Following the emergence of some dry weather for the August 2012 Ace Cafe Italian Night, we all wondered if it was too much to hope for a repeat in September. Fortunately our luck was in and the day was warm and sunny from daybreak, which led to expectations of a good turnout of all sorts of Italian machinery. Although the forecourt in front of the Cafe was never quite full, in fact quite a lot of the late arrivers parked up on the street, easing the challenge for anyone who wanted to leave early, and there ended up being a good number of cars to see and plenty to people to talk to, making for a very agreeable evening. Pictorial highlights include the following:

ABARTH

As ever, Abarth dominated the event, numbers swelled a bit by the fact that the central London dealer had come along, with three new models, including a 695 Tributo.

Prize for the dirtiest car at the event goes to Peter Robinson, the second in command at Abarth UK, who stopped by en route down to the Goodwood Revival in a red Punto Evo that looked like he had come far further than from Durham. As ever, it was good to get to talk to him, and it was good for him to get some feedback and ideas from us, ranging form Abarth UK’s planned participation at events to suggestions for merchandise to add to the current range. He did say he was unaware of just how many Abarth owners come to this meeting, so I am sure that if his diary allows, we will see him again. Of the regulars, it was interesting to meet the new owner of Ashley Reed’s Grande Punto which he had sold the day after the August meeting, and there were plenty of other familiar cars on site too.

It was this car which was capturing lots of attention, as ever.  ALFA-ROMEO

Plenty of variety among the ranks of Alfa, though nothing particularly unusual. Kai Kan, one of the Abarthisti had brought his 147 GTA as a change from his Punto Evo, and it did look good. I can see why the Abarth was an addition to his fleet rather than a replacement.

FERRARI

Not a Ferrari in sight this month

FIAT

Again, nothing particularly unusual, as the little 850 Spider has become quite a frequent star of these events, but a nice variety of Fiat from the Cinquecento and Seicento through a number of Coupes to a Uno SX which arrived after dark fell (hence no pics). The X1/9 at the event was not a car I can recall seeing present before.

LANCIA

A couple of Integrales were this month’s Lancia representatives and very nice they both were.

MASERATI

When I arrived there were more Maserati than anything else, but no further cars arrived during the evening, and most of them left (late) in convoy.

………. and NOT ITALIAN

So, the driver was asked to park out on the road. He said that he just wanted to pop in for a bite to eat, so taking the 3 litre Bentley must have seemed like the obvious thing to do! It was a splendid machine.

Dark descended around 7:30pm or so, which means that by next month, there won’t be an awful lot of evening daylight available, but provided the weather is not unspeakable, the expressed intent of those gathered was for another meeting a month hence.

2012-09-15 23:59:08