1968 Lancia Fulvia Is Today’s Bring a Trailer Auction Pick
• Dressed in Lancia Blue, this 1968 Fulvia coupe is a uncommon and handsome minimal vehicle with amazingly innovative engineering.
• The very small 1.3-liter narrow-angle V-4 charges out about 87 horsepower and (when new) propelled the roughly 2000-pound vehicle to 60 mph in 12.6 seconds, in accordance to a period examination in Highway & Monitor.
• An exciting and additional affordable alternative to an Alfa Romeo GTV of the same classic, the Fulvia is so scarce that you might be practically ensured that you can hardly ever see yet another one outside the house a Lancia club conference. It can be up for auction on Carry a Trailer, with bidding ending on Tuesday, May perhaps 24.
It is really a lot more than a tiny peculiar when express photos of your ex show up on the net. But which is particularly what took place this 7 days when 150 photographs of my ex–Lancia Fulvia popped up on Deliver a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is component of Hearst Autos. It was my very first basic. I acquired the Lancia Blue on tan vinyl 1968 Sequence 1 Fulvia after recognizing it on Carry a Trailer at the close of 2008. Again then, Bring a Trailer mentioned exciting and oddball cars and trucks the addictive auction web site it has now become was nonetheless a couple of years away.
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Ordered on the sage advice of contributor Jamie Kitman, who confident me that his Fulvia would very likely be the previous car he’d offer out of his 30-additionally-automobile collection, I drove out to Connecticut from Michigan in C/D’s extended-term Jaguar XF to see and drive the Fulvia. I enlisted the aid of Lancia mechanic Frank Spadaro of Dominick European Automobile Maintenance in White Plains, New York, to give me a different established of eyes and an expert’s opinion. Despite the fact that we spotted some rusty floorboards, the vehicle arrived with a replacement set. Spadaro famous a handful of other minimal concerns, which include a carburetor feeding a bit much too substantially gasoline.
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The vendor had imported the automobile from Italy, painted it, retrimmed the inside, and swapped in a more recent engine. Although it truly is by no means a fantastic strategy to glance at a vehicle in the rain—everything appears nicer and cozier when it is really moist out, and it really is tricky to appropriately look at the paint—the temperature did not cooperate. I missed a several paint cracks, but general the Fulvia appeared as marketed. A handful of times quick of my 35th birthday, I acquired it, and the motor vehicle went immediately to White Plains for a minimal restoration that provided a number of rust repairs, fuel-program cleansing, and tuning to deliver it up to suggestion-leading mechanical condition.
A solid-operating Fulvia is a joy to command. A ridiculously lengthy change lever sprouts from the firewall, but the movement as a result of the 4 ahead speeds is slick and precise. Rushing the a person-two shift results in a graunch from the synchros, one thing mentioned in the Street & Monitor check of the Fulvia coupe. A fragile precision is infused through the equipment, from the way the doorways click on shut to the unassisted steering’s stunning suggestions when bent into a corner. You will find almost nothing notably attention-grabbing about the command-arm front and beam-axle rear suspension other than the transverse leaf spring that suspends the front. Press as challenging as you like, the Fulvia only gobbles up abuse, a trait that aided make it a environment-championship-profitable rally car or truck.
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Credit score for the gentle truly feel is aspect tuning, but it really is also the 2000-pound curb pounds, a quantity which is only about 100 pounds heavier than the 2005 Lotus Elise that replaced the Lancia. Fastened exterior panels are metal, and mine arrived with aluminum doorways, hood, and trunklid. Opening the hood demonstrates off the narrow-angle V-4 that sits canted at about 45 degrees, and the total powertrain and entrance suspension mounts to a subframe. Electricity travels to the front wheels, and the longitudinal four-cylinder hangs out in front of the front-axle line as in most modern-day Audis.
On the freeway, the Fulvia cruised fortunately at 80 mph, and the slim-angle 4 hummed a joyful thrum, snarled by means of the intake, and rumbled out the exhaust. Close to city the 1.3-liter motor made ample power to accelerate briskly when floored. R&T clocked a 12.6-next time to 60 mph and an 18.6-2nd quarter run at 75 mph. The mechanical tune it sings is just one that you want to final, and given that it can be not fast, you get to listen to the motor functioning and the transmission buzzing. Unassisted 4-wheel disc brakes stopped the little coupe quickly and provided a great business pedal with sturdy bite.
I might meant on working with it as a everyday driver following going to Los Angeles, but a brake learn-cylinder failure early on in its time in SoCal produced me a little bit gun-shy about making use of it to run out to invest in kale salads and avocados and all the factors you do when you live in California. Pieces are incredibly plentiful and aren’t pricey. Other than a generator rebuild in 2010 or so, the Fulvia hardly ever questioned for any awareness.
The Lancia community is small, so when I started out speaking about selling, a consumer rapidly emerged whose enthusiasm for the automobile gave me confidence that it would be looked just after. Around the decades the existing operator, and now vendor, invited me to check out and generate the Fulvia. Look at-ins have usually included a report on all of the perform and enjoy he’s poured into it.
Lancia designed the Fulvia coupe from 1965 to 1976. It is a lot extra usually observed in Europe than in the States, where it’s an exceedingly unusual car or truck. Take just one to a car demonstrate and be geared up to remedy a large amount of thoughts such as, “What kind of Corvair is this?” But, the upside is you’ll meet a whole lot of unforgettable men and women simply because this is an exciting motor vehicle that appeals to appealing people. The auction finishes on Tuesday, May possibly 24, so at this position there are only a handful of days left to score a person of the most wonderful and specific little autos I’ve ever owned.
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