Before it became part of industrial giant Fiat, Lancia had a long history of doing things its own way. Lancia pioneered such innovations as the monocoque chassis (a.k.a. “unibody”) all the way back in 1922 with the Lambda. It was also the first company to produce V4 and V6 engines as well the first with a five-speed manual transmission in a road car.
This 1976 Lancia Fulvia 3 Coupe is currently listed on Hemmings Auctions. The Fulvia is one of the last models designed and engineered by Lancia before that Fiat. Like the contemporary BMW 2002, the Fulvia had an upright greenhouse with narrow pillars all around for excellent visibility and room for four passengers. Both cars also had relatively small engines in an era when big-displacement engines were everywhere. And both of these European 2+2s earned something of a giant-killing reputation in motorsports due to making the most of those small engines with a lightweight chassis imbued with superior handling. But that’s about where the similarities end.
True to Lancia doing things its own way, the Fulvia featured a unique V4 engine driving the front wheels. Available as a Berlina (sedan), a Coupe or the Zagato-bodied Sport, the Fulvia quickly gained a reputation for delivering performance far beyond what could be expected from a tiny four-cylinder engine. The BMW’s 2.0-liter inline-four offered a good 50% more displacement than the Fulvia’s 1.3-liter variant, the most common one produced for the Coupe.
The little car proved its worth in motorsports. A Lancia Fulvia finished a remarkable 11th overall at the 1969 24 Hours of Daytona while winning the under 2.0-liter prototype class. The Fulvia gained perhaps its greatest accolades in rallying and helped the company claim the first of its record 10 World Rally Championships in 1974.
Lancia’s V4 engine features a vee angle of just 12.5 degrees. The cylinders are so close together they are staggered and share a single cylinder head. The engine is technically a double-overhead cam design, but uses one cam for the intake valves and another for the exhaust valves, rather than a pair of cams for each cylinder head. The engine is mounted longitudinally, entirely in front of the front axle. It is also canted over 45 degrees to the driver’s side leaving its pair of carburetors pretty much on the center line of the vehicle. The diminutive V4 was designed for compact dimensions and the 1.3-liter engine in this Fulvia clearly makes the most of the tight space under the hood.
Power is sent to the front axle via a five-speed manual gearbox, which was becoming common enough with some European and Japanese cars by the mid-1970s, but had been a Lancia innovation with the 3rd series Ardea sedan introduced in 1948. A five-speed gearbox, which sits entirely behind the engine, is certainly useful, as the 1.3-liter engine’s peak of 87 horsepower arrives at 6,000 rpm.
Engineers designed a chassis that went a long way in helping the little Lancia punch way above its weight class. The independent front suspension features unequal-length control arms with a transverse multi-leaf spring and an anti-roll bar, along with tubular shocks. The rear is a beam axle with leaf springs, tubular shocks and another anti-roll bar. Large disc brakes on all four corners were also essential to better lap and stage times.
Road & Track magazine was so enamored of the little coupe that it wrote of the Fulvia Coupe and Zagato Sport: “These Lancias are the best handling fwd cars we’ve ever driven and that’s saying something.” That spirit of driving excellence has gained the Fulvia a strong following over the years as somewhat of a cult classic.
From the final production year, this 1976 Lancia Fulvia 3 Coupe now listed on Hemmings Auctions certainly looks the part of a rally car, with its black hood and bumper-mounted Cibie driving lights. All of its original Lancia quirkiness appears to remain intact. The car wears a bright shade of Verde Dublino (Dublin Green) over a nicely contrasting light brown vinyl interior.
The seller reports that the car was purchased from a dealer in the Netherlands where it had been refurbished and prepped for driving in classic rallies in Europe. COVID changed those plans for its then owner, allowing the seller to acquire the car and import it to the U.S., where further suspension work was done. According to the seller, the refurbishment work in recent years includes receipts totally €17,000 and $2,000.
Interested in getting your fix of European rallying, Seventies style? Head on over to Hemming Auctions and take a look at what the ingenuous engineering of one small Italian company came up with to take on the giants and win.
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