(first posted 10/2/2015) A Lancia of any era and model is not a common sight in the U.S. The Lancia Beta of 1972-84 was the first and only Lancia marketed heavily in the U.S., and although it was fairly successful in initial sales, a reputation for rust and reliability issues ended Lancia’s largest foray into the U.S. market. Enthusiasts of European cars and sports cars have always held Lancias in high regard, though, and over the decades some classic Lancias have made their way across the Atlantic. Concours events are where they should be found, so imagine my surprise when I drove past a local garage’s lot and found a Lancia Flavia from the 1960s standing by the curb.
Like most Americans, I have almost never even seen a Lancia, aside from a few Betas over 30 years ago and a single Fulvia sighting several years ago. I previously knew the Flavia only from Paul’s article on the model from three years ago. Lancia’s history of innovative design and cost-is-no-object engineering is familiar, though, and a look back at the Flavia revealed it to be an excellent example of Lancia’s traditional qualities.
The Flavia was a clean sheet of paper design that departed completely from previous Lancias, with a boxer four cylinder engine and front wheel drive. The compact, lightweight aluminum boxer four mounted longitudinally ahead of the transaxle allowed a low center of gravity and minimal nose-heaviness and front overhang. The Flavia set the pattern for later longitudinal engine front wheel drive Lancias from the 1960s to the 1980s, from the 1.1-1.6 liter V4 Fulvia of 1963-76 to the 2.0-2.5 liter boxer four Gamma of 1976-84. Positioned between the earlier rear wheel drive 2.8 liter V6 Flaminia and 1.1 liter V4 Appia, in a model lineup named after famous Roman roads, the Flavia began as a sedan with a 1.5 liter engine in 1961 and added more body styles and more powerful engine variants over the course of the 1960s. The Flavia name lasted through 1970, with Lancia renaming the model the 2000 for 1971-75.
The boxer four rose in both displacement and sophistication during the 1960s. The initial engine in 1961 displaced 1.5 liters with an output of 78 horsepower. A higher output version in coupes in 1962 produced 90 horsepower. In 1963, a 1.8 liter engine with 92 horsepower became optional in sedans and standard in coupes. A special Sport model had a 100 horsepower version, later upped to 105 horsepower using dual Weber carburetors instead of Solexes. The Kugelfischer mechanical fuel injection system, later used in the BMW 2002tii and other high performance cars, became an option in 1965, increasing output to 102 horsepower. In 1969 a 2.0 liter version became available, with 114 horsepower with carburetors or 126 horsepower with fuel injection.
The Lancia boxer four’s output was comparable to that of the BMW M10 inline four that made BMW’s reputation during the 1960s, which ranged from an initial 1.5 liter with 75 horsepower in 1962 to the fuel injected 2.0 liter with 130 horsepower in the 1972 2002tii. To handle the performance, all Flavias had four wheel disc brakes and a double wishbone front suspension, with a simple beam axle with leaf springs in the rear.
Coupe and convertible body styles introduced in 1962 shared little with the boxy sedans. Pininfarina designed and built the bodies of the coupes, and Vignale did the same for the convertible.
The Pininfarina coupe body remained unchanged until 1969, while Lancia made styling changes to the sedans. In March 1969, the existing coupe body received new front and rear styling, which lasted through 1975 in the Lancia 2000 coupe.
The Sport model mentioned earlier was designed and built by Zagato with a lightweight and more aerodynamic aluminum body, along with the higher tuned 100-105 horsepower 1.8 liter boxer four. Only 626 were built from 1963 to 1967.
I did not spot this Lancia so much as see its roof out of the corner of my eye while driving past, which immediately made me think, “I have never seen that roofline before. Must investigate.” What I found was a Flavia coupe, whose profile I soon recognized as clearly reminiscent of Pininfarina’s contemporary Ferrari 250GT 2+2, with a similar roofline and rear window/pillar kink.
While the overall shape had much in common with Pininfarina’s Ferrari 250GT 2+2, the style of the front end was reminiscent of another contemporary Pininfarina product. The quad headlights in prominent pods and projecting grille were used in the firm’s one-off custom bodied Maserati 5000 made in 1961 for Gianni Agnelli, Fiat’s principal shareholder and Italy’s wealthiest man.
The other end of the Flavia, with horizontal taillights and a hint of tailfins, departed from Pininfarina’s work on the Ferrari 250GT and the Maserati 5000, both of which had vertical taillights set into the tailfins. When not ruined by a badly mounted American license plate, it was a clean design and quite practical with a low liftover height. The lack of a proper location for an American license plate on this car, which has only space for a European license plate above its rear bumper, indicates that it may be a recently imported European market car.
“Le Auto Service” is not a garbled French pun like “Le Car”; Le is the name of the Vietnamese-American family that owns the shop. They have an interesting business working mostly on classic Mercedes and other European makes, with a mix of like new looking 560SLs, rusty hulks of 1960s and 1970s Mercedes and BMW sedans, 1960s Pontiacs, and other random American classics such as the 1937 Lincoln Zephyr profiled in an earlier CC in the lot. Rising property values in the area have wrecking balls and new condo and office construction sweeping relentlessly in their direction, so I give their business only a few more years in its current location, but for now they are a smorgasbord (Volvo/Saab pun intended) for classic car lovers. It is a fitting place to see a classic Lancia for the first time.
The trunk-mounted badge on this example indicated that it had the 1.8 liter version of the Lancia boxer four, narrowing its model year to 1963 to 1969.
The interior, which like the exterior showed some wear after half a century but remained complete and generally sound, revealed the car to be from 1967 or later. Round instruments were a change made in 1967, in place of the horizontal ribbon speedometer, round tachometer, and rectangular secondary instruments in earlier cars. The prominent instrument binnacle and straightforward wood-trimmed dashboard were modern, clean design when introduced in the Flavia sedan in 1961 and still look good today.
With high style and advanced engineering and made with little regard for cost, the Flavia coupe was a car for connoisseurs in the 1960s and continues to be today. It was an elegant small GT sold at a high premium over competitors such as the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT or BMW New Class. Imported into the U.S. in very small numbers, it will be an infrequent sight at American curbsides or even at car shows.
I expect that this Flavia coupe is the only 1960s Lancia that I will ever see unrestored and parked curbside in the U.S. It is in rough condition now, but I hope that it eventually will be a standard-bearer for the marque in the U.S. as a fully restored example. Apparently sound and complete with almost all exterior and interior trim, although with rough and peeling paint, extensive surface rust on the hood, and some small rust perforations behind the rear wheels, it should be restorable given a sufficient budget. Whether the worth to the owner and the market value of a Flavia coupe in the U.S. will be sufficient to justify the cost of restoration is another matter, though. What I can say with certainty is that the world can use as many classic Pininfarina bodies wrapped around sophisticated engineering as it can get, and a Lancia Flavia coupe has them.
Lancia Flavia: What I Drove Yesterday For 570 Miles Through A Snow Storm
What a gorgeous survivor! I’d drive it just as it is, except for maybe getting matching wheels. Absolutely love that stylish interior with that beautiful gearstick.
Not sure it would be the best choice for a daily driver but on a sunny Sunday on the back roads it’s gonna be as good as it gets. Breakdowns are all just part of the fun.
The wheels actually were matching, with matching Lancia hubcaps, when examined close up. The front wheels were both rusted, while the rear wheels were clean, creating the optical illusion of the fronts looking smaller than the rears. Oddly, the rusted fronts had proper Michelin X tires and trim rings, while the clean rears had cheapo Kellys. The distribution of rust on the wheels and body gave me the impression that the car had been stored with the front more exposed to rain water, or with a tarp or something else trapping moisture around the front end but not the rear.
I don’t know, but something about these cars is a tiny bit offputting in my view. I think it’s the “greenhouse” or maybe just the shape of the rear side windows. This car also has an admittedly vague resemblance to the Volvo 1800 coupe.
While detailing Lancia’s history, no mention of their tie-in with Chrysler? They have (had?) Chryslers badged as Lancias in some markets and Lancias badged as Chryslers in a some, as well.
I believe that’s entirely a fairly recent operation. Lancia was an independent automaker until they were bought out by Fiat (this is why the US got the Beta, as Fiat was trying to expand itself upscale). As Lancia is rapidly becoming a moribund brand even in Italy (it’s been on a deathwatch for years), FCA has been giving them the GM/Saab treatment as a place to dump the American models in Europe.
Yes, there is no glory in a diesel Chrysler Town & Country minivan rebadged as a Lancia. The 300C as a Lancia Thema is better but still… Overall a very sad state of affairs. Lancia could have been truly resurrected but there isn’t the money for everyone to survive, looks like Alfa is getting the opportunity instead.
I had exactly the same thought about the rear resembling that of the Volvo 1800, with its the fins and horizontal taillights. The first draft of the writeup mentioned that along with the coincidence of Frua designing the Volvo 1800 just before Pininfarina did the Flavia coupe.
The tie-in with Chrysler being very recent, decades after the Fiat takeover which was itself after the era that the Flavia was from, mentioning the recent Lancia-badged Chryslers others struck me as unnecessary. I have seen a Lancia-based Chrysler 300 in Europe, and it really looked completely wrong.
“The first draft of the writeup mentioned that along with the coincidence of Frua designing the Volvo 1800 just before Pininfarina did the Flavia coupe.”
Actually, it has been a fairly recent revelation that Frau was not the designer of the P1800. Helmer Petterson, the man responsible for getting the sports car project underway, secretly used a design created by his son Pelle. When Volvo management found out, they were furious. Since Frau was commissioned to build the first prototypes, Volvo chose to accredit the design to Frau as well. It was only about 5 years ago or so that Volvo finally came clean about the true origin of the P1800.
We’ve covered the P1800 and its design origins pretty thoroughly here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1964-volvo-p1800s-transcending-time-distance-and-fashion/
Here’s the key lines: Helmer Petterson, who headed up the development of the PV444, lead the project. And his son, Pelle Petterson, who worked at the Italian Carrozzeria Pietro Frua at the time, gets credit for the design. For some reason, Volvo denied that until 2009, but it’s been official since then.
FWIW, the Lancia Flavia coupe does not remind me of the P1800; there’s way too many differences, most of all the basic body proportions.
Neat find! That rear end looks like it inspired the ’63 Valiant.
Someone in Aussie must have seen it, it does look like a AP5.
Rear end of those always reminded me of 60s Mercedes.
Shops like those owned by the Le family are invariably your best chance to ever see a Lancia, outside of concours events. For some reason, the brand never makes the local cars & coffee, cruise night, or Saturday muscle-car heavy local car show.
The only Lancia I’ve ever seen in the metal was a seemingly abandoned 50’s Aurelia sitting along side Erie, PA’s local Renault dealer. Which was a 50’s gas station in run down condition, minus the pumps, but with an office area large enough to keep a 12 and a 5 inside serving as a showroom. Location was about five miles west of downtown Erie on PA 5, out past the entrance to Presque Isle State Park; and was, quite frankly, a dump. The owner (who spoke with a very heavy European accent that I could not place) had a reputation for being very good on odd and exotic European cars, but was not above stealing parts off a customer’s car in waiting to work on a car in the service bay. Did I mention that he wasn’t the fastest mechanic in the world?
And if you wonder why Renault failed in the US, the knowledge that this was a franchise dealer should explain a lot. I left Erie in ’77, so I can only imagine the corporate attitude towards this guy when they took over AMC.
That Aurelia constantly stirs my memory, as its one of three framed photographs still on the wall, a reminder of my seventies when I was a semi-professional photographer (who did porn on the side to pay for grad school).
Perfectly beautiful except for the down-low taillights. They belong in the fins. Maybe Pininfarina was trying to avoid a cliche, but there was a good reason for the cliche.
Howard, perhaps a bit too much front overhang, combined with very narrow wheels. Perhaps they could have used Audi’s latest trick, of moving the clutch behind the differential to move the front wheels forward a couple of inches.
An old friend has one of these, I wonder if it is still a future project as it was the last time I saw it.
+1, the 250 GT 2+2 is a very handsome car but it’s the front overhang headlights and grille that look a little off on the Lancia.
Also the Ferrari has had an enormous market value run up in the last 20 years, the Flavia not so much…
It is a nice shape, that does a great job of hiding the front drive nature of the car. Given the prices they were charging, was 100-120 hp really enough even in Europe. The body makes it look like it should be on a level with a 3.0CSi or E type 2+2, but I don’t see how front drive and a flat four mesh with that.
In America the stuation would be hopeless. Does anyone think a well off young man could use this car the way he would use a Riviera. Would it start every day. Would it overheat on warm days. Would the drivetrain even last 50,000 miles. I notice this one does not have A/c. I know most of the money in Italy is in the northern part, but southern Italy is warm and yet Lancia did not seem to make provision for a factory system. Lancia had at least pretentions of being a volume manufacturer, so one should not readily forgive such lapses.
People will wax here about the elegance of the design, and that is fine. But lets face it, this is not a real car.
Between being very early in the A.M. and my too fast reading I missed that this was FWD….like nearly every other post-war Lancia. DOH!!!
Yes, the quad headlights are part of the “problem” with this car, but basically it just seems a bit out of proportion in some areas. I do actually like the tail treatment.
Spent 2 deployments in Sicily in the 70s. The most common Lancia was the A112 (Italy’s answer to the Mini Cooper?) and I did see 1 or 2 Appias, Flavias, and Fulvias. Apparently, if you were a rear fan of the Lancia brand you moved from a A112 or Fiat up to a Fulvia coupe.
BTW, some (all?) of Lancias V4s were very narrow angle engines so that they used just one cylinder head to cover the 2 “banks” of cylinders….sort of like VW has done (or still does?).
To be picky, the A112 was an Autobianchi, although after acquiring Lancia, Fiat paired it with Autobianchi, so I think they shared dealers and in some markets the A112 had Lancia badges. (Of course, the A112 was itself basically a Fiat 127, but that’s another matter.) The sporty A112 was the Abarth, which was definitely the Italian answer to the Mini Cooper.
John, A/C was almost unheard of in Europe in the early 60s. For that matter, the A/C take rate in the US in the early 60s was still very low.
Also, you seem to not be informed as to how well built these old-school Lancias were. No shortcuts anywhere; only high quality materials. The old stereotype about Italian cars is not based on reality.
It’s really a bit tedious having folks perpetually respond like this to every classic Italian car. If you’re not aware of what legendary quality these Lancias were, please don’t assume that they’re made out of tin foil and rubber bands. It gets old; like a Pavlovian response: Old Italian Car = POS.
This may sound a bit harsh, but if this is “not a real car”, then you’re not a real (car) person.
“But lets face it, this is not a real car”
What an ill-informed and bizarre statement. You clearly have no familiarity with postwar Lancia. Famous for their incredible craftsmanship, brilliant engineering solutions, and complete disregard for cost accounting with respect to those engineering solutions, pre-Fiat Lancias are, in many ways, in a class of their own. Few cars are as thoughtfully engineered or built, which helps to explain why Lancia encountered a great deal of financial trouble in the late 1960’s (that outrageously expensive to finance factory-backed racing program did not help, either).
“The body makes it look like it should be on a level with a 3.0CSi or E type 2+2, but I don’t see how front drive and a flat four mesh with that.”
At the time these Flavia Coupes were being sold, the concurrent BMW they competed with would be the four cylinder 2000C/CS coupes, which had about equal power. In regard to the E-type, Lancia’s Flaminia series would have been the true competitor (likely in the form of the Sport Zagato or Coupe GTL variants).
And let’s not forget their trucks and buses.
I would expect that a lot of the old “Italian cars are unreliable” rep had to do with service and repair infrastructure. Midcentury American mechanics were accustomed to wrenching on highly orthodox Detroit iron. British roadsters were a stretch despite their even greater devotion to engineering orthodoxy; VW in the aircooled era had the foresight to train mechanics and supply parts ahead of demand (and sold in the numbers to sustain their own infrastructure).
Lancia in America was too rare and too different to be a practical proposition unless the buyer planned to become his own mechanic or not to venture far from what specialist service existed. It would naturally be a completely different picture in Italy and into Switzerland and Austria (if perhaps not Germany or France whose automotive infrastructure was centered on their own makes).
As for FWD, it had a devoted following among highly technical car enthusiasts before it became universal, probably a case of familiarity breeding contempt boosted in America by the fact that RWD V8 muscle burned so bright in the 1965-72 era and the Big Three had such a clumsy transition to FWD.
Robert, I’m so glad you were able to photograph and write up this car. I drive by Le Auto Service several times a week, and always glance at their lot, since it usually has some interesting cars on it. When I first saw this car, I didn’t have the slightest idea what it was. I can’t remember the last time I was completely stumped by a car, so I drove around the block so I could get a closer look.
Since that time, I continue to be enthralled by this Lancia whenever I drive by. The Pininfarina styling is exquisite, and the subdued gold-ish color highlights its design attributes. Your article filled in a lot of gaps that I had been wondering about the Flavia since I first saw it.
I suspect you’re right about it being a relatively recent import, or at least a recent acquisition by its current owner, in part because the antique license plate is a new issue (judging by the number sequence, issued within the past year). Regardless, I wish the owner much luck with this spectacular car.
Nice find,haven’t seen a Lancia in the wild for a long time
I’ve never seen one of these before , I like the European flair of the design both inside and out .
I wonder how much fun it would be to put it through it’s paces .
-Nate
I wonder as well. The closest thing to experience the real thing is a video game. Someone put this on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pErUbJWF7E
I believe video games improve driving skills.
Robert, excellent post of a beautiful survivor. I’m kind of stuck on that Zagato-bodied Sport model. It looks a little like a Simpsons cartoon-version of a Jensen Interceptor.
I didn’t realise Lancia ever went to north America, so this was a great surprise.
It’d be a great surprise in Europe – I’ve seen one Flavia, one Fulvia and one Fulvia coupe in living memory.
The Fulvia coupe is here,https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtake/cc-outtake-lancia-fulvia-coupe/
I’ll have to prepare something on the saloon
I’ve heard of the Lancia Flavia, but I’ve never seen one. Sweet looking car. 🙂
I have only seen one of these in person, awaiting
resurrectionrepair at my Old Italian Car specialist’s place. It really was a beautiful car, and the quality is obvious when you looked at the interior. However, when the mechanic opened the hood to show me the engine, I had to look twice as at first glance I thought it was missing. That boxer four is tiny. To a guy used to a tall DOHC Alfa four, it looked like the intake runners and air cleaners were sitting on the crankcase and the block had been removed.My mechanic admires Lancia’s and will work on them although apparently it has become a treasure hunt to get some components and he wasn’t optimistic that this car would ever see the road again. It wasn’t a rust problem but we didn’t get into the details ofwhy it wax there. He is an interesting guy, who works on older Alfa’s, Fiats, Ferrari’s, Maserati’s, and the multiple. Interestingly, he won’t work on old Lamborghini’s describing them as crude ‘just like you’d expect from a tractor manufacturer”. He’s a bit quirky though and it may just be a personal thing.
Beautiful car and a wonderful find, Robert, you have a knack for this. (Or the luxury of having the time to stop and look whenever something interesting catches the corner of your eye).
Lancia is one of those companies that was often so far ahead of their time in many respects that the market never really caught up to them within the same generation of vehicles, nor did the public, and then they were washed out to sea on some of their failings. Only looking back can one realize the significance of some of their developments at the time of implementation.
Lancia’s are quite interesting and I enjoy reading about and looking at them. Martin Buckley, an English auto scribe, seems to be the patron saint of Lancia’s – his columns (formerly at one or more of the English new car rags, for the last decade or so I think at one of the Classic Car ones) often are very Lancia focused. Roger Carr is probably familiar with him as are some others here. It always makes for a good read when perusing the periodical racks at the bookseller.
You’re right, but I tend to meet his work mostly at the dentists.
I like going to the the dentist!
My experience is that the classic car mags offer a lot and deliver a lot less. Give me CC.com any day!
I think Lancia is also hard for Americans to get their heads around (I feel this, anyway) because it’s a kind of automaker that really doesn’t have any American equivalent. Maybe Cord, although as cool as Cords were, even a casual study of pre-Fiat Lancia makes Cord’s level of technological adventurousness seem kinda second-tier.
I wish I had some exposure to Lancias like these, the real Lancias before the Fiat takeover. Working in a Fiat-Lancia dealership from 1978-80, all I ever saw were Betas and their variants. Invariably they were rusting even before we took delivery. And the parts prices! Fiats and Lancias of the Beta era shared many parts, but if a given Fiat part cost $20, putting it in a Lancia box boosted the price to $100.
Rare Brand CC effect? Just last week I saw my first Lancia ever in the USA, a Series II Fulvia coupe. It was sitting outside a local garage that works on a lot of interesting euro cars, in a situation potentially much like the one you’ve found here. Very cool car, regret that I couldn’t get a photo, as they keep most of the good stuff locked in the bays nights/weekends.
This Flavia is even more interesting stylistically, and despite the surface rust, I enjoy the unrestored condition. Definitely an elegant sixties GT, though the 2.0 H4 seems like an unusual powertrain for that body and interior.
+1 but on the restyled 2000 version. Reminds me of a mashup of a recent Fiat 500 commercial where the little blue pill gets into the fuel tank – only in this case it looks like a 124 got the treatment. Hope it lasts for more than four hours…
Superb find, and write-up. These pre-Fiat Lancias were such remarkable cars, all of them. And so commonly misunderstood. But they were being built in a bubble, without regard to cost and profitability. Which is why Lancia had to be “saved” by Fiat.
They were from a very different era, when some discriminating buyers still bought cars purely on their quality, mechanical excellence, and beautiful design, even if more powerful and bigger cars were available at the same price.
Thanks for stopping to shoot and write this lovely car up; it’s a real treat to see it here at CC.
Nice find. I know little of these cars. Nice to get some info. I did not think this cars would be a front wheel drive car with a boxer 4. I met someone years ago that owned a really loved these old Lancias. Never got much info about them or ever even looked at his cars. Sounds like they were high quality cars, I kind of dismissed them thinking they were like old Fiats. Apparently this was not the case. This example is a nice looking car although the tail lamps would look better in the fins.
Excellent find! You are fortunate to live in an area where something like this might be found, and thanks for stopping to shoot it.
I know so little about Lancia that it is pathetic. These are interesting to read about, with such unusual engineering.
But I can solve one mystery for you – you wondered where you had seen that roof line before? Well, . . . . 🙂
great write up! the zagato sport model looks like something out of 1960’s british sci-fi show like “dr. who” or “the prisoner!”
i was introduced to lancia after the fiat buyout. the beta didn’t seem to be much more than a fiat 124 variant. they even had a sedan version that my friends father owned. the coolest version was the “scorpian.”
http://wikicars.org/images/en/f/ff/Lanciascorpio1.jpg
Terrific find and writeup, Robert. Wow!
Another killa find Robert. How good does thing look in that old gold? Maybe a bit too patinated but I’d drive it like that for a while before attending to the body. Definitely one of the best-looking Lancias to carry those pursed lips. Front overhang is long, but not to the shape’s detriment. Great piece.
I’ve been chasing – sometimes literally – an aqua one that lives around the corner. This is all I’ve been able to get…
OK, it’s kinda hard to tell it’s a Flavia, but cool pic nonetheless!
Thanks Tom. Nice to see you around.
I am mostly over at The Brougham Society nowadays, but I sneak over here once in a while. 🙂 Check us out! https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBroughamSociety/
Several years ago my brother-in-law was in Germany on business and had a Lancia as a rental car, and I remember him saying that he quite enjoyed driving it. I’ve never seen one here in Canada, but they’re on my automotive bucket list. I do know that I would be quite bothered if I went to Europe and saw a Chrysler badged as a Lancia. I’d much rather see the real thing. Good article and pictures.
What a fascinating find Robert! With one of New Zealand’s main Lancia specialists based in my rural town, I often see (RHD) Lancias around, but usually of the Delta/Thema persuasion; I’ve never seen a Flavia!
The license plate always goes on the trunklid, not above the bumper.