When I was 18, I bought a fabulous car. I ran it for nearly a year, and then I discovered just how age (and rot) had really taken it's toll. The car? A 1973 Lancia Fulvia S2 Coupe...


My little Lancia.

With it's willing (read, rev mental) 1300 V4 engine with 2×twin 35mm Dell'ortos, four wheel disc brakes and sub 900kg all up weight, it was a teeny terrier of a car.

And it still is, and looks gorgeous (okay, pretty good) on the outside. Trouble is, the floor is perforated around the edges, and the sills are kaput.

Here is a photo (the only one I could find on the web) of the Fulvia powerplant, this one in a saloon.



It's a 15deg V4, canted over to the left by 45 degrees, and drives a longitundal mounted front-wheel-drive gearbox.

I love the Fulvia, but repairing it would cost more than it is worth - and the previous owner made some fairly heavy mods to the fuel tank (i.e. mounted a Fiat one vertical, as opposed to the Lancia boot floor tank) and it has been bodged together and resprayed - probably more than once. It has a fibreglass bonnet/hood (poo) but rare alloy doors and bootlid (worth something to a HF-maniac.)

I'm thinking... maybe time to make a special, and why not make it a midi.

What do you guys reckon?

Mark.

Keeping in mind I know nothing about these engines, I think it would be expensive to maintain, probably not reliable, and hard to get parts for. Building your own car is hard enough without designing in troublesome components. I vote for a Toyota/Honda/Nissan FWD unit moved to mid-ship. Much less to worry about. More power too, and they may even weigh less.

I'm with KB. If you 'broke' the car, you probably get a nice pot of cash to start your new build with. Possibly even enough to buy a kit with.

Ian

Sounds good to me.
One good thing is that it addresses one of the issues of longditudinal engined middys viz. length...the V4 is pretty compact lengthwise....

Should be a bit 914/boxster "esqe"....but with a decent engine...

Flame doors up..

I accept KB and Ian's points...very valid..

It's case of the old quandary...do you use what you have because you know the history, costs nothing, familiarity etc.? , or as they say go with something more popular?

Difficult call.

KB: Yes, but everyone's got a Toyota/Nissan/Honda... with good reason, I guess, as you point out. But the little transaxle that mounts the engine inline? That's gotta be worth funkiness points. Guess I could replace the V4 with a Mitsubishi MIVEC V6... or a Hayabusa engine.

But the old V4 sounds utterly fabulous, is a bulletproof engine with loads of spares available, and I have a registration document for the original car. We all talk about scratchbuilt midis which are bitzas, but this would be a Lancia Fulvia special. *cool*

Keep 'em coming, I didn't think I'd get replies so quick!

Mark.

Mark,
Whatever you do with it,you have a great headstart on the rear suspension-just "copy" the Libra's.
I mean "copy" in a non copying kind of way. In fact I mean "adapt" Well I know what I mean!
By the way,you are a lucky b*st*rd. You are already building my dream car. One which I would have had if I hadn't had a disastrous marriage,nasty divorce,a descent into alcoholism,a wonderful re-marriage and 2 beautiful daughters!
Ian

I would give the Fulvia a go. If, as you say, there isn't a spares and reliability problem, then what are you waiting for?
I would do it this weekend!

Sod the miserable buggers, do something different...

quote:

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Originally posted by GTAddict
KB: Yes, but everyone's got a Toyota/Nissan/Honda... with good reason, I guess, as you point out. But the little transaxle that mounts the engine inline? That's gotta be worth funkiness points. Guess I could replace the V4 with a Mitsubishi MIVEC V6... or a Hayabusa engine.

But the old V4 sounds utterly fabulous, is a bulletproof engine with loads of spares available, and I have a registration document for the original car. We all talk about scratchbuilt midis which are bitzas, but this would be a Lancia Fulvia special. *cool*

Keep 'em coming, I didn't think I'd get replies so quick!

Mark.

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BTW, from the angle of the picture above, it sure looks like an Alfa GTB, one of my favorite cars.

Yea, go for it!
Sounds as though it would make a cracking midi.
To do it justice it would need period style bodywork though, mini Marcos(ish) springs to mind. Coupe style.
Just my opinion though!
I love those Italian pocket rockets. Just a pity they rotted around you!

Thanks for all the ideas.

I'm going to start designing, based around the Fulvia front end running gear. Basically, I think the most useful component is that gearbox. If I can figure the linkage to make it mid-engined successfully, then I shall ensure that the engine bay has enough room for an inline 4 bike engine. The 'box was used on the 1600HF rally cars, so has capability in hand for the torque output of a bike engine. As for revving it to 10,000rpm+, well, we'll see.

As for the car, I have lots of favourites from the 60s and 70s and thought my design should doff a cap to these cars:

Lancia Fulvia
Lancia Stratos
Alfa Romeo Montreal
Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale.

Already done some sketches, funny how much they turned out like a miniature Stratos with a Montreal/Fulvia-esque nose. It won't pass the SVA, since the four headlamps are all well below the 500mm minimum height regulation.

Don't want pop ups, so maybe the front end will become more like the Stradale which has the stacked headlamps.

If I find a scanner at work, I shall put the sketches in my archive.

Cheers again,

Mark.