Where is the information?
People new to the Lancia cars struggle for information/parts and details. They legitimately ask “Where is the information?” and rather curious to find it isn’t all readily available. Perhaps they come from a different model (gee, my local parts store has everything on line…), and the obscurity of Lancia information has them frustrated.
We have struggled with this problem for some time. People like Walt Spak, Ed Levin, Steve Peterson, and Huib have spent years on this problem – and know how hard it has been.
Some of the new interested people are unaware of the cost in time and effort it has taken in the past to compile Lancia information. It raises a question – how obligated are we to help? Do we help some and not others? Or are we now the factory representatives? It seems that each of us who are interested in Lancias, needs to put something back in the pot. Can’t just come out – something has to be put back in. That’s what makes it a community, and that is what sharing is all about.
People looking for information need to join the clubs, both American and English. They should buy the parts books, read the manuals, etc. Lancias exist as part of a community of owners, and we can help them best if they are well informed.
Lancia did a pretty good job of documenting their product. The Lancia parts books and data sheets are a marvel of detailed and accurate information – but you have to spend the time to learn it and understand it.
Of course, not everything is shown: details are missing on the fur option for the Fulvia Sport, nor are there drawings for all the inner panels of the B20…. but is that so bad? Generally everything you need is there. So let’s take a moment and think about what we have. Any part needed to keep these fifty year old cars running is available, albeit perhaps in Pennsylvania or overseas. its not at NAPA, but how many 50 year old car parts is NAPA stocking these days? Seems pretty good to me – and its better now than it was a decade ago.
Ironically, some of our new owners may wonder why it isn’t yet simpler. I wish I knew how to tell them how it used to be, when any parts book was a rare treasure, and you had to travel 500 miles to see someone who had actual documentation.
The cars themselves help sort this out. They can only be made to work the way they were designed – and they reveal their secrets in their own time and way. It is interesting how the product casts forth its own character, even now, so many years later.
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