Peeps,

We briefly discussed this at the NEC yesterday so was wondering if a thread was going to be started inviting suggestions on what an event could look like?

If a decision has not been made as yet may I suggest Bruntigthorpe proving ground near Lutterworth (just off the M1)? I did think it could coincide with the Cold War fast jets runway display but that's held over the end May BH weekend so would be too busy (anyone into loud Cold War heavy metal it's well worth a visit or a local coupe meet ) Other car clubs use the site and track and accommodation is nearby in Lutterworth including a cheap n cheerful Travelodge.

Happy to assist someone to make enquires if it's got potential

Hi Alan,

That is a great suggestion thank you.

We discussed at the AGM and wanted to get the Lancaster show done then start to plan for the 25th Anniversary.

I may send you a message in the coming weeks, thank you for the offer!

Chris

Hi Chris,

Hope you had a good Christmas?

Anymore thoughts on this? I'm conscious that venues can get booked up quite quickly plus if any event was planned it would be wise to avoid school holidays etc to ensure the best attendance as possible.

Cheers

Alan

I wouldn't mine doing Bruntingthorpe if we can get on there to have some fun and maybe a top speed try.

Hello Alan / Adam,

We are starting the process now Xmas and New Year is over...!

Bruntingthorpe is a good starting point, but open to any others.

Chris

Any venue will likely come at a cost so what is the club seeking? 1 x day static or track access? With the exception of the public days I'm not sure if refreshments are available (for Bruntingthorpe) so is that an issue? Ideal date - eg when did the coupe go on sale in the UK 25 years ago - aim for a date close to the launch if it doesn't clash with holidays and the like? Once a date is fixed invites to the motoring press - who? If this is a club organised event is there an insurance / liability consideration? Probably sucking eggs as they say but thought worth mentioning

I think the UK launch was June 1995

No worries Alan, The club has had £2 million third party liability cover since 2008 when it was reformed and the membership elected the officers to run it. .

Appreciate the input Alan.

The board are discussing the items you’ve highlighted around logistics at the moment.

Thanks Chris



I think you've got the window there then - a weekend after May half-term and before the Scottish schools break if that's applicable to any of the owners North of the Border (end of June)? Coincides with the launch month and dare I say it the chance of decent weather !

June would align with this event Tatton Classic

Or the classic race weekend at DONNINGTON

The club held an event there many years ago and took one of the track side race boxes.

Or a maybe corporate style booking at a Museum site. A few years back Trish and I rented The Yorkshire Air Museum for a personal event. We booked the venue and had privileged parking for our guests to take advantage of the Museum before it closed. We then had an indoor event space with Buffet / Bar and music set up for an evening event. This kind of venue is appropriate for offering outdoors space for fine weather but also offers plenty of indoor space should weather be less favourable.

There are many other venues that I am sure offer similar opportunities.

For Example.

The Lakeland Motor museum

Boness Motor Museum

RAF Museum Car Club Meets

Haynes Motor Museum

Coventry Transport Museum

I imagine we would need to know the numbers of those attending in order to choose an event. Are we talking about a full blown weekend with a main event,accomadation maybe a drive out and an evening meal/event.
We have had AGMs in past of that standard.

The further north it is would be a lot more attractive to the army north of the border....

When organising events for various organisations I found that if you provided an interesting event packed weekend you were far more likely to get people prepared to travel. If you plan just a few hours at a single venue with no evening entertainment, or other activities,then it is far more likely the event will have limited appeal to those further away.

Those special weekend Coupé events held in Turin had many Coupé owners from across Europe prepared to make epic journeys to be there.

Perhaps an evening meet in the form of a meal followed by a road trip as suggested above the following day, including lunch, would allow for both "gears and gossip"

I think we need to be considering where the bulk of owners are based to be honest to ensure the best possible turnout. Some good suggestions above but how many owners from from the SEast / Norfolk etc would be willing to travel to The Lakes or Edinburgh for an event however attractive they may be?? For me a Midlands based event is the logical option in my humble opinion. Is there going to be a motoring press invite - surely AutoItalia is a given?

Alan don't worry no-one is suggesting Auld Reekie

Yorkshire isn't a bad shout considering nearly all major meets in my memory have been 300 miles from here!

A Yorkshire location would be about a 300 mile run for us in Kent / Sussex area and would be a nice run out.

This was the venue mentioned at our lunch yesterday

http://www.fatlamb.co.uk/groups-functions/classic-car-tours.htm

Looks a good idea but is 12 rooms enough and might it already be too late to get booked in for June?

12 rooms will likely not be enough.

We are still discussing it on the board, will post up soon!

It looks like there are various pub / B&B’s in a 5 mile radius that would provide additional accommodation and a number of self catering cottages also.

Apparently there are some within 5/10 minutes walk Ashley so accommodation doesn't look to be a problem. Their restaurant can cope with up to 100 people too.

That sounds even better, it will be interesting to see how this develops.:)

Not far from my old work.... I Could be tempted to make the trip.

I think it's all down to what the board / club wishes to do to recognise the launch. An overnight informal meet at a pub / similar type venue with a meal and drive or something with a bit more publicity and impact (but more organising to be sure). Personally I think it should be higher profile with an interesting location which will likely get motoring press buy in.



I like Bob's idea of the Yorkshire Air Museum - looking at the website they host car club meets, refreshments are available and is an interesting venue (it's far more slicker since I was last there!) Not too far off the A1 either so access fairly straight forward

Ohh - and I forgot. Easy for Neil to get to from Berlin - hop on the ferry over to Hull

Rest assured Alan it is being worked on, even though pleasing all of the people all of the time (as the saying goes) is an eternal challenge

That was true for 2014 where we: met up at pininfarina, then went on to the roof at Lingotto with short drive on the roof and met Chris Bangle (off to Museo del'Auto in afternoon) then police escort through red lights and the city centre, stately home visit on day 3 (I went to Fiat Centro Storico) followed by lunch and another police escort to hotel, final day at Mirafiori with a drive around the track then lunch and awards

A really fantastic 4 days which I topped off by returning via the Stelvio pass, Nurburgring and Abarth museum. Such a fabulous sequence of events never to be repeated again...and that was indeed the case, with 2019 being a much lower key event:

Park up in city most of the day and attend Parco Valentino car event including short afternoon drive around the city and park up again, day 2 visit Museo del'Auto then park up in a different place in the city (car event still on) then meet for lunch and awards. This was supplemented by visits arranged independently to Centro Storico, pininfarina and the Heritage Hub (me only!)

Even though there were less events laid on in 2019, the fact that we were in Motor City (Italy) meant that other visits could be added on. It's hard to see many similar visits being added to any UK 25th event...?

I like the idea of a track event, but there will be very few other people interested, a static display of as many Coupes as we can gather together would be good, but it will tricky to guess how many that might be, and where it should therefore take place? Bruntingthorpe would work however. A nice 50 miles drive around the countryside would be nice but would take some organising, and it's impossible for everyone to stay together unless several stops are planned. But something like that, with a nice group meal one evening would be good I think


Oh sure, although I can't find any ferries direct from Berlin, but it's just a 7-8 drive to Rotterdam, 12 hours on the ferry to Hull, and a short 3 hour hop to the venue (maybe)

Dunsfold (Top Gear use it) could be an option had a VX meet there year's back when 50+ VX220's lined up on the runway after several spirited laps of the track.

That's conveniently close to me, but we might struggle to get even 5 Coupes out on the track, well 10 maybe, but prove me wrong!

I'm with Dave on the above but it would be great if we could offer something special to entice our European members over and give them the excuse to make the journey across. There's not much in the way of exotic motoring heritage that might appeal i.e. we can't lure them with the likes of Abarth, Pininfarina, Lingotto etc. but the extra possible numbers would make it a bit of an eye-opener to the public and hopefully the motoring press.

Clearly, the appeal to go to Turin, 25th celebrations aside, is the availability of other great motoring and historic venues, all within a reasonable distance. That, the weather and stunning scenery on the journey, makes for a fun few days.

I would expect a good number from Holland, Belgium and France to make the trip as they're pretty close; the French probably opting for Calais and the rest going through Amsterdam to Newcastle so somewhere in between might be an option for a venue?

What and where can we offer them, as well as our own community, to make this a memorable occasion? Wherever it is and whatever is organised, I just hope it doesn't p##s down

We could always go to British Motor Museum and play guess the copy?
Ferrari Daytona--Rover SD1
Stratos--TR7

If you want sceneary and decent driving roads, your looking at t' North I'd suppose.

Some blinding roads, and good scenary.

Having the euro contingent trundling round the M25/Dartford Crossing say for Brands isn't really going to cut it next to the scenary you can get in Europe.

No disrespect to Brands. It's just about location location location.

Regards

MM

There's Hook of Holland to Harwich in the middle, but check with Edinburgh, he knows all the possible routes to Holland (BTW we're supposed to stop calling it Holland)

And it did rain whilst we were in Turin, and it's been a little overcast/rainy at Assen sometimes, but mostly we have been very lucky with the weather at Assen

Reading through the suggestions for a 25th anniversary in the UK with some very good points but how can we compete with a Turin anniversary? actually that's probably not a question for the group but one I asked myself as soon as I read that there were plans for 25th UK anniversary but being realistic its not the answer to try to compete but a different approach.

As Rob says we don't have the likes of the great Italian legends but we do have good following of the coupe in the UK though I think the numbers have dropped over the years and I see that from the early days of Scottish Italian car day events and on the odd Auto Italia events I've manage to get to, however they are out there to entice out for the day.

I was thinking if it could have been alongside an organised Auto Italia event or to approach Auto Italia atleast.

Auto Italia Events 2020

ITALIAN CAR DAY
Saturday May 2nd
Brooklands

NORTHERN ITALIAN CAR DAY
Sunday July 12th
Raby Castle

SUPERCAR SUNDAY
Sunday July 19th
Brooklands

AUTO ITALIA ITALIAN CAR DAY
Sunday September 27th
Stanford Hall

Although perhaps some of the above are further away from the official release date.

Two points though only in my opinion

1. It would have to be coupes in numbers
2. Open to Europe and to attract coupes owners on a long journey to the UK?

If we were to combine with AutoItalia, my vote would be for Stanford Hall. Brooklands on an AutoItalia day resembles a massive, somewhat haphazard car park with no obvious gathering point unless you count a pop-up gazebo, but of course it could just be one part of a Coupe weekend event, and we might be able to wangle a convoy of Coupes around the MB World track or up the test hill? At Stanford Hall we have a nice country house setting, but it's a static event, and last year when trying to restart the event after a brief hiatus, it was cancelled due to torrential rain the week before and the likelihood of it turning into an automotive Glastonbury-style mud bath...Stanford Hall is not far from Gaydon...

We can't compete with holding an anniversary event in Turin. We are planning a more British event, we will keep you posted!

There's fantastic input from everyone here, it's great to see the enthusiasm for an event!

In the past so many plans for UK Coupé club events were scrapped because people commented that the planned event was too far away from them. It is somewhat ironic to see people on a car forum complaining that they are going to have to drive their car to get to an event

Totally agree with what the fellows above have been saying about making it special but with a British Twist. There is no way we could ever compete with the scale of the Italian events so maybe seeking "Italian" themes is the wrong direction? Also agree with Dave that the Auto Italia Brooklands is a difficult event to fit into at the best of times. Last time I went the Coupés were all over the place, far from together.

I would really like to see the club put on a special event this year and I personally would not be bothered where in the country it takes place. Like many on here I have taken trips all over the UK, and beyond, in my Coupé. I may no longer have a coupé but I would like to pop along to an event and catch up with a few friends in 2020.

NOTE: I did plan to pop into Silverstone for a couple of hours last year, until I spotted the day ticket price!

I just remembered. Back in 2005 we attended a weekend event in the south of the Netherlands. Cracking weekend organised by John (Fastjjs) and his then wife. It was a fun packed weekend with some off the wall unusual activities that were not Coupé related, but it worked.

Day 1 - A visit to a parfumier, coffee and cakes followed by a visit to a tuning place. Then a drive to a park for a walk and ice creams before hotel and dinner.
Day 2 - A visit to a power station - fantastic to see the whole process - turbine room was epic, canteen lunch. Then a trip to Three land point and a team building session, all very funny. This was followed by Coffee and cakes before hotel and then dinner.
Day 3 - A visit to an indoor Ski Slope, then Après Ski followed by a visit to a garden and then more food! then home.

This post is only to demonstrate that interesting doesn't have to mean an event must be totally Coupé related.

I think the event should be exclusive to the Fiat Coupé, by that I mean not try and incorporate it with another Italian meeting as that losses the whole point of us celebrating as a club imo, also what ever is organised dates wise needs to be thought of pretty quickly as European owners book their holidays early in the year.

The board have been working on a plan to provide a very 'British' weekend experience in an area of natural beauty that is not tied to another event. Were just finalising how much the subsidy to members from club funds will be, and I think we should be ready to let everyone else know by the weekend

Sounds good Pete, I look forward to the itinerary

Probably too late. But where was the Coupe launched in the UK? Maybe start there and then on for a drive through somewhere picturesque?

FIAT headquarters is/was in Slough? Maybe not the best place for a meet.

I'd struggle to think of a worse place to have a convoy to than Slough. No offence to anyone who lives there but it is rather industrial...!

"Come, friendly bombs....."

Well done Pete and all who are involved behind the scenes, really looking forward to this.
Hopefully the combined efforts of a select few will make this a great event and one to remember

Just like to echo what has been said above, sounds interesting

The post is up in the Members section