Coming home
Its done – taken out for a drive, picked up and brought home. A bit surreal, to be sure.
The people in the shots are Fuji (who works at Skips and did all the body work there), Skip McCabe, George (who hauled the car up back and forth from Skip to Scotty) and my friend Jack. All are good friends with Scott, who did the lions share of the work on the car (and who is in Indiana about 100 miles away). Of course, major thanks are due to him – as he was the guru and shepherd for the entire project.
Also thanks are due to Bob Williams of Will’s Garage in Pittsburgh (who kindly rebuilt the complex sliding pillar suspension), and to Walt Spak (Pittsburgh) who provided endless assistance and advise. Tony Nicosia in Costa Mesa did a fine job with the brakes.
The now-pretty car just gets better and better with more time on it. It definitely likes to warm up, for a while. Most everything else is working just fine. Speedo, tach, throttle, brakes – all is in pretty good fettle. There will of course be the odd bits to work out – speedo cable is a bit fussy, and the front suspension is not quite right yet.
But the car came home with little fuss. Its satisfying to drive – but very different from the later cars. The gearing is of course Lancia’s strongest suit – you can almost take off in 2nd, and while third doesn’t quite stretch as far as in the later cars, its all wonderfully matched together. The smaller motor works very nicely, pulls from down low and revs very freely. It doesn’t have as much in the seat of the pants “grunt” as the later cars – but this one “squirts” between corners. More fluid perhaps.
The other pleasure is the view out of the car. The car lives up to its brochure – the panorama is wonderful. There seems to have a larger viewing area, possibly due to its different windshield mounting. Airy.
Its been a long journey to get this done. Pretty much finished now. Finally. Now the driving can start.
It`s a nice can you tell me please the colour is “beije” …rigth.
José Constante
José Constante
August 29, 2014 at 6:00 pm
I am sorry its “beige” not beije.
José Constante
August 30, 2014 at 6:04 pm