1968 Lancia Fulvia Is Today’s Bring a Trailer Auction Pick
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• Dressed in Lancia Blue, this 1968 Fulvia coupe is a unusual and handsome tiny vehicle with incredibly superior engineering.
• The very small 1.3-liter slender-angle V-4 expenses out about 87 horsepower and (when new) propelled the approximately 2000-pound car to 60 mph in 12.6 seconds, in accordance to a period exam in Road & Track.
• An attention-grabbing and more very affordable alternative to an Alfa Romeo GTV of the exact vintage, the Fulvia is so exceptional that you’re virtually ensured that you’ll by no means see another one outside a Lancia club meeting. It’s up for auction on Deliver a Trailer, with bidding ending on Tuesday, Could 24.
It’s additional than a small strange when express pictures of your ex seem on the online. But that is precisely what transpired this week when 150 photographs of my ex–Lancia Fulvia popped up on Convey a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is section of Hearst Autos. It was my initially typical. I bought the Lancia Blue on tan vinyl 1968 Series 1 Fulvia after recognizing it on Provide a Trailer at the finish of 2008. Again then, Convey a Trailer outlined interesting and oddball autos the addictive auction site it has now develop into was however a several years absent.
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Acquired on the sage information of contributor Jamie Kitman, who confident me that his Fulvia would possible be the final car or truck he’d provide out of his 30-moreover-vehicle assortment, I drove out to Connecticut from Michigan in C/D’s long-phrase Jaguar XF to see and drive the Fulvia. I enlisted the enable of Lancia mechanic Frank Spadaro of Dominick European Vehicle Repair in White Plains, New York, to give me one more established of eyes and an expert’s opinion. Though we spotted some rusty floorboards, the automobile came with a substitution set. Spadaro pointed out a couple other small concerns, which include a carburetor feeding a bit as well substantially gasoline.
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The seller experienced imported the motor vehicle from Italy, painted it, retrimmed the interior, and swapped in a newer engine. Whilst it truly is under no circumstances a good notion to appear at a automobile in the rain—everything would seem nicer and cozier when it’s wet out, and it’s tricky to appropriately study the paint—the weather did not cooperate. I skipped a handful of paint cracks, but total the Fulvia appeared as marketed. A several days short of my 35th birthday, I acquired it, and the car went right to White Plains for a small restoration that included a handful of rust repairs, gas-technique cleaning, and tuning to provide it up to tip-major mechanical condition.
A sturdy-operating Fulvia is a joy to command. A ridiculously lengthy change lever sprouts from the firewall, but the movement by the 4 forward speeds is slick and precise. Speeding the 1-two change effects in a graunch from the synchros, anything noted in the Road & Track examination of the Fulvia coupe. A sensitive precision is infused through the machinery, from the way the doors click on shut to the unassisted steering’s surprising comments when bent into a corner. There’s nothing specifically intriguing about the control-arm entrance and beam-axle rear suspension other than the transverse leaf spring that suspends the entrance. Push as tricky as you like, the Fulvia basically gobbles up abuse, a trait that helped make it a world-championship-successful rally motor vehicle.
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Credit for the light feel is element tuning, but it is also the 2000-pound control weight, a number that is only about 100 pounds heavier than the 2005 Lotus Elise that replaced the Lancia. Fixed exterior panels are metal, and mine came with aluminum doorways, hood, and trunklid. Opening the hood displays off the slim-angle V-4 that sits canted at about 45 levels, and the overall powertrain and front suspension mounts to a subframe. Power travels to the front wheels, and the longitudinal four-cylinder hangs out in entrance of the entrance-axle line as in most modern-day Audis.
On the freeway, the Fulvia cruised happily at 80 mph, and the slender-angle 4 hummed a satisfied thrum, snarled by the ingestion, and rumbled out the exhaust. Close to town the 1.3-liter engine produced enough power to speed up briskly when floored. R&T clocked a 12.6-2nd time to 60 mph and an 18.6-next quarter run at 75 mph. The mechanical tune it sings is one particular that you want to previous, and considering that it really is not fast, you get to listen to the engine working and the transmission buzzing. Unassisted four-wheel disc brakes stopped the very little coupe quickly and provided a nice organization pedal with solid bite.
I might intended on using it as a daily driver after shifting to Los Angeles, but a brake grasp-cylinder failure early on in its time in SoCal built me a bit gun-shy about applying it to run out to get kale salads and avocados and all the points you do when you reside in California. Pieces are amazingly abundant and usually are not high-priced. Other than a generator rebuild in 2010 or so, the Fulvia never asked for any consideration.
The Lancia community is small, so when I commenced talking about advertising, a customer speedily emerged whose enthusiasm for the vehicle gave me self confidence that it would be looked following. Above the decades the present operator, and now vendor, invited me to pay a visit to and push the Fulvia. Verify-ins have generally involved a report on all of the operate and love he is poured into it.
Lancia built the Fulvia coupe from 1965 to 1976. It really is a lot additional typically observed in Europe than in the States, exactly where it really is an exceedingly uncommon automobile. Take one particular to a car or truck show and be well prepared to respond to a large amount of concerns like, “What sort of Corvair is this?” But, the upside is you can fulfill a large amount of memorable men and women simply because this is an exciting auto that draws in attention-grabbing individuals. The auction ends on Tuesday, Could 24, so at this level there are only a few times remaining to rating one particular of the most stunning and exclusive little autos I have at any time owned.
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