Auto Italia, 2021, Part 3: The Lancias

-


Things (I think) I know about Lancias without resorting to Google:  Lancia was once its own brand but, at some time in maybe the late 1970s or early 1980s, they were subsumed by Fiat and started sharing platforms and mechanicals with their new step-siblings.  Lancias were considered to be quite high-end, generally offering more luxury than Fiats.  The then all-conquering Lancia Stratos was dumped by Fiat Group executives as the company's numero uno rally car, in favour of the sedan-based Fiat 131 Abarth.  This made Lancia lovers quite irritable, which was probably fair enough, although the 131 in Abarth form was actually pretty kick-arse in its own right.  HF stands for High Fidelity and has nothing to do with stereophonics (maybe I learned this from Google ages and ages ago).  Blue, and sometimes red, elephants are somehow HiFi (maybe Google also helped me with this).  The colour red really, really suits Lancias, especially when it's teamed with yellow on, say, a rocker cover or something seemingly innocuous like that.  There is no collective noun for a group of Lancia aficionados.           


And so it was that - armed with scant, if not a decidedly apocryphal understanding of the marque - Angus of the Canberra Bureau and I set about trying to photograph as many of these magnificent cars as possible, sometimes doubling up as we did our blue-arsed fly impersonations at Auto Italia, 2021.  What follows is a medley of both our photos taken from a big, undifferentiated data-dump to the UMPH iPad that the editor in chief is too lazy to sort through.  We hope that you enjoy them!








































U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

Photos by Alastair and Angus (and maybe even Gregor, but I'm not sure).








































 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EJ or EH Holden? (Up-dated December, 2022)

-
Image
EJ or the later EH? Several years ago, I posed the question:  Can somebody please explain the difference between an EJ and an EH Holden ute or van?  The response at the time wasn't overwhelming, so I did a bit of Googling and ferreting through my photos and came up with my own rough guide to EJ and EH identification.  Sedans and wagons are easy to tell apart ;  the EH's vertical rectangular tail lights are a dead give-away.  However, the workhorse versions of both models share the rear-end treatment of the earlier EJ, making it harder to identify one from the other.    No super obvious hints here. Or here ...  . It turns out that the main clues are in the placement of the front   H O L D E N   lettering and GMH lion emblems, the style of the radiator grille and the width of the vents in front of the windscreen, with all EJs - sedans, wagons, utes and vans - having one combination and the EH line-up having th...
Read more

An Electric Fiat X1/9

-
Image
For several years, there have been whispers that an electric X had been constructed in Tasmania's south.  However, no one seemed to know much about the car and how it had been built. That's not to say that it was some kind of skunkworks project; it seems to have simply been an under-the-radar affair, quietly put together by a bloke in his shed.  It was actually so U-T-R that I'd seen it at least twice without me realising that it'd been electrified. The car's since been sold but this is what I could glean from its current owner:  - It's a 1980 model and, as such, was delivered to Australia as a "Series 1.5," meaning that it originally had the Series 1's 1300 cc / four-speed in a Series 2 body with impact-absorbing bumpers and the higher engine compartment lid, as well as the latter's interior; - The motor is a 120 volt DC unit from US company Advanced Motors and Drives, rated at 10 HP / 7.355 kW ( http://evalbum.com/advdc , accessed 03 JUN 24);...
Read more

Random # 301: Nanna-Spec KE36 Corolla

-
Image
  Once upon a time - six or seven years ago, actually - there was a lovely pale yellow GC Galant station wagon getting around Hobart.  It was totally nanna-spec; its paint was umarked, the chrome work and hubcaps were immaculate, and its very original interior was pristine. Then someone stuck feathers in its dashboard.  Next, the windows were adorned with Tibetan prayer flags.  And a hubcap went missing.  And the the rear bumper was pushed in, mangling the bodywork behind it.  And a mudguard got dented.  And rust set in.   I fear for this sweet, innocent KE36 Corolla.  Somebody please save it before it's too late.  Nanna needs you to do it. Hello, reader! I've noticed that this seems to be a particularly popular post.  Something to do with Google's algorithms, I guess ... .  But it's not my best piece!  Sure, it's ok, but there are so, so many more interesting classic, sports and performance cars on this site - as wel...
Read more