Road Trip in a Tipo - Not 56k friendly!

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Road Trip in a Tipo - Not 56k friendly!

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Hi forum! Many of you will have read about that I was planning quite a trip with my Tipo, mainly to get the cambelt changed at a sensible price. After being put in touch with Motor Mech by Sammi and H I decided that I could now afford a new exhaust too. MIJ Performance seemed to fit the bill plus there were only a few miles from Motor Mech.
There was then the idea of a meet at the Falkirk wheel the day before I had the work planned. It sounded good but no sensible person would drive up to Scotland, just to then have to drive to Birmingham for 11am the next day - Well I think I've now proved I'm not sensible.

Sunday started at the crack of dawn.. Car packed, fuel filled and directions printed. Helz kindly invited us for a comfort break at her house so 9am Carlisle was the target... 9:02 and we pulled onto a drive half filled with big shiney Brava.. Not bad timing.

After stopping for fuel (Helz not us) we set off for Falkirk, Helz leading and us following. I'll never say boo to a 1.2 Brava again. :worship: We thoroughly enjoyed the view of Helz's rear :p
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80 miles down the road and Tipo was hungry.. Only 180 miles out of the tank.. Someone has been a bit heavy on the right foot :eek:

Pulling into the carpark in Falkirk and we're a little late. Already a few cars are parked up and in the icy cold people are chatting. A good mooch and giggle around Alaina's car and we decide its time for photos. Direction, location and formation took a bit of organising but the result was well worth it.
Judging by the looks on peoples faces driving past Fiat owners must be rubbish at parking.
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Tipo enjoyed chatting with the other Fiats
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The car park took on showroom status
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We did consider parking properly but as people were still slowing down to look the cars stayed where they were! We all popped into the cafe for a chat and some hot drinks. Were there to see 3 rotations of the wheel. Quite a bit of kit!

For a drive we headed for California.. I thought the locals were having a laugh, especially when we were going around in circles and threatened with Borg assimilation
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but no, its real!
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The traffic can be chaos there though
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After a great bit of rally stage thanks to Dave and his 4x4, we all headed off home.. Well most did but we were only started! A quick blast down the M6 and our first stop at Kendal. Good nights sleep and off towards Birmingham.

11am MIJ Perfomance for the new exhaust. The initial plan of the cat-back system slowly grew to a whole re-design.
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The friendly staff were very accomodating, especially since we had James
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who for the most part kept quiet entertained by the car DVD's, the huge selection of tail pipes and of course the occasional feeds! I could have been posting on the FF courtesy of their free WIFI but I didn't think to ask them!

Leaving MIJ we set off on the hardest part of our journey.. Finding the hotel in Birmingham Centre! In our way stood the mighty Junction 6... We only got lost twice ;)

Early to bed again for the car was booked in for an 8am start. Finding motor mech only took getting (almost) lost once, and the welcome by Paul was warm. A quick chat and an oggle at the other cars in for repair and we were off to the bull ring to spend the day shopping. While out we noticed something that might be of interest to the Panda owners..
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On return to the garage we chatted some more, including an interesting conversation about the 2.5 v6 Alfa they had in.. skimping on a £30 tensioner had caused the cambelt to skip 5 teeth and completly wreck the head. £1200 worth of damage all because the owner didn't want to pay £30.. :eek:

Its a good thing I decided to get the belt replaced as the previous service had installed one of the tensioners the wrong way around.. This was slowly eating through the cambelt! These were all replaced and he even had time to setup the tickover, and all for an unbelievable price. I felt like hugging him!

On the way back from Birmingham we saw a few fiats. One crashed - looked like a Cinq, one fast - yellow coupe zipped past leaving me standing and eventually one parked.. The gf's dad's tipo which now has another growling tipo to talk to!

Its been quite a busy few days but its been well worth it. Meeting you guys and getting a fantastic new exhaust all in 3 days.. Whats next week?

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Wow, that was quite an adventure Hellcat!

And good to see another Fiat Forum meet taking place (y) A little bit too far for us southerners to attend though :rolleyes:

I'm beginning to think that Fiats are turning into cult cars such is the way they turn heads when gathered en mass! :cool:

Tipo exhaust looks great too! And I love the shape of the three door Tipo. Looks kind of like a grown up Uno :D
 
nice one.glad you had the stamina.the battery will now be well charged!:D that tensioner cockup could have been expensive:eek: nice pics.well done.
btw,did you know the falkirk wheel can be moved by a simple push.the friction is so low and the balance so perfect.shows this country's expertise.:)
 
Glad you got sorted and back ok. Sunday was a great day out, can't wait to do another one.

I did just under 300 miles in the Sei. but your trip was something else!:worship:

See you next time.

Mal.:)
 
haha that stories great really made me giggle!! the pics are fab!(y) they did look like they were in a show room very classy! ;)
i was in my car on that hill with my foot on the foot brake!
well my cinq does have some 4x4 parts lol!
great comments made me laugh!

zorts looks fab!
xxx
 
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