The Etceterini Files Part 15----Lombardi FL-1 and Sinthesis 2000: Fleet Flavias

Francis Lombardi, a decorated Italian flying ace during World War I, had made a name for himself designing aircraft before World War 2, notably the FL.3 monoplane which was made in over 300 copies. He applied his talents to designing and building limousine and wagon variants on Fiats and the occasional Lancia after that war, and late in his career turned his attention to the problem of high performance sports cars. His first effort to attract notice in Europe was the Fiat 850-based Lombardi Grand Prix in 1968; by 1970 the Abarth Scorpione 1300 with the same body, but larger and hotter engine, appeared in the US.  There were also Giannini and OTAS variants, all late-blooming etceterini before tighter US emissions, bumper and safety standards took hold... 

The Lombardi GP I drove once on the foggy Pacific Coast Highway was a responsive little creature, even with the mostly stock 850 engine.  Surprisingly, despite the low roof, it seemed a bit roomier than the Lotus Europa I tried around the same time.  The tall greenhouse meant good visibility, at least to the front and sides.  Fiat would soon phase out the 850 for a series of transverse-engined front drivers, however, so the car's days were numbered by 1970, even in Europe.  Seeking the basis for a new car, Francis Lombardi noticed the Lancia Flavia which had been around for a decade, not because of its front-wheel drive, but because of the low, compact four cylinder boxer engine sitting ahead of a tidy transaxle, perfect for transplanting to a mid-engined format. 

So that's what he did.  As the section drawing and side elevation show, he didn't waste much space, achieving a low center of mass and much better weight distribution than on the rear-engined GP.  The final product, the Lombardi FL-1, has a family resemblance to the Grand Prix / Abarth Scorpione twins, especially at the low, sloping nose with its retractable headlights, and the low, horizontal crease along the flanks aligned with the bumpers. The unsentimental chop to the rear roof allows decent engine access and follows racing car practice.

You may be wondering why a Lancia-powered car would appear in a series of essays on etceterini, which were most often Fiat-powered.  The short answer is that by 1969, Fiat had taken over Lancia, though all Lancia engines offered for 1972, the year FL-1 appeared, were still of Lancia design. A better answer is that etceterini is a convenient and flexible description, and would still apply to the higher-performance version Lombardi planned to offer with a 3 liter Ford V6. In 1991cc Flavia-engined form, the car was good for 125 mph.

It turned out that the compact 2 liter Flavia engine had already attracted the attention of Peter Giacobbi, an automotive engineer working in Italy, who approached Tom Tjaarda, an established designer (Fiat 124 Pininfarina spider) about designing a mid-engined GT. Tjaarda was then working on the De Tomaso Pantera project at Ghia, and agreed to draw something up.  The final result resembled the Pantera in the low-penetration nose and the dropped window sill line, and also in the angled sail panel aft of the side windows acting as the C pillar...

The low nose forced a nearly-horizontal radiator with twin fans, and the use of the Flavia's transverse leaf-spring front suspension meant no front luggage space. The lines, though, were the better for it.  The car appeared on the show circuit in 1970, a good two years before the Flavia-powered Lombardi effort.

The interior layout emphasized passenger and storage space at the expense of engine access. The engine could be glimpsed through some removable panels, but the main idea was to allow easy removal of the engine (downward) by removing six bolts.  The thinking on engine access was not unlike Porsche's on the 914, which appeared in the same year.  The flat panel connecting the tail lights dropped down for access to the spare tire.  All cars still had spare tires back then...

The flat plank of the dash, with its row of guages and switches, recalled other Italian designs, especially from Ghia; the Mangusta and Ghibli come to mind. The Sinthesis 2000 was not built at Ghia, though; it was a case of Tjaarda doing a bit of moonlighting.  Engineer Giacobbi and Tjaarda, pleased with their handiwork, hoped to get Lancia (by 1970, that meant Fiat) interested in producing the car in series.

Neither the Sinthesis 2000 nor the FL-1 made it into production, owing to the apparent lack of interest from Fiat, and each car would remain a singular example. Fiat management had a change of heart pretty soon afterwards, though, and the result was the Dino-engined Lancia Stratos* which became available in 1973, and which won the World Rally Championship three years running beginning the next year. The Stratos production  overlapped that of the Fiat X1-9 based Lancia Montecarlo (Scorpion in the US) which offered mid-engined motoring at a more affordable price, starting in 1975.  The next time a boxer engine would appear in a member of the etceterini clan, however, it would be a Subaru engine.  But that's a story for the next episode of The Etceterini Files...

*Footnote: The Lancia Stratos is featured in "Lost Cause Lancias", our post for February 15, 2018. 

Photo credits: 
Top (Lombardi GP):  wikimedia
2nd: (Lombardi GP):  the author

3rd:  Francis Lombardi, reproduced in viennaautoshow2018.com
4th & 6th:  archivioprototipi.it
5th:  Francis Lombardi, reproduced in carstyling.ru
7th: Tom Tjaarda Studio, reprroduced in carstyling.ru
8th thru 10th from top:  youtube.com