Fair disclosure, I’m a multiple Lancia owner. I love everything about them. Their wonderful engine sounds, the brash audacity of their designs, the innovative engineering, and the daring risks the company founders took, year after year, with complete lack of regard for profits. Bold Italian passion oozes from every crevice of a Lancia, regardless of the era. And while several articles could go on about many significant models, the one that captures my eye over and over again, partly because one sits in my garage, is the Lancia Fulvia. Perhaps it’s the history, or the fact that even American car collectors are largely unaware of this remarkable brand, or the ongoing argument among Europeans—is it Lahn-Cha or Lan-Seeyah? However you chose to pronounce it, Lancia remains one of the most amazing and respected car companies.
1970 Lancia Fulvia HF Fanalone. Photo: Colin Bourassa
Famous for their incredible craftsmanship, innovative engineering and a passion for excellence regardless of cost, pre-Fiat ownership Lancias are, in many ways, in a class all their own. Few cars are as thoughtfully engineered or built, which partly explains why Lancia encountered a great deal of financial difficulty creating and selling these exceptional cars. Among the last of the pre-FIAT cars, the Fulvia offered interesting specifications that included a dual overhead cam, narrow angle V4 engine powering the front wheels, Dunlop disc brakes on all four corners, and numerous other innovative technical features. Road and Track magazine described the car in 1967 as, “a precision motorcar, an engineering tour de force.”
