Readers' Photos # 102: Lancia Fulvia HF

The Upper Middle Petrol Head correspondents have really been earning their big bucks packages of late, especially when it comes to bringing us some truly beautiful Italian cars. The Canberra office has come through with some rippers, including a Lancia Fulvia Sport, not one but two Alfetta Sportivos, and a magnificent Alfa Montreal! Not to be outdone, Tasmania's East Coast branch of the UMPH publishing conglomerate has shone, filing copy of four lovely Fiat Dino Spyders captured in the seaside town of Swansea.

The Canberra Bureau has hit back with today's submission, a stunning Fulvia HF! Some quick Wiki-taxonomy suggests that it's probably a circa 1970 Series 2 (Tipo 818.740/741), as its headlights are evenly sized - meaning it's not a Fanalone or "big lights" version with the accompanying double entendre mammalian protuberance allusions - and it has slightly flared mudguards, rather than the earlier plastic bolt-ons (which also isn't a reference to breasts!).

While many people are more likely to goo and gah over the Stratos or the equally awesome HF Integrale, I'm absolutely enchanted by the simple beauty of the Fulvia coupe. For my money - not that I could afford one, even if they were readily available - the coupe is the very most perfect Lancia of them all, even outgunning their Zagato-styled sibling, the Sport. How can a car be so evocatively '60s and yet simultaneously timeless?!

I'm really, really hoping to see this car in April this year at Auto Italia. For anyone that's not aware, the event organisers have moved the venue from what's currently a drive-through Covid-19 testing station in Canberra to Queanbeyan, NSW, which is just outside the ACT's border.

U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

Images by the Canberra Correspondent.

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