Reader Matt K. sent us this true barn find from across the pond. It hasn’t even been cleaned up since it was literally pulled from a barn. It’s located in Brentwood, Essex, UK and can be seen here on carandclassic.uk where it’s for sale for 3,750 pounds. I’m not even sure if we got the Fulvia coupe in the US, although I know some exist here, but from everything I’ve read they are delightful to drive, with a somewhat unusual V-4 engine and front wheel drive configuration. They had a lot of competition successes in period and are competitive in vintage events today. Maybe one of our readers has owned or driven one and can comment about the experience below? The front edge of the hood looks pretty ragged, but a lot of the rest of the car looks reasonably solid, and it certainly looks pretty original and complete. What do you think, UK enthusiasts?
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- Look at the dust!
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- Complete with cobwebs
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- Low mileage
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- Unique coupe styling
These were great looking cars …….. Too bad the steering is on the wrong side………. I would wonder about parts availability but I know there is a strong following for them.
This car heralds from a period when the Italian economy was somewhat challenged, the up-shot being Italian cars were very cheap imports to the UK. Much more stylish than British cars of the time – Lancias Alfa Romeos and Fiats saw great favour here and represented very good value…… until mechanical failures began to occur and early rust problems began to appear.
I remember a drive in a Lancia Beta, which suddenly began laying down an alarming ‘smoke screen’ after a short motorway dash, and my first drive in a ‘Clover Leaf’ Alfa Sud. A seriously powerful little flat four ‘boxer’ with nice close ratio gearing, in a lightweight body which put many of its counterparts to shame in terms of performance – but you would be hard pushed to find a decent survivor today! Poor quality cheap steel imported from the former Soviet Union and rather economical assembly criteria would often lead to Alfa Sud’s doors falling off from where they were poorly welded (not Bolted) to the A post.
There will probably be a fair amount of rust to contend with in this Lancia.
Rob Siegel’s ‘Hack Mechanic’ book and his column of the same name in Roundel are some of the best automotibe reading there is. I remember that comment about licensing rust in his book and it made me cringe, then laugh. I guess their only excuse is that sunny Italy tends to be….sunny, so car even car bodies that have been licensed to rust fare better there than lots of other places.
On this Fulvia…..I’d be curious t have a look, but only if I had a HazMat suit on. Otherwise, no thanks.
Great little cars. I had an earlier one decades ago, and you wouldn’t know it was front-wheel drive. Not fast with 1200 cc. but a joy to drive. There are plenty around. Once Fiat bought Lancia the cars went downhill, but the earlier Lancias put engineering first, weight and profitability behind.
This Fulvia sold at Auctions America fall auction in Auburn last year for a little less than $25,000. That would seem to be the better route than this rust bucket. The Fulvia and Gamma coupes are on my wish list.
http://auctionsamerica.com/events/feature-lots.cfm?Order=auctioned&feature=&collection=&grouping=&category=&SaleCode=AF16&ID=r0182