CLUBBING TOGETHER

The automotive social calendar is once again buzzing as owners' clubs convene across the UK. John Evans meets up with the south-east's Abarth aficionados

- John Evans

From now until late autumn, many places, from car parks to stately homes, will be hosting groups of people with embossed hoodies and identical cars, separated from casual visitors by some fluttering flags. It's the owners' club meet; that highlight in the car enthusiast's social diary when fellow fanciers bond over a Penguin.

At least that's the chocolate biscuit 'Two-hour Pete' offers me when I arrive at the Easter meeting of the Abarth Owners' Club Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire (AOCSSH), held in a corner of the car park at the popular Rykas cafe, near Dorking. Fortunately, I've brought an Abarth along for the occasion, specifically an F595C whose significance would be explained to me by members later. Arriving in it meant I could confidently enter the club zone and, under the admiring gaze of my new associates, guide my Abarth to its rightful place among its gaily coloured connazionale.

My last experience of an Abarth was a 695 whose suspension was unbearably stiff, so I was pleased to find the F595C a more supple companion. Either way, after a week spent hooning the little car around country lanes, I see why it inspires affection among the AOCSSH members.

Simply, it's the perfect club car with a great back story (Carlo Abarth founded the company in 1949 and through the 1960s contested his tuned Fiats with great success), enough derivatives to satisfy the most fervent pedant and the kind of chuckle-inducing driving manners guaranteed to spark a conversation between strangers.