Abarth Owners Club Meets and Events in 2015

[Colin]

Meeting your fellow Abarth Owners online in a forum such as this is only part of the fun than you can derive from ownership. You'll get even more pleasure by coming along to some of the events and meets that will take place throughout the year, and around the country. As well as getting the chance to see more examples of what are still rare cars that you don't see every day on the roads, and being able to benefit from the knowledge and experience of other owners, you will discover first hand the cameraderie of Abarth Owners Club and doubtless make some new and lasting friendships. With the dates for most of the UK organised events published, I've selected a number of those which have proved popular, some, but not all,  with an overt Italian theme. This is not a complete list, as I'm open to new ideas, based on your feedback, but it is a preview and now is the time to mark up your diary with all those that you wish to attend

Abarth Owners Club will join owners of other Italian Cars at the following:

Ace Cafe Italian Nights - 2nd Thurs of the month, every month
Brooklands Auto Italia - Sat 2nd May
Stanford Hall Italian Cars and Summer Classics - Sun 28th June
Brooklands Supercar Sunday - Sun 19th July
MITCAR - TBA, usually about the second Sun of August
Brooklands Autumn MotorSport -  Sun 11th Oct

Abarth Owners Club  will also be "officially" represented at a number of other events during the year, where we will have our own reserved parking area, usually in a prime location, and in many cases with special club discounts on admission charges. Some of these events require you to purchase tickets in advance to get the special rate, and also so the organisers can judge how large an area to allocate for each attending Car Club. Full details of each event will be carried in individual threads per event, the first couple of which I will be posting in the very near future. The final list of events that Abarth Owners Club  will attend is still subject to final confirmation, but is very likely to include the following:

Donington Historic Festival - Sat 2nd - Mon 4th May
Cholmondley Pageant of Power - Fri 12th- Sun 14th June
Silverstone Classic - Fri 25th - Sun 27th July

Others may be added to the list. In particular, I will be trying to get us a reserved area at one of the Prescott Hill Climb meetings, ideally with the chance to parade our cars up the hill at lunchtime, and for those who are close enough to the South West, one of the Car Club events at Castle Combe should give those of you want to take your car on the track the chance to do so. I'm open to other suggestions, so please do not hesitate to send them to me

The highlight of the year will be the "Big Event", held over 2 days, on Sat 30th and Sun 31st August. There's a lot of detailed work to be done on this one, but the concept is that we will take part in the Coventry Festival of Motoring, which is held at Stoneleigh Park, where we will be able to display our cars. But the plan also calls for an evening meal on the Saturday and a drive out around the lanes of Warwickshire on the Sunday, with the odd stop for refreshment at a local pub or two. More details to come in due course. 

For each of these, once I have all the details, a separate and stickied thread will be created. Please pay special attention to the closing date to buy your tickets. In most cases this is well before the event itself. Coming to me a couple of days before hand asking if you are too late will almost inevitably result in confirmation that you are!

Whilst the events listed above are all a full day (or in some cases a full and busy weekend), shorter events, such as Breakfast Clubs or Evening Meets are always popular. These do not generally require any specific dialogue with their organiser, operating on the principle that people will "just turn up" and in my experience, almost regardless of the weather, some people do. Whilst telling the organiser we are coming is not necessary, if Abarth Owners Club  members want to use one of these to meet up, then some co-ordination amongst ourselves is a Good Idea. Among the regular events that we could attend, are:

Ace Cafe Italian Night - second Thursday of every month. There are events at Ace almost every night, but Italian Night is by some margin the best, and is usually well support with all manner of interesting cars. Our objective has to be to outnumber  Maserati as well as Alfa.
Goodwood Breakfast - there are 5 of these during the year, each with a theme. Those with a 500 or 595C might qualify for "SoftTop Sunday", but the rest of us are going to have go as visitors rather than displaying our cars in 2015. A great morning out, and the bacon is particularly tasty, though!
Queen's Square Bristol Breakfast - second Sunday of the month. Always a good show, usually a couple of Abarths there
Shelsley Walsh Breakfast - also second Sunday of the month. I've been once and this was a great event, too.

Just as important are the local and sometimes impromptu events. Anyone can organise one of these. If you want to do so, don't be too democratic about the date and location. Everyone will always say "yes" in principle to an event, but to make an event happen as opposed to be talked about, you need to make a specific proposal with a date and a venue and ask who will attend. We've got Abarth owners distributed across the country (and beyond), so there's no reason not to try lots of these sort of events in 2015.

For the events where we may well be able to meet up, but have no official presence (such as the Goodwood Moving Motor Show/ Festival of Speed), then all that is needed is a thread near the time to establish who else plans to attend, and some details on meeting points and times. I have no problem with anyone who is going to an event like this creating the thread to see what interest there is.

Like so many things in life, you only get out of them what you put in. Make the effort to come to one or more of the events listed above and you will discover a whole new dimension to the joy of owning your Abarth. Many strong friendships have been formed amongst our members past and present as result of them meeting up. It might sound like "lots of cars in fields and car parks", but there's a lot more potential than that.