, which covers entry for the car, driver and all passengers. Each ticket automatically enters you into The Sponsor's FREE PRIZE DRAW on the day! There will be Sponsors Awards for various categories on the day.  To book your ticket, please visit the dedicated page here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/abarth-spring-break-powered-by-petrolheadonismclub-tickets-253661246617

Tickets for the Karting Championship will be released on 1st March. There will be a limited number of places and these will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. 

This will be a fantastic event, and by adding in the JDM Cars as well, will have quite a different feel to the Abarth Festival that will be held on 10th July - so you really should plan to come to both!

I am delighted to announce that I have registered Abarth Owners Club as one of an expected 100+ Car Clubs who will attend the 3-day Silverstone Classic 2022 event. Be aware that the event has moved and will take place over the late August Bank Holiday, 26 - 28th August.

Many of you have attended this event over the years, so know exactly how amazing it is. Those of you have not done so have really missed out! This is the world's largest historic racing event, with in excess of 20 different races covering every genre of motorsport from Pre-War cars, to historic Formula 1, Formula Junior, Historic Sports Cars, Touring Cars, Group C/Sport-GT cars and others. The exact list of classes will be released in due course, but know that during the event you will get to see a lot of exciting racing. There is unrestricted access to the pits and paddocks, so you can get really close to the cars as they are prepared, and with many grandstands open, you can watch the action from a wide variety of different parts of the circuit.

Every year in excess of 10,000 Car Club cars are on display, and you could easily spend the whole day wandering among these, spotting familiar classics and some real rarities. The organisers move the Clubs around the site every year, so the displays always look different every year. Many Clubs are invited to take part in Track Parades, and we have been privileged enough to do this twice in recent years. I can't make any promises for 2022 (I have asked, of course) but if you get the chance, this is always a fun feature of the event.

As if that were not enough, a trader village contains all manner of interesting items to browse and buy, there is ample entertainment for children, there are driving displays, and Friday and Saturday evening see live music, all of which is included within your ticket price.

Full details of the 2022 program will be unveiled in the coming months and the latest info will be available on the event's website: https://www.silverstone.co.uk/events/the-classic

Tickets go on sale from the event's website on Thursday 25th November. Note that as Silverstone have just implemented a new booking system, you will need to create a new account on the site, even if you bought tickets for the 2021 event. The Car Club deal offers you 2 tickets for the price of one, with a Car Club entry pass included - which is a fantastic deal especially when you consider what you will get to see. The lowest prices are offered up to the end of the year and then prices increased periodically up to the cut off point for sales which is 31 May 2022. To take advantage of the Car Club deal, you will need to use our dedicated code when you buy your tickets which is 028CCDP22

Whilst the 2021 Event Program had a very slow start, thanks to Lockdowns across the UK that made it impossible to get together until well into spring, every opportunity was taken to catch up with many events rescheduled and squeezed into a calendar that was already pretty full. I hope that you were all able to enjoy many opportunities to get together whether that was for small and local gatherings or at some of the larger events where Abarths regularly numbered into several tens and on occasion into the hundreds. There were many highlights for me, of which of course our very own Abarth Festival has sit at the top of the list, a truly special day out that delighted us all. We have every intention of repeating that in 2022 - bigger and better, learning from the 2021 event and taking on board your feedback.

We're not quite ready to announce Abarth Festival 2022 yet, but the majority of the other events that we will attend have published their dates. I've already announced most of these individually, and if you go onto the Events tab on the page, you will find details of each individual event and how to book (where this info is available. I thought you might find it helpful to have a consolidated list in one place. So here it is.

JAN

1st: Brooklands New Years Event - POSTPONED to 16th APRIL
2nd: Cheddar Gorge, in association with SWAG
16th: Project Auto, Shepton Mallett, in association with SWAG and B.A.D Abarth South Coast

FEB

Watch this space!

MAR

Also watch this space!

APR

16th: Brooklands New Years Event reschedule
18th: Provisional date for Abarth Spring Festival - Finedon
24th:  Simply Italian at Beaulieu, in association with AOC SSH, B.A.D Abath South Coast and others
30th:  Brooklands Auto Italia

MAY

22nd: Prescott Italia and Prescott Hill Climb, Glos
28th    Italian Passion for Speed, Cardiff Bay
29th:   Supercars on the Runway, Sywell, Northhants

JUN

12th:   Thruxton Historic Festival
25th   MITCAR (provisional date and venue tbc, likely to be in Derbyshire)

JUL

9th      Northern Italian Cars, with Auto Italia, at Raby Castle, Co Durham
16/17th: Shelsley Walsh Classic Nostalgia

AUG

14th:  Festival Italia at Brands Hatch
21st:  Tewkesbury Classic Vehicle Festival
27 - 29: Silverstone Classic

SEPT

4th:    Classic and Supercar Day at Salon Prive, Blenheim Palace

OCT

9th:    Brooklands Autumn MotorSport

More events will be added to this list as further dates are announced. And that's before you add in all the events that will be organised by the Regional Groups. It has been great to watch the launch and explosive growth of a number of new ones in 2021 (B.A.D Abarth South Coast, Three Counties and Berkshire among them) and also to see yet more activity and people getting involved in the more established Groups, of which we have an awful lot.

If you see something which you think could be of interest to our members, please get in touch and we will take a look at it.

Many people have been able to enjoy the various regular summer evening or "Cars and Coffee" style meets around the country. Most of these follow a formula, such as Ace Cafe holding Italian Night on the second Thursday of the month, and Shelsley Walsh's "Cars in the Valley" being the first Thurs of the month. Many of these have paused for the darkest winter months, and have yet to confirm that they will repeat what were very popular events with Abarth Owners and others during 2022 but I am sure they will do so shortly and I will add the details to this post when they do so.

Clearly, things could yet change, not least depending on government restrictions and the on-going Covid situation. The most uptodate information will be on the individual event description and so you should continue to monitor these regularly.   

We're not getting a parade this year, sadly........... too many anniversaries to mark for everyone to get a go, and as we had laps the last twice the event was run, it is someone else's turn this time.

We do have a good number of cars booked in, though. 19 on Friday, 36 on Sat and 20 on Sun.

Welcome back!

Obviously meets have been a bit of a challenge for the last year or so, but with restrictions easing, they are now getting underway again now. And with even more owners in even more Regional Groups, there is usually plenty going on. Most of the info is on Facebook these days - and for  the Regional Groups that tends to the only source of what is going on.

I am delighted to announce the 2021 Abarth Festival.

This event has been conceived to bring together all the various Abarth Communities in the UK (and beyond, if you are able to come!) for a day of Abarth-ness, with displays, competitions, trade stands including a number of the popular suppliers of tuning and other modifications, Italian food and the chance to meet up with existing friends and to make some new ones.

It takes place in Finedon, Northamptonshire on a large private site. We have room for hundreds of cars. It should be the largest gathering of Abarths that the UK has ever seen.

Clearly, we are at the mercy of the prevailing Covid situation in the country. Rest assured that if the event has to be cancelled, or if you are unable to attend for Covid reasons, a full refund will be available, so you can book with confidence now.

Further details and the process for booking tickets are contained on the event's website here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/abarth-festival-2021-showcar-tickets-only-tickets-139547467231?aff=efbneb&fbclid=IwAR0eDu-oTnPPwfyVh9ZwHR1TI3sLTlNuz9W3NKOxyzQJXT8JkGqPygT7vpY

Sorry for delayed response....... the Surrey Sussex Hampshire Group, like most Abarth Regional Groups is Facebook only, I'm afraid. The amount of traffic we get here compared to the AOC Facebook page kind of gives you the reason why............ (sad, I know!)