Lancia Fulvia Coupé - anyone for a V4?
Discussion
With the benefit of 40+ years of hindsight, it was tired, rotten and driven by a lunatic. And yet…
All these years later, I can still remember the battered red Lancia Fulvia Coupé that I would frequently see bombing around Prestatyn, my hometown. Its nose-down stance, the slightly other-worldly hum of its V4 engine, the sharp, crisp lines, the Cromadora alloys.
(Insert comedy needle scratching across a record sound here)
Those of you familiar with me from the Classic Cars & Yesterday’s Heroes thread may recall that I had a Triumph GT6 for a couple of years. While I loved it, I was finding it increasingly difficult to get into due to a knee injury – the doors were just too short. Note to everyone: don’t go skiing.
Some recent building work at home meant that the garage – freshly vacated by the sale of the GT6 in September - was repurposed as a storage facility. This didn’t stop me constantly trawling through the classifieds for a replacement. I even made a spreadsheet, to track the progress of cars for sale – reductions, sales, re-lists etc. I was torn between a classic (where my heart lies) and a modern (where my head is at). After months of messing around, and with the garage contents now relocated to the recently-built shed, I had decided that what I wanted was a Porsche Cayman. Or a Boxster.
But then, when looking for an example of the above, I kept seeing temptingly affordable 911s. Hmm.
Any fule no there’s nothing more expensive than a cheap Porsche, so I reluctantly admitted that I’d need a few more £Sterling before I pulled that trigger.
Then, one quiet day at work, up popped a Fulvia with a trader quite close to me. I hit the “Contact Seller” button and tapped-out a short missive explaining that the car was about £4000 more than I’d be happy with, but if you knew of any others could you let me know please? To my surprise, a) the seller responded (most don’t – when I was in the trade you always responded to enquiries, however silly they were), and b) he indicated that he’d take £2500 less than the asking price! The only problem was it was brown. As were many others on offer – seems it was popular back then.
Still, my interest was piqued and soon enough, up popped another in Suffolk, ironically in the town in which I was born. This one was green, but wasn’t as nice as the brown one, condition-wise.
Then, one day, a red one appeared. An hour away. It was an Italian import, meaning left hand drive (like the brown one), but that’s an advantage for me as it means my injured leg goes in first. After a short exchange of emails, answered promptly, a viewing was arranged and my 17-year-old Theo and I set off. I like to involve him in the buying process: he loves older cars and is learning in a manual specifically so he can enjoy them as I have.
I think it’s fair to say Theo fell in love immediately. To be fair, the car had been well-described, started on the button from cold and drove well on test. It’s not perfect: there’s a few bubbles on the leading edge of the bonnet and the wheels need refurbishment, but it’s evidently been restored even if there’s no paperwork to prove it. The back story was good too – I’ll explain that in a later post.
A short discussion on price followed, resulting in a shake of hands at £1500 less than advertised, with the proviso that the car would have an MoT even though it doesn’t legally need one. We got a test slot almost immediately, and by the time we were home again I’d had a WhatsApp confirming it had passed with three minor advisories – result!
I’ll leave it there for now, with some teaser pictures taken from the ad. If there’s any interest I’ll continue with this Readers’ Cars thread – if not I’ll fade away into obscurity and not darken your door again.
Ciao!
All these years later, I can still remember the battered red Lancia Fulvia Coupé that I would frequently see bombing around Prestatyn, my hometown. Its nose-down stance, the slightly other-worldly hum of its V4 engine, the sharp, crisp lines, the Cromadora alloys.
(Insert comedy needle scratching across a record sound here)
Those of you familiar with me from the Classic Cars & Yesterday’s Heroes thread may recall that I had a Triumph GT6 for a couple of years. While I loved it, I was finding it increasingly difficult to get into due to a knee injury – the doors were just too short. Note to everyone: don’t go skiing.
Some recent building work at home meant that the garage – freshly vacated by the sale of the GT6 in September - was repurposed as a storage facility. This didn’t stop me constantly trawling through the classifieds for a replacement. I even made a spreadsheet, to track the progress of cars for sale – reductions, sales, re-lists etc. I was torn between a classic (where my heart lies) and a modern (where my head is at). After months of messing around, and with the garage contents now relocated to the recently-built shed, I had decided that what I wanted was a Porsche Cayman. Or a Boxster.
But then, when looking for an example of the above, I kept seeing temptingly affordable 911s. Hmm.
Any fule no there’s nothing more expensive than a cheap Porsche, so I reluctantly admitted that I’d need a few more £Sterling before I pulled that trigger.
Then, one quiet day at work, up popped a Fulvia with a trader quite close to me. I hit the “Contact Seller” button and tapped-out a short missive explaining that the car was about £4000 more than I’d be happy with, but if you knew of any others could you let me know please? To my surprise, a) the seller responded (most don’t – when I was in the trade you always responded to enquiries, however silly they were), and b) he indicated that he’d take £2500 less than the asking price! The only problem was it was brown. As were many others on offer – seems it was popular back then.
Still, my interest was piqued and soon enough, up popped another in Suffolk, ironically in the town in which I was born. This one was green, but wasn’t as nice as the brown one, condition-wise.
Then, one day, a red one appeared. An hour away. It was an Italian import, meaning left hand drive (like the brown one), but that’s an advantage for me as it means my injured leg goes in first. After a short exchange of emails, answered promptly, a viewing was arranged and my 17-year-old Theo and I set off. I like to involve him in the buying process: he loves older cars and is learning in a manual specifically so he can enjoy them as I have.
I think it’s fair to say Theo fell in love immediately. To be fair, the car had been well-described, started on the button from cold and drove well on test. It’s not perfect: there’s a few bubbles on the leading edge of the bonnet and the wheels need refurbishment, but it’s evidently been restored even if there’s no paperwork to prove it. The back story was good too – I’ll explain that in a later post.
A short discussion on price followed, resulting in a shake of hands at £1500 less than advertised, with the proviso that the car would have an MoT even though it doesn’t legally need one. We got a test slot almost immediately, and by the time we were home again I’d had a WhatsApp confirming it had passed with three minor advisories – result!
I’ll leave it there for now, with some teaser pictures taken from the ad. If there’s any interest I’ll continue with this Readers’ Cars thread – if not I’ll fade away into obscurity and not darken your door again.
Ciao!
In 1975 I was posted to RAF Episkopi, Cyprus. I had sold my 3yo MG Midget and was pondering it's replacement.
One afternoon I was enjoying the sunshine when I heard a car being driven with much verve and I looked for the culprit. Are you there before me?
It was a bright red Lancia Fulva....I fell in love!
One afternoon I was enjoying the sunshine when I heard a car being driven with much verve and I looked for the culprit. Are you there before me?
It was a bright red Lancia Fulva....I fell in love!
Thanks for all the seemingly positive comments so far. When the opportunity arrives I'll take some proper photos to show it off a little better.
I'll work on the next instalment over the coming few days, but in the meantime below is something I wrote on the evening I bought the car, in that weird state between excitement about a new car, and "Oh God, what have I done?" panic. I was considering the different engine configurations I'd driven over the years. Feel free to agree / disagree with any views expressed, and add your own experiences to fill any gaps.
What engine configurations have you owned or driven over the years?
I was thinking this a while back when I was half looking at something a little “different” that I missed out on due to needing to use my garage as storage space during some building work.
My own tally, from smallest to largest:
Single: I have never owned or driven a single cylinder car. Does a Briggs & Stratton lawn mower count?
Flat twin: owned a couple of 2CVs, for which I have a lot of respect and love. I bought one for Mrs Banana once that ran for a week with no alternator drive belt, only failing to proceed when driven at night because the lights drained the battery. It did catch fire on the way to the scrapyard when its time was up, but that’s a story for another day. Have also driven a couple of FIAT 500s and a 126 with inline twins.
Triples: never owned one but driven a few Ford Focuses which were excellent, and some older Daihatsus, which were not. The worst was the 1.5 diesel triple Hyundai saw fit to burden the Getz and Accent with – what were they thinking?
Inline fours: hundreds, literally hundreds either owned or driven. Too many to write about. Petrol and diesel. Next!
Flat fours: never owned a VW flat four but did once own an Alfasud that caught fire on the way to Snetterton and was swiftly moved on. Loved it, but it tried to kill me. Unimpressed by Imprezas, ironically.
Inline fives: Yup, driven many Audis and owned a Ford S-Max with the 2.5T from the Focus / various Volvos in it. That went well and was surprisingly close to the diesel that followed it in terms of economy.
V5s: drove a couple of Golfs and a Passat with the narrow-angle 5. They were OK, but no faster than the 1.8 turbos and significantly more thirsty.
Inline sixes: again, more BMWs than I care to remember. Did have a Triumph GT6 recently, which was fun if a little unaccommodating.
Flat sixes: not as much experience with Porsches as I’d like, but driven enough Boxsters to know how good they are.
V6s: once again, plenty of V6s driven but the only two I’ve owned were a Sierra XR4x4 and a Vectra V6 SRi that I bought in a hurry.
V8s: owned a Range Rover and a Daimler V8 250 over the years, both of which I loved and both of which sounded great. Had to deliver an E39 M5 once, which left me cold and unimpressed. Rolls-Royce and Bentley V8s were always a joy. As were Ferrari V8s in the 308 and Mondial that I've driven.
V12s: never owned one but have driven a few V12 S Classes over the years. Never tried a Jaguar V12, in fairness. Nor a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin etc.
Rotaries: owned an RX7 for a while, until the rust became too serious to ignore. Loved the engine, hated the fuel economy.
Opposed-piston valveless, supercharged uniflow scavenged, two-stroke diesel: OK so I was in the driving cab rather than actually driving, but a short cab ride in a Class 55 Deltic locomotive was certainly a highlight. 18 cylinders, each with 2 pistons and just over 88 litres capacity. And it had 2 of them. Awesome.
I have never owned a V4. I have now put that right.
I'll work on the next instalment over the coming few days, but in the meantime below is something I wrote on the evening I bought the car, in that weird state between excitement about a new car, and "Oh God, what have I done?" panic. I was considering the different engine configurations I'd driven over the years. Feel free to agree / disagree with any views expressed, and add your own experiences to fill any gaps.
What engine configurations have you owned or driven over the years?
I was thinking this a while back when I was half looking at something a little “different” that I missed out on due to needing to use my garage as storage space during some building work.
My own tally, from smallest to largest:
Single: I have never owned or driven a single cylinder car. Does a Briggs & Stratton lawn mower count?
Flat twin: owned a couple of 2CVs, for which I have a lot of respect and love. I bought one for Mrs Banana once that ran for a week with no alternator drive belt, only failing to proceed when driven at night because the lights drained the battery. It did catch fire on the way to the scrapyard when its time was up, but that’s a story for another day. Have also driven a couple of FIAT 500s and a 126 with inline twins.
Triples: never owned one but driven a few Ford Focuses which were excellent, and some older Daihatsus, which were not. The worst was the 1.5 diesel triple Hyundai saw fit to burden the Getz and Accent with – what were they thinking?
Inline fours: hundreds, literally hundreds either owned or driven. Too many to write about. Petrol and diesel. Next!
Flat fours: never owned a VW flat four but did once own an Alfasud that caught fire on the way to Snetterton and was swiftly moved on. Loved it, but it tried to kill me. Unimpressed by Imprezas, ironically.
Inline fives: Yup, driven many Audis and owned a Ford S-Max with the 2.5T from the Focus / various Volvos in it. That went well and was surprisingly close to the diesel that followed it in terms of economy.
V5s: drove a couple of Golfs and a Passat with the narrow-angle 5. They were OK, but no faster than the 1.8 turbos and significantly more thirsty.
Inline sixes: again, more BMWs than I care to remember. Did have a Triumph GT6 recently, which was fun if a little unaccommodating.
Flat sixes: not as much experience with Porsches as I’d like, but driven enough Boxsters to know how good they are.
V6s: once again, plenty of V6s driven but the only two I’ve owned were a Sierra XR4x4 and a Vectra V6 SRi that I bought in a hurry.
V8s: owned a Range Rover and a Daimler V8 250 over the years, both of which I loved and both of which sounded great. Had to deliver an E39 M5 once, which left me cold and unimpressed. Rolls-Royce and Bentley V8s were always a joy. As were Ferrari V8s in the 308 and Mondial that I've driven.
V12s: never owned one but have driven a few V12 S Classes over the years. Never tried a Jaguar V12, in fairness. Nor a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin etc.
Rotaries: owned an RX7 for a while, until the rust became too serious to ignore. Loved the engine, hated the fuel economy.
Opposed-piston valveless, supercharged uniflow scavenged, two-stroke diesel: OK so I was in the driving cab rather than actually driving, but a short cab ride in a Class 55 Deltic locomotive was certainly a highlight. 18 cylinders, each with 2 pistons and just over 88 litres capacity. And it had 2 of them. Awesome.
I have never owned a V4. I have now put that right.
Why do Italian car names sound so sexy?
The Fulvia was named after the Via Fulvia – in turn named after Quintus Fulvius, who built it in 179BCE – which was a Roman road that ran from Piacenza to Rivoli, near Turin. The same naming convention brought us the Lancias Appia, Aurelia, Flaminia and Flavia. The British equivalent would probably be the Morris Newbury Bypass, Austin Mornington Crescent or Ford Heads of the Valleys.
Buying an Italian car from an Italian was a lot of fun. Not only was I able to learn that it’s pronounced more like fool-vyah than full-veer as we Brits tend to say, but I also learned how Antonio came by the car.
It was first registered in Palermo, Sicily. I haven’t been through and translated it all yet, but there’s a huge file of paperwork pertaining to its early life on the island. Most importantly, its original Palermo registration number is known: PA 393833. Antonio did confess that he tried to retain its plates but was unable to. I tasked my son, Theo, with researching and making a set of replicas as I am unwilling to spend what online suppliers are asking for “genuine” replicas. He's studying to be a graphic designer and I think he did a great job:
We’ll use these for car shows etc, just to add interest.
By 2020 the car had made its way to Tuscany, from where Antonio bought it during lockdown. He arranged a road trip once the travel ban was lifted. He went over to Italy with a mate and drove the car back, across the Alps. His mate has no mechanical sympathy and cooked the brakes, but I took heart from the fact that they had no other mechanical dramas.
Back in the UK, the DVLA registration process was completed and the car entered circulation, albeit infrequently. Changes to the seller’s domestic arrangements meant the loss of garage space, hence the sale.
Easter came and went, while I organised agreed-value insurance and waited for the owner of the premises where the car was stored to get back from Poland. I’d paid for the car in full, against my better judgement, but to their great credit everybody in the process was genuine, honest and open and I collected the car with Theo on the Saturday after Easter. First job: get it home.
Here I should confess that, due to insurance limitations, I hadn’t driven the car by this point. My first experience of it would be escaping from Cambridge followed by a 60-mile drive home. I packed a few tools and checked oil and water before we set off – all looked good.
Fortunately I have previous experience both of left hand drive cars in the UK, and with dogleg gearboxes, so although there was the usual pre-match nerves ahead of any first drive in an old car, I was on familiar turf.
Due to continuing road closures on the A428, I was forced to head back to Milton Vegas through Royston, which at least meant speeds would be kept low. The car coped fine, keeping up with traffic without bother and drawing a few admiring glances (I tried to convince Theo that lady passengers were looking at the driver not the car – he wasn’t buying that). Gradually we grew in confidence and roads opened up a bit so speeds increased.
The last few miles were on dual carriageway, which is where we both noticed a pungent smell. Once I’d established that Theo hadn’t farted, we concluded that we had a binding brake (which, to be fair, was one the MoT advisories). We pulled into a lay-by and quickly determined it was the offside rear. We waited a few minutes, had a pee behind a hedge and waved to a beautiful Alfa Giulia that sped past. I plotted a route home using the back roads and was able to get off the A421 at the next junction. Ten minutes later we were home, the rear wheel having seemingly cooled down a bit – it looks like the binding brake might be one of those intermittent faults.
After a quick espresso I decided to get a coat of polish on the paintwork and clean the grubby glass. It looked beautiful after that and I popped it in the garage. Unable to use it on Sunday due to family commitments, my next journey was its first commute to work on Monday morning, which it coped with admirably. My work car park is barrier-controlled, necessitating the swipe of a pass card which is tricky with left hand drive. Fortunately I’m quite tall and can just reach out of the passenger side window from the driver’s seat – my contingency might be to buy one of those litter-picker grabber things.
I did a little research on tyre pressures yesterday and checked them on the way home: to be fair, they were evenly matched across the axles and only varied from my target pressures by 1psi, indicating decent maintenance, in my experience. On the way back from Tesco forecourt I got stuck in traffic for about 15 mins: the fan kicked in perfectly and the car kept its cool. Not bad for a 51-year-old!
Obligatory “small car in the works car park” shot:
The to-do list so far is keep an eye on / arrange for someone to sort the intermittent brake binding and swap-out the nasty black wiper blades for some chrome ones. And just drive it. As I write this I'm on my third day commuting in the car and it's great fun!
I’ll get some better pictures when I have the chance: apart from the above, those seen so far are all from the eBay advert.
Ciao!
The Fulvia was named after the Via Fulvia – in turn named after Quintus Fulvius, who built it in 179BCE – which was a Roman road that ran from Piacenza to Rivoli, near Turin. The same naming convention brought us the Lancias Appia, Aurelia, Flaminia and Flavia. The British equivalent would probably be the Morris Newbury Bypass, Austin Mornington Crescent or Ford Heads of the Valleys.
Buying an Italian car from an Italian was a lot of fun. Not only was I able to learn that it’s pronounced more like fool-vyah than full-veer as we Brits tend to say, but I also learned how Antonio came by the car.
It was first registered in Palermo, Sicily. I haven’t been through and translated it all yet, but there’s a huge file of paperwork pertaining to its early life on the island. Most importantly, its original Palermo registration number is known: PA 393833. Antonio did confess that he tried to retain its plates but was unable to. I tasked my son, Theo, with researching and making a set of replicas as I am unwilling to spend what online suppliers are asking for “genuine” replicas. He's studying to be a graphic designer and I think he did a great job:
We’ll use these for car shows etc, just to add interest.
By 2020 the car had made its way to Tuscany, from where Antonio bought it during lockdown. He arranged a road trip once the travel ban was lifted. He went over to Italy with a mate and drove the car back, across the Alps. His mate has no mechanical sympathy and cooked the brakes, but I took heart from the fact that they had no other mechanical dramas.
Back in the UK, the DVLA registration process was completed and the car entered circulation, albeit infrequently. Changes to the seller’s domestic arrangements meant the loss of garage space, hence the sale.
Easter came and went, while I organised agreed-value insurance and waited for the owner of the premises where the car was stored to get back from Poland. I’d paid for the car in full, against my better judgement, but to their great credit everybody in the process was genuine, honest and open and I collected the car with Theo on the Saturday after Easter. First job: get it home.
Here I should confess that, due to insurance limitations, I hadn’t driven the car by this point. My first experience of it would be escaping from Cambridge followed by a 60-mile drive home. I packed a few tools and checked oil and water before we set off – all looked good.
Fortunately I have previous experience both of left hand drive cars in the UK, and with dogleg gearboxes, so although there was the usual pre-match nerves ahead of any first drive in an old car, I was on familiar turf.
Due to continuing road closures on the A428, I was forced to head back to Milton Vegas through Royston, which at least meant speeds would be kept low. The car coped fine, keeping up with traffic without bother and drawing a few admiring glances (I tried to convince Theo that lady passengers were looking at the driver not the car – he wasn’t buying that). Gradually we grew in confidence and roads opened up a bit so speeds increased.
The last few miles were on dual carriageway, which is where we both noticed a pungent smell. Once I’d established that Theo hadn’t farted, we concluded that we had a binding brake (which, to be fair, was one the MoT advisories). We pulled into a lay-by and quickly determined it was the offside rear. We waited a few minutes, had a pee behind a hedge and waved to a beautiful Alfa Giulia that sped past. I plotted a route home using the back roads and was able to get off the A421 at the next junction. Ten minutes later we were home, the rear wheel having seemingly cooled down a bit – it looks like the binding brake might be one of those intermittent faults.
After a quick espresso I decided to get a coat of polish on the paintwork and clean the grubby glass. It looked beautiful after that and I popped it in the garage. Unable to use it on Sunday due to family commitments, my next journey was its first commute to work on Monday morning, which it coped with admirably. My work car park is barrier-controlled, necessitating the swipe of a pass card which is tricky with left hand drive. Fortunately I’m quite tall and can just reach out of the passenger side window from the driver’s seat – my contingency might be to buy one of those litter-picker grabber things.
I did a little research on tyre pressures yesterday and checked them on the way home: to be fair, they were evenly matched across the axles and only varied from my target pressures by 1psi, indicating decent maintenance, in my experience. On the way back from Tesco forecourt I got stuck in traffic for about 15 mins: the fan kicked in perfectly and the car kept its cool. Not bad for a 51-year-old!
Obligatory “small car in the works car park” shot:
The to-do list so far is keep an eye on / arrange for someone to sort the intermittent brake binding and swap-out the nasty black wiper blades for some chrome ones. And just drive it. As I write this I'm on my third day commuting in the car and it's great fun!
I’ll get some better pictures when I have the chance: apart from the above, those seen so far are all from the eBay advert.
Ciao!
richardracer said:
It looks like you missed v10 from your list. Some nice Audis, BMWs, Lambos etc to choose from. Following your posts with interest.
Good point, and yes - I did miss that. Never driven one though. I almost got the chance to drive a Dodge Viper many years ago, but circumstances (including the petrol tanker drivers' strike of 2000/2001) dictated otherwise.
Lovely Fulvia OP, great details shared so far and good to see her 'out in the wild' - amazing how petite these are compared to even a 'small car' by today's standards!
Also re: V10s, the best I tried was a manual R8 V10, the 2004 Gallardo I had wasn't bad but the interior of the Audi made it a nicer place to be and a nicer road car.
Also re: V10s, the best I tried was a manual R8 V10, the 2004 Gallardo I had wasn't bad but the interior of the Audi made it a nicer place to be and a nicer road car.
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