1969 Lancia Fulvia Coupe Rallye 1.6HF

A genuine Fanalone with unique provenance. owned and raced in period by F1 ace Alessandro Nannini. engine by Campoli. Works features. ready to campaign. drive. or show.

LHD and sold with an age-related UK registration.

History of this car

This very early 1600HF tipo 818. 540 #001109 was the 109th of 1278 cars produced. which is of note as the first 600 cars are generally agreed by Lancisti as having been made to a higher standard than the later batch of cars. as they were built with the likelihood of competition use in mind. This ‘higher standard' came in the form of hand polished engine components. assembled to greater tolerances in order to withstand the especially large stresses that race engines incur. In addition. a few of these 600. such as our example. were fitted with special Works features such as bored out 45 Solex carburetors with trumpets . high-lift camshafts. alloy door handles instead of Mazac. much Perspex glass and so on.

Our car was manufactured in early 1969 at Lancia's Borgo San Paolo plant. from where it was sent to the main dealer in Torino. Our car's first owner was 75-year-old Sig. Franco Malandrini of Siena. where it was first registered on 13th August 1969. The car remained with Sig. Malandrini for some nine years until April 1978. when it was sold to one 19-year-old Alessandro Nannini who lived locally.

Nannini piloted this car in the 1978 Italian Rally Championship. alongside a Stratos which was also entered by the Neri F. Racing Team. Nannini and Neri accumulated over 10 first place finishes with these two cars. photos of such exploits are in the car's history file. Full details on our website.

We sourced this Fanalone for it's outstanding provenance and unique period competition history and particularly fine all-round condition (unusual for this model as most have led hard lives or suffered poor restoration) and super powerful engine.

Body

The body on this car is rust free. arrow straight. and with consistent panel gaps all round – particularly the thin aperture of the door gaps on this car are noteworthy. The four opening panels on these Fanalones are constructed entirely from aluminium. and you can really feel the difference opening this car's door after getting into a standard 1. 3 Rallye model. This example is clad in its original colour of grigio escoli metalizzatto. which has been windows out redone in recent years to an excellent standard – zero orange peel. with an even. thin and glass-like finish all round.

Our Fanalone boasts weight-saving Lancia Works features which we believe it left the factory with. These include fantastically rare aluminium door handles rather than the stock Mazac units. and perspex rear quarter lights and rear screen.


Mechanicals

In terms of driving experience. this Fanalone is a world apart from a standard Fulvia. About ten years ago the car was delivered to Ezio Campoli of Campoli Elaborazioni. Rome. widely regarded in Italy as the best of the best when it comes to Fulvia building. Campoli completely rebuilt the engine. maintaining its highly-strung competition character. but swapping out the largely intractable 1016 camshafts for Group 2 specification units. The result is outstanding. a seriously powerful motor – wheel spin in third – and we reckon about 160HP.

We have just serviced the car. changing all fluids. filters. plugs and leads and fitted new Avon tyres.

New MoT with no advisories.

Interior

This doesn't feel like any other Fulvia. This feels special. The dashboard is in excellent condition. with its black-backed gauges and matching fascia exuding a more serious and purposeful feel than the standard faux wood effect found on standard Stradale spec cars. The two seats are the original ones. which are supremely comfortable with their Zagato-esque wrap-around pillar bolstering. and are in superb condition still wearing their original coverings. The headlining is the original one and is in excellent condition. as are the door cards with their Fanalone-specific lightweight fittings.

An (in-date) fire extinguisher is fitted to the passenger floor. and a battery cut out switch resides in the glove box.

Boot

Clean. straight and entirely rust-free. complete with the original jack and tool kit.

Also published at eBay.co.uk

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