" It’s almost impossible to avoid cheesy, vaguely sexist anthropomorphisms when talking about this car. As I've said before. I nearly owned one in the eighties. I've regretted the missed opportunity ever since. Piero Castagnero designed the incredibly fine featured, "
Lancia Fulvia Barchetta
We know we’re being a bit boring about our love for the Lancia Fulvia.
But now, remembering the dictum that less is sometimes more, we think we’ve fallen in love all over again with the pert little Italian. And this version is topless. And if you’ve been aware of these things, then you are more of a Fulvia geek than we.
Thing is, you can see from the structure of the Fulvia coupé’s body that the torsional stiffness of the chassis would probably not have been affected by the absence or the presence of that boxy canopy. Look at those hard-edged flanks!
And the proof of the theory seems to have been demonstrated by the fact that a handful of chop-topped Fulvia’s were campaigned hard on the road race curcuit of 1970s; particularly successfully apparently, in the dangerous Sicilian classic the Targa Florio.
According to a Coy’s catalogue from a couple of years ago, there were class victories for these snarling, defaced beauties.
And while you’re here, heck out some devilish Kodachrome onboard from the 1972 Targa Florio. Apparently, Vic Elford ‘hit a local’.
Hehehe!
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Wow! Loved the Vic Elford clip in the Alfa: in fact, I watched it five times! They certainly don’t make ’em like that anymore. Show it to a heath & safety goon & watch their brains dribble out of their ears. Sad though, are Vic’s last words in his commentry.