Lancia Flavia by Angela Verschoor
Newly published from Holland comes this summary book on the Flavia, 2000 and Superjolly trucks. Its in four languages, has extensive reproductions of the promotional materials for the Flavia. It is a very graphic book. Done with a similar approach to Bruce Lindsay’s “70 years of Trailblazing”, the history of the Flavia is primarily presented through the graphic materials of the period. Like “70 Years”, it comes nicely with a DVD of the materials, and while not yet examined, it is most likely to be thorough and well done – an excellent feature. The book is nicely sized, avoiding the “bigger is better” school of thought, and falls well to hand.
One measure of a car book is “does it make me want one?”, and this does that. I had a Flavia 819 saloon in grad school, and the old pangs were rekindled. I began to see the story of Flavia unfold once again, and remembered its smoothness, somewhat elegant acceleration, and just how pleasant a car it was. Those feelings were amply magnified by the complete presentation of the graphics of the period – a bit stylized in this presentation, but not overly so.
A decision was made to present the limited text in four languages, and while appreciated, the actual text portions of the book are too modest, serving primarily as a guide for the viewer. Those looking for an engineering analysis or even a more detailed research endeavor will have to wait. Primary research extends mostly to the brochures.
It is nice to have a new voice at the Lancia party, and while modestly present here, it is welcomed; more of their thoughts would have been of interest as well.
Angela Verschoor and colleagues should be congratulated on this concise, multi-lingual book for its feast of illustrations, neat tables of data at the back, but especially for the superb DVD/CD. This contains the result of much labour and shows off a comprehensive range of publications for these models, including the full contents of the Spare Parts Catalogues. It could hardly be bettered. The book price is very well worth that alone.
I had an 819 2-litre saloon briefly, a Flavia 2000 Coupe, 2000 Saloon and dealings with 815 Coupes and others. The book certainly inspires nostalgia for a happy youth and the DVD is a boon to those still owning the cars!
Paul Mayo
April 9, 2013 at 2:54 pm