I recently purchased some Lancia Fulvia documents on a CD and included was a whole swathe of Fulvia photography – the sort of stuff I used to scour the internet for in the Saab days. Press photos, advertisements, artistic interpretations. All sorts of stuff.
So welcome to Fulvia Friday.
I’ll kick things off with this interesting Fulvia from the Turin Motor Show in 1966. No, I don’t want to paint mine in this colour scheme, but I’m really glad that somebody did. There’s something very 60’s and quite cool about it.
I haven’t written anything about any new-ish cars in a while, but a few stories this week caught my eye so I thought I’d share them here.
Koenigsegg #1
The first Koenigsegg One:1 production car was registered in Germany this week. From Koenigsegg’s Facebook page:
The process highlighted an interesting technicality – the German registration system could only input power values up to three digits in kW. The One:1 pushed Germany to reconfigure their system to handle the first Megacar!
The One:1 famously has 1000kW power output, which is what the German system couldn’t handle. I wonder how this database fared with the Y2K issue all those years ago 🙂
At some point, some company is going to make an autonomous human to get excited about watching this.
Why is the car industry so intent on killing interest in its own product?
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New Cars and Racing Stripes
I’m trying so hard to be Zen about cars, but sometimes……
What do you think about new cars and racing livery?
My theory:
Racing livery looks good on old cars.
Racing livery looks OK on new cars if they’re actually racing.
Racing livery is OK for support vehicles of those new racing cars.
Racing livery on new cars that aren’t actually used for racing just looks like you’re trying a bit too hard.
BMW M4 owners who want to look like they’re trying a bit too hard now have a limited edition factory car to suit their needs. It’s called the M4 DTM Champion Edition and it’s fair to say that it’s not particularly subtle.
There are only 23 of these DTM Champion Edition cars for sale but I have to wonder….
The M4 is quite an attractive looking car in standard form. Surely there aren’t 23 people with such poor taste as to want to deck out a very nice looking M4 in racing stripes when they’re not actually using the car for racing.
Surely such people don’t actually exist, do they?
Racing stripes should be left for old cars or actual racing cars.
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Porsche 911 Prices
If you’ve been watching classic car prices then you’ll know that 911 prices have ‘enjoyed’ a steep rise in the last few years.
You know I’m big on car photography, right? Especially if you’re selling your car. There’s nothing worse than an ad for a nice car that has crappy photos.
OK, there are many things worse than that. A lobotomy is worse than that. But only just.
If you want some good tips on taking great car photos, you can’t do better than this article at Hemmings. It has lots of great tips on choosing the right background, choosing the right focal length and exposure, preparing the car and lots of other things.
Recommended reading.
NB. I know I break most of these rules at Classics every month, but then I don’t get to choose the setting or the time of day.
Better late than never! And as I’ll be away for November’s Classics in a few weeks time, consider this a bridge to December. Yes, December. Already. And there are only 65 days until Christmas, apparently. Yikes!
This month at Classics saw the usual mix of regular and ‘new’ attendees. Alfa Romeo is my marque of interest this month, for reasons that’ll become clear below.
But first…..
Herbie was here. Love the eyebrows….
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It’s the first time I’d seen a Peugeot RCZ here at Classics, with it’s Zagato-esque double-bubble roof.
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A guy I’ve met recently at Classics emailed me a month or so ago and told me he had a new V4 project going. Naturally, I was thinking Lancia or Saab. I was closer than you think with Saab 🙂
Yes, this camper van has the same V4 engine that powered a lot of older Saab cars. It’s wearing its original paint and insides, and has some fascinating history behind it. I’ll get around to a detailed story on this one at some stage though I must confess, this van’s younger garage-mate will probably be covered first. It’s also powered by a Ford engine, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end 🙂
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Some clown bought this along 🙂
A few less dents and a bit more polish and maybe it could be a future classic.
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What I would have given to see a Devo hat on the front seat!
Whippet.
Whippet good!
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I’m not used to seeing a Triumph in yellow, but I have to say it IS a triumph in yellow.
Wonderful.
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I’ve wanted a Jaguar XJ6 since I was a teenager. I still do, but it’s slipped down the list a bit.
Nowadays I get more and more drawn to predecessor Jags, though. I’ve never driven one or even ridden in one but every time I see one like this, I want to. I’m going to seek out an owner soon and say hello, I think.
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This is one of the first oval-dashboard Porsche 944’s. Known as a 1985.5 model.
I’m still more partial to the 944 shape than to my own (former) 968 shape, to be honest. I think it’s the covered headlamps that do it for me.
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There was a decidedly Italian flavour at Classics this month. I’ll show you three nice Alfas in a minute, but here’s a few of the other Italians in attendance.
Ferrari 308 and a couple of Fiat X19’s. The black one has a bit more pep than your regular X19, courtesy of an engine transplant that sees a Toyota twin-cam 1600 engine amidships. Having driven a similar engine more than a few times in a Corolla at home, I can only imagine how much fun it’d be in this X19.
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Alfa Romeo #1
I’ve featured this Giulietta a few times before. I can’t help but photograph it when it’s there, though, so here are some more…..
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Alfa Romeo #2
We had an Alfa SZ at Classics! I saw my first SZ (in real life) in Sweden back in 2011 and the presence these cars bring to any event is just amazing. Such a pleasure to view.
And there’s one for sale here in Australia right now, too.
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Alfa Romeo #3
Most Alfa’s have a reputation for exciting driving and jaw-dropping beauty. To be honest, though, it’s hard to apply both of those descriptors to the Alfa Romeo 145.
But it was exciting to see the 145 here this month because they weren’t sold here in Australia. This is a rare-as-hens-teeth import that a friend here in Hobart purchased recently.
Even more exciting (for me) is the fact that this is the 16V Boxer-engined model. The 145 was the last car to use Alfa’s beautiful boxer engine – basically an evolution of the engines used in my Alfa 33’s. Later 145’s featured Alfa’s twin-spark engine. The big DTM-style exhaust gave this boxer a very nice note, too.
The word from the owner is that the 145 is actually a very refined drive compared to the 33 but still has wonderful handling that Alfas are known for.
A very unique pick-up, that one.
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That’s all for this month. As mentioned at the top, I’ll miss Classics in November (sadly) but will be back in December.
Imagine it’s 11:58 on your personal doomsday clock. You’ve got a heart condition and you’re due for surgery. Tomorrow.
Being a strong spirited type and knowing that your time might be limited, you decide to dress up and head out for a night at your favourite jazz club. Jazz is what you love most in all the world and if you’re going to check out, then you’ll go on your own terms.
The band gets up to play and to your surprise, you find that the lead musician – the trumpet player – is your heart surgeon. And he’s HOT. It’s like he’s channelling the spirit of Miles Davis himself. You can’t believe what you’re hearing and it fills you with hope to know that the man who will take your life in his hands tomorrow is so in tune with your passion.
After the first set, the band steps down for some dinner. You wait a respectful 20 minutes or so but you have to get home at a reasonable hour, so you head on over to the band’s table to congratulate Dr Davis on the best set of jazz you’ve heard in your life.
As you arrive, the good doctor is thumping his fists on the table because his $5,000 glasses just fell off his nose and into his fillet steak. The whole table’s laughing but your doctor is mad as hell before he sees the funny side for himself. As you look down to examine this odd occurrence, you notice that this tender fillet of beef hasn’t been delicately cut and consumed. You might have expected that from a surgeon, but no. In fact, there are shreds of beef all over his plate. Maybe he got a blunt knife? Who knows? But for whatever reason, the steak looks like it’s been set upon and torn up by a couple of hungry dogs.
The whole situation is a little bit slapstick. “Imagine those glasses just falling off his nose and into that messed up meat”, you think. “What a laugh!”
You go home and sleep soundly on what might be the last night of your life. Why? Because despite the fact that your heart surgeon might be a bit clumsy with both his utensils and his food, he sure can play a mean horn!
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NEVS/Saab survived their creditors meeting earlier this month and earned a stay of execution to continue their business reorganisation plans. During that creditors meeting they outlined what they called “Plan B” – a totally new element to their business plan involving the potential to offer technical services to other OEMs as well as adapting the Trollhattan factory to build cars for other OEMs. It’s not written in stone. It’s something they say that they can do without, if necessary. But it’s there.
Saab’s business plan has been quite fluid since NEVS took over. In the beginning, they were gung-ho on going fully electric. Then NEVS took on a 22% shareholder who – they have recently claimed – insisted that Saab produce petrol-driven vehicles for immediate use. Consequently, NEVS swung its resources into resurrecting the Saab 9-3 only to have the 22% investor fail to honour their contract while new 9-3’s sat in the factory car park with very-close-to-zero interest from buyers.
Now the business plan has a new, slightly desperate element. Well, it’s new for NEVS but not totally new for Trollhattan.
Spending time on the viability of Plan B is a bit like our heart patient at the top of this article. It misses the point. It’s fundamentally irrelevant. The court knows it. The suppliers/creditors know it and NEVS knows it, too. Plan B is merely complimentary information included for the sake of saying “we’re trying everything” while they continue to talk with their two Asian [potential] investors. It purchases time and nothing else.
The real issue here – the one that creditors are hoping NEVS can solve – is the issue of ownership and management. I think it’s only by changing the ownership and management structure of NEVS that the creditors can hope to see their debts collected.
Kai Johan Jiang was let down by his Chinese investor and he’s been burning cash trying to keep things afloat. NEVS spent bundles of money on a car it can’t sell while slowing development on its key technologies – the Phoenix platform and vehicle electrification. Qingbo might have let NEVS down but the bottom line still tells you a few things:
NEVS market intuition wasn’t keen enough to realise that a petrol-driven 9-3 would be a complete sales disaster.
NEVS management voice wasn’t strong enough to resist Qingbo’s urging for a petrol driven vehicle and stick to its plans.
That NEVS was able to build a 9-3 that motoring journalists in Sweden described as being quite capable is intellectually interesting but ultimately, irrelevant.
The only thing that NEVS had to do, the only thing that NEVS had to prove, was that it could live up to its promise of building a premium electric vehicle. Anything aside from that was, and still is, a distraction from the core reason the company was established.
As always with car companies, it all comes down to the product. You can position a company any way you want in the public eye but if you haven’t got a good product that people want to buy, you’re toast.
Building that product is a tough gig. I’ve said a million times that there are no fingersnap solutions in the car business (and by the way, “Plan B” is no fingersnap solution, either. The logistics involved are mammoth, which is one of the reasons I count it as a mere smokescreen to buy more negotiating time). Designing a car and its component parts takes time and LOTS of money. Right or wrong, NEVS got distracted from that tough gig. Whether the company would have succeeded anyway is a matter for debate but only as another intellectual exercise.
What matters now depends on your point of view.
If you’re KJJ, you want to keep your shirt on.
If you’re a supplier, you want to get the money that’s owed to you.
If you’re a Saab fan, you want to see meaningful vehicles being developed and built in Trollhattan in the future.
If you’re a potential investor, you want……… something that we don’t really know right now.
From here, though, the best way for most of these things to happen is a change of ownership to someone with the management skills and the resources to make something meaningful out of this mess. The upper level of NEVS management has neither the skill set or the resources to have meaningful success with the Saab facility at Trollhattan.
The decision to extend NEVS’s time in reorganisation had nothing whatsoever to do with Plan B or anything else to do with product plans, etc. If you believe it did then IMHO you’re missing the point. The decision to extend, again IMHO, was to allow time for an outcome that gives people what they need the most – a change in ownership and management.
With the whole guitar thing going on, there hasn’t been much time to play with the Lancia Fulvia but we got a little time today. It was Classics By The Beach in the morning, followed by a little Fiat X19 time with Geoff and a friend who came over to give us the benefit of his experience with the car – thanks Ant!
After lunch, Geoff and I decided to get working on the Fulvia. I was keen to get a look under its skin to see the real extent of what we’ve got to fix and as expected, there’s plenty to do.
Basically, what we did today was strip out the easy bits of the interior. The seats came out, the seat belts, and then the rubber matting on the floor. The rubber matting had a fibrous underlay underneath and that was a combination of easy and hard to remove. It was easy to remove where the floor was rusted, but harder to remove where the floor was solid. It was mostly easy to remove 🙁
Bottom line: there’s plenty of rust in the floor of the car. The rust has gone right through to become small holes in some places. The rust continues on into the front footwells, too, which was a little further along than I thought would be.
Deep down, I expected this. But an inspection of the floor from underneath had me holding out some remote hope that things wouldn’t be too bad.
The good news is that the box-type framing that surrounds the floor sections seems to be pretty good. I’m still living in hope that the subframe that supports the engine is OK.
New, replacement floor sections are readily available from a various suppliers, as are the inner and outer sills. You just have to buy them and get them shipped, which is a reasonable amount of money. Now that I know how bad it is, I guess I can proceed with that order.
Here are some photos from Sunday’s “Fun With The Lancia Fulvia.”
This might just be the best video Petrolicious has ever made.
The car is an Alfa Romeo Sprint Speciale from 1965 and it was built especially for the La Carrera Panamericana race through Mexico. There’s plenty of driving footage to see and it’s a wonder to behold. In fact, it’s so wonderful it makes you wish there was no owner’s story to tell. Just give me more driving!!
For me, this video sums up the soul of Alfa Romeo. I hope he calls in the stylists and the engineers and says “This is your brief. Do this for a modern Alfa Romeo”.
That’d be fine by me.
Put it on widescreen and turn the driving footage up loud!
Jay Leno gets all sorts of cool stuff coming through his garage. Most of it he owns, but occasionally he brings in someone else’s car to show it off. Such is the case with this Lancia Fulvia Sport.
The video is around 25 minutes long and provides a great overview to the Fulvia, albeit with the alternate Zagato body.
For those unfamiliar, this is basically the same as my Fulvia, but Lancia had Zagato build some bodies for them until 1972. This is one of those cars. Mine is the regular coupe made by Lancia itself (they made a sedan called the Berlina, too, but that’s another story).
Anyway, the main difference is in the body styling. Underneath, it’s basically the same car.
Things have been busy with my guitar building course taking up so much time, so it’s been hard to find time to do anything with my new Lancia Fulvia.
Here are the first photos of the car. I haven’t cleaned up a single thing yet so you’re seeing it warts and all. It was good to finally take a close look at everything. There’s a LOT of work to do but having looked the car over pretty closely, I feel even more confident that it can all be done. It’s just a matter of time and money. I have plenty of the first. Hopefully I have enough of the second.
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Exterior
The red paint is not original and will eventually be replaced. My current thinking is a dark-ish blue. The paint’s in poor condition and who-knows-how-much bog is underneath. The car was first described to me as having had more hits that Frank Sinatra and whilst it appears straight, I ear it’s true.
Here’s a telltale worrying sign – the crooked grin on the front. The left side seems to be slightly lower than the right.
You can also see some misalignment with this view down the side of the car with the door not quite matching the rest of the car:
There are a few spots of rust apparent, mostly in the sills and likely in the floor. Both were expected and new replacement metal can be ordered easily enough. From what I can see, the all-important subframe appears to be intact.
Here are some more external photos:
At first I thought the windscreen was intact but then noticed a crack when I was sitting inside the car. I’m sure I can get one eventually but the price will be interesting!
Much of the brightwork is OK. The window trims, for instance, are quite good and can be retained. The stainless steel trim around the boot is pretty dented, however, and hard to replace. The dents in this headlamp trim (below) might be hard to see, but are significant.
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Engine Bay
This little Lancia Fulvia played host to some rats for some period of time and they seemed to like using the privacy of the engine bay for their toileting. Rat poo abounds! I restored a little of the Fulvia’s dignity by sweeping what I could out by hand after taking these photos but I’ll need to haul a vacuum cleaner (and a very long extension lead) up to the front yard soon to clean out the rest.
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The boot (trunk)
We’ve removed the boot lid and the inside’s not terminal, but not exactly pretty either.
I peeled away some of the material covering the fuel tank and noticed a tiny little hole peering back at me. I’m not sure if it can be repaired (I’d like to keep as much of the original fittings as possible) so that might be another replacement item.
The Interior
There’s plenty to do on the inside, too. The seats need reupholstering, the dash needs some new timber as well as re-covering or replacement of the top pad, and who-knows what state the wiring’s in? The roof lining appeared to be intact at first glance but soon revealed a 1cm hole above the passenger seat. The wooden steering wheel has a number of small cracks in the timber but I’ve been thinking of replacing that with a Sandro Munari two-spoke wheel anyway. All the brightwork is intact, which is a bonus.
Dismantling the interior will be the first job I do in a couple of weekends from now.
The shagpile rear parcel shelf came out quickly and is now in the bin 🙂
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When we first got the car home we set to work finding out why the boot lid was stuck up in the air. We managed to squeeze our arms inside and undo the hinge bolts to remove the lid and found that the hinges were stuck fast. We got one moving a little with some Penetrene but the other still won’t budge. Dismantling comes next.
I’ve also started applying some Penetrene to the cylinders to help un-stick the engine. This will be a long process, so I’m putting a little more in every few days to let it soak. The engine will have to come out anyway for dismantling but at least it feels like I’m doing something to contribute to the process in these early stages.
That’s your introductory look for now, a warts-and-all view of the Lancia Fulvia I’ve just bought. There’s not much I can do myself in terms of proper repair but dismantling, some preparation work and then reassembly should be within my meagre abilities.
When I advertised my Porsche 968CS for sale a month or so ago, I did it expecting that I’d still have another good 6 months or so with the car. Having watched 968’s and other Porsches online for so long, I knew that most of them hang around for a very long time. There’s a 968 on carsales right now that was advertised before I bought mine, more than a year ago!
I thought I’d have more time with the car, but it was not to be. This morning, I sold the 968 to a wonderful bloke from New South Wales who has 40 years racing experience in various classes. The 968 won’t have a hard life in Mike’s care, but I’m sure he’s going to enjoy it to the fullest.
This is my final photo, taken minutes before Mike began the long drive home.
Why sell the 968?
I got a few questions from friends about selling this car. Why would I do it? There are a few reasons.
First – and it’s one of life’s big ironies – is that we’re planning to build a big garage at the front of our house. Selling the 968 to add some funds to the kitty is my way of showing Mrs Swade (and myself) that I’m serious about the project. So yes, I sold the 968 in order to build a house for cars like the 968 that will come in the future!
Second, some of the funds will go towards of the restoration of the car that I brought home today….
My Lancia Fulvia.
It was pure serendipity that I managed to sell my ‘old’ car on the same day that I planned to bring the ‘new’ one home. It’s pure stupidity that my old one is much newer than my new one. And the old one runs. The old one has a boot lid that closes. The old one doesn’t have any rust. And the old one has keys (yes, I bought a Lancia that doesn’t have any keys).
Today was a busy day. I had a couple of hours with Mike, showing him the 968 and taking care of the paperwork this morning, before picking up a car trailer with my stepson Geoff and heading off to pick up our ‘new’ cars.
After a bit of messing about – and a big dollop of help from some friends who have done this sort of thing before – Geoff and I managed to get our new vehicles home.
The Fulvia has inched its way into my heart already. I absolutely love it, even if all I can do is sit in it. In fact, in the event it’s deemed to be a totally (maniacally) unviable proposition, it may well hang around as some sort of super-sculture in our garden. It really is that pretty.
I’ll start tooling around with it tomorrow afternoon. My first job is to try to get the boot lid closed as the hinges seem to be frozen with the lid raised around 5 inches.
Geoff’s Fiat X1/9
My Fulvia and Geoff’s Fiat were purchased from a deceased estate. They are, in essence, a pair of real-life barn finds, covered in dust and even some hay (seriously!). The deceased was a wealthy man who bought all sorts of fun cars that took his fancy. They were often left sitting when they fell out of favour. Given that he had so many interesting cars, the vast majority of them have very low mileage. You can only drive them one at a time, right?
Where my Lancia is quite derelict and in need of a complete restoration, the Fiat X1/9 that Geoff bought is in superb, original condition and shouldn’t need too much work to re-commission. It’s an early model with small bumpers and the 1300 engine and it’s done only 45,000kms – and yes, we have some records to support this 🙂
My apologies for the dark, garage shots, but have a look…..
Getting the car into our garage at home was quite a challenge. It hasn’t been run for around 10 years and we weren’t going to fire it up today, so we had to roll it down my drive using my Subaru Brumby as a top-side anchor to stop it crashing through the back of the garage. The car was hampered by stuck brakes, too, so while we had to stop it from rolling down the hill with the Brumby, we also had friends pushing it down the hill to actually get it to move. It was quite a production!
In fact, the Brumby turned out to be quite a star today. We didn’t use it to tow the car trailer but we did use it as an agile little tow vehicle once we got the cars home and it did a wonderful job. Again.
Conclusion
24 hours ago my automotive world was completely different to how it is today. It’s amazing what a difference a day can make.
I’m really sad to have sold the Porsche so early in its sale campaign. I really came to love that car and my respect for the Porsche brand and their pursuit of excellence is through the roof. I plan to add a 928 to the family in due course, sooner rather than later.
But…. to balance that sadness is a fair bit of excitement.
I’m really, really excited about Geoff’s Fiat. I think he got an absolute ripper of a car and it’s going to be fun messing around with him in the garage on that one.
I’m also really excited to have my very own Fulvia and some money to get the restoration underway. There’s SO much to be done with this car but as long as it proves to be a viable candidate for restoration, it’s going to be a barrel of fun. I can’t wait to get it started.
If your day was even half as good as mine was today then you must have a smile from ear to ear 🙂
