Auto ITALIA Brooklands APril 2017
Spring italian car meeting at brooklands with sportsmaserati
The first big Italian car gathering of the year was the Auto Italia meeting at Brooklands on 29th April. Having missed it last year I was determined to get down to meet up with the SportsMaserati guys. As the gates opened at 8am I travelled down the day before and stayed overnight.
Leaving the hotel at 7:30 we joined the queues to get in and soon found ourselves parked up a designated area with a collection of other Maseratis. A good time was had catch up with people from last year and meeting new people. There was the usual collection of 4200s and GT/GTSs but also a Khasmin, a Shamal, a couple of Meraks, and a fair number of 3200s.
One member drove his 3200 down from North Yorkshire and back in the day, a round trip of around 500 miles. Who said that 3200 weren't reliable!
Just behind us a company specialising in restorations were showing off their handy work including this beauty.
You'd never realise it but this is a replica, built for the owner of the original so that he could have the fun without risking his £5.5 million pound car.
As part of the morning activities people could sign up to a parade lap on the Mercedes World track. Due to my previous track issues I chose not to do this but installed my camera in one of the other SportsMaserati guys cars, thanks Eb, to get a feel of the experience.
One of the cars on the parade lap with the Ferraris was something I'd not seen before. An Iso Rivolta.
This yellow peril with its V8 engine made more noise than any of the Ferrari and at a different pitch. The driver was also clearly having fun, the backend starting to squirm as he put the power down going onto the straight.
The classics area had some lovely looking cars including this Frua Maserati Quattorporte. I'd always thought that the current Quattroporte was huge but its not much larger than the original. The most striking feature for me is how thin the pillars and roof are compared with a modern car. The expanse of glass makes the car look full.
Another lovely car that I'd not seen before was this Maserati Mistral Spyder. I don't normally like yellow cars but imagining cruising along in the sun in this car made it make sense.
One fun car that was this Fiat 500 Topolino Convertible Four. A right hand drive conversion of the Fiat 500 Topolino who's testing included a trip up Porlock Hill. Having driven up there in a number of cars I'm impressed with the achievement in a car with 6.7 hp.
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