Anyone had a Fulvia?

[ettore]

Have been offered a (seemingly) nice Fulvia Zagato and am tempted as a nice runaround.

It`s a 1300 so not the largest engine but it seems to be in reasonable order.

Are there any particular problems that I should look out for?

[Alpineandy]

I'm trying not to get confused by the F's (flamina/fulvia etc).
IIRC my uncle had a couple of 1.3s's (the tight V4 engine). Different bodywork to the zagato. He was very please with them. I don't remember any particular mechanical problems, but it'd probably be wise to check out the lancia web-sites.

IMHO I think your main worry should be bodywork and trim.

Or maybe not....

[lanciachris]

Those zagatos are cool as anything. Obviously the 1600 is favourite, but the 1300s are far from bad. Trim is the biggest worry imho.

[ettore]

Thanks chaps

So, trim is impossible to replace?

Obviously I shall scrutinise the bodywork with a fine toothcomb but are there any common mechanical maladies to watch out for?

[Alpineandy]

ettore said:

Thanks chaps So, trim is impossible to replace? Obviously I shall scrutinise the bodywork with a fine toothcomb but are there any common mechanical maladies to watch out for?

Ref the trim, I'd check with a specialist as you may find 90% of it is of a BMW/merc (and therefore available) {unlikely) but 10% is impossible to find.
No point worrying about the wrong missing bits...

What about the lancia club, they probably have a zagato registra
or
richard thorne cars www.rtcc.co.uk

[IOLAIRE]

ettore said:

Have been offered a (seemingly) nice Fulvia Zagato and am tempted as a nice runaround. It`s a 1300 so not the largest engine but it seems to be in reasonable order. Are there any particular problems that I should look out for?

Hi Guy,
I used to tune and service lots of these.
The suspension was grossly over-engineered making it damn near indestructible; and it was also fully adjustable front and rear for castor/camber, etc.
Beautiful handling little car, totally predictable and sooo bloody quick on corners.
The engine was quite unique in that it is a narrow angle V4; i.e. the block looks like an inline four only very wide and it only has one cylinder head, again very wide. When you remove the head you discover that the pistons are in the same horizontal plane but staggered two by two on each side of the block.
This has the advantages of making the block much shorter, giving it a nicer natural balance, increasing the exposed coolant area of the liners and also the coolant capacity in the block and round the ports in the head; all damn clever stuff!!
The 1300 is my favorite engine because it's so light and high revving.
Most of them breathe through a couple of 38 twin choke solex sidedraughts; I've seen them on Webbers too, but they may have been an aftermarket fitment, although I seem to remember something about the Zagato being in a higher state of tune than the standard cars, so the one you're thinking about may have Webbers and a different cam.
The only real problem I found with them was rust, but I am up in Caledonia so it is more frequent here coz it won't stop bloody raining!!!!
Hope this helps and you enjoy it.
James.

[clapham993]

Oh you lucky man - one of my favorite cars ever was my Fulvia. The thing to watch is rust. If you get a vertical split running upwards into the wing from the crown of each front wheel arch, walk away.

[Stella star]

someone had a Fulvia (zagato poss) at the pub the other week.

Lovely car

Owner said there are someparts still avaliable,bodywrok a bit harder though to come accross!

[lanciachris]

Now what you really want to do is find one of the all ally ones

[ettore]

Thanks for all the information - I`m off to look at it this evening so I`ll let you know if it`s a goodun`!

[Bernard100]

ettore said:

Thanks for all the information - I`m off to look at it this evening so I`ll let you know if it`s a goodun`!

I had one many years ago. Seem to remember the gearbox was a bit "back to front", but maybe my memory is going.Great fun car though !

[gtir]

Hmm, I had a 2000HF. I think it was a Fulvia, not sure never really found out. Nice injection engine and what a body!

[clapham993]

gtir said:

Hmm, I had a 2000HF. I think it was a Fulvia, not sure never really found out. Nice injection engine and what a body!

That would be a Flavia Coupe - a truly senior piece of kit

[Alpineandy]

ettore said:

Thanks for all the information - I`m off to look at it this evening so I`ll let you know if it`s a goodun`!

Did you have fun?
I guess you've seen the 'one for sale' test in Classic & Sportscar mag?

[ettore]

yes did have fun!

Have to say it was a lovely car to drive - really reminded me of how good a lightweight FWD car can be. Mechanics seemed up together (bar a grumbly bearing)and the interior was in excellent order. However the bodywork was not as good as it initially appeared and shows signs of relatively advanced corrosion.

Having it checked at the w/end to see if it`s worth doing anything with. If not, it`s definitely re-ignited an interest in old lancia`s...

(did see the one in C&SC and it looks a reasonable buy)

[Alpineandy]

ettore said:

Having it checked at the w/end to see if it`s worth doing anything with. If not, it`s definitely re-ignited an interest in old lancia`s...

are you a lancia owner yet?

[ettore]

Unfortunately not - the barsteward has decided to keep and spend some money on it!

However I`m pretty sure that I need to add a classic to the fleet in pretty short order!

Current top 3 are;

1) Lancia Fulvia/Flavia
2) Alfa 1750 GTV
3) 2.4 911S

I can`t seem to find many good `uns though!