Sunday Morning Dog Show with Cars: A Sequel

 

There were so many dogs at the newly expanded Boulder Coffee and Classics, the 2nd of the spring season on May 18, that even with all the added cars extending along Pearl Street from the original 8th Street lineup, it sometimes felt like a dog show with cars as an added attraction. These pooches showed up with their guardian on 8th where it tees into Pearl...

Just around the corner in front of Lolita's Grocery, they had a chance to sniff out one ot the stars of the show.  Alfa Romeo's Giulietta Sprint Speciale, designed by Franco Scaglione and bodied by Bertone, first appeared in the autumn 1957 Turin Show, three years after Bertone's Giulietta Sprint, the "standard" Giulietta coupe, also designed by Scaglione.  The first 101 cars, built to satisfy FIA production rules requiring 100, had a lower nose, and some had all-alloy bodies to go with the already-famous aluminum Giulietta 1300 engine.  Some of the alloy cars lacked bumpers; the originals featured a drag coefficient of 0.28, which was not bettered for over 2 decades.  Later production cars had the higher air intake shown here, with more protective bumpers, and steel bodies with aluminum doors, hood and deck lids.

The cabin displays instruments and controls focused on the task of driving, along with comfortable seats for the driver and 1 passenger.  The padded space behind the front seats was best left for luggage owing to limited leg room.

This car's owner noted that the 1290cc engine has been rebuilt and expanded to 1700cc, and noted that there doesn't seem to be a straight line on the car.  The design featured Scaglione's signature tapered contours, and even the door windows were curved in plan.  A production 1600cc Giulia version appeared in 1963. A total of 1,366 Giulietta Sprint Speciales were built, and another 1,400 of the Giulia version.

The Aston Martin DB4 GT below, one of 75 short-chassis cars with the twin-plug DOHC six aimed at road racing, also featured a body designed in Italy, in this case by Touring Superleggera.  Also on the same 93" wheelbase, Zagato bodied 19 of 25 chassis allocated for them, using the same twin-plug Vantage engine.  All these cars are highly prized today...

…like this 4.25 Liter Bentley from 1939, one of 100 MR series cars with overdrive, Marles light steering, and an upgraded central lubrication system, out of the 1,234 Bentley 4.25 Liters built from 1936-39.  The bodywork on this open sports tourer is in a style by Vanden Plas, but the actual coachbuilder was not noted.

My dog Watson seemed to enjoy the attention he got from passers-by, and also the distinctive aromas offered by some of the cars.

He also enjoyed meeting a new friend named Lupo.

This blue Alfa GTV was one of our favorites; tasteful mods from stock include deleting bumpers and horizontal grille bar, updated alloy wheels, as well as fine mesh flanking the shield-shaped Alfa grille in an opening with smaller lights inboard of the headlights that was featured on 105 Series GTVs in 1969 and 1970.  These were the first available with the 1750 (actually 1779cc) engine, but we don't know which version powers this car...

The Alfa Romeo below was part of a series of rear-transaxle cars built from 1972-84, a chassis design shared by the fastback Alfetta GT and later GTV6.  Marketed in the US from 1975-77 as the Alfetta Sedan and until '79 as the Sport Sedan, it offered 50/50 weight distribution with resulting sharp handling as well as 4-wheel disc brakes that must have been appreciated by the Italian police that used it in this period.  The message at the base of the rear window tells you to call 112 for an "Instant Intervention."  

The Alfa GTV below also featured the bumper delete, alloy wheels, and a tasty striping job that, according to the license plate inscription, are intended to remind us of the aluminum-bodied, twin spark plug GTA version...

The north side of Pearl St. between 8th and 9th was taken over by British machinery, including the Metropolitan at the head of the lineup. These cars were sold in the US by Nash, but built by BMC with Austin 4-cylinder engines, in 1,200cc form from 1954-56, and in 1500 form with snazzy two-tone color schemes from mid-year 1956 until mid-1960, though sales continued into '62.  After '57 the cars were badged AMC rather than Nash.  A Lotus 7 is adjacent, then a Triumph TR6 and an original Mini that's been hot-rodded with Honda power.  All have appeared in previous posts...

The show was a convenient place for pooches to catch up on treats offered by car lovers, who also seem to be dog lovers.

We decided not to crop this photo of a Morris Mini Cooper because the space around the lonesome little car underlines its tiny size; the 10 foot overall length on an 80 inch wheelbase was part of the design brief for engineer Alec Issigonis when BMC handed him the project in the late Fifties. The first Mini saw the light of day in 1959, and by the middle of the Sixties the cars were a success on the international rally circuit and a symbol of Swinging London.

The owner of this Mini Cooper has spent some rally time behind the wheel, and apparently feels the way most of us do about the year 2020. 

The new expanded lineup along Pearl Street included this Porsche 914 and Triumph Spitfire, and various 911s across the street from that Carabinieri Alfa.

Across Pearl from that gold 914, a late Eighties Ferrari Testarossa shows off its 4.9 liter, 380 hp flat-12 mounted ahead of a 5-speed transaxle. The Testarossa was one of the most popular of the big-engined Ferraris, with over 9,900 produced from 1984-1996, counting the F512 and 512M variants that were built starting in 1992.

As we continued our ramble down Pearl towards 9th, we discovered this immaculately restored XK150, a Jaguar offering from 1957 until April of 1961, when the E-Type was introduced.  Beyond it, three specimens of Lotus were parked in a row, including a Sprint (called Eclat in Europe) from the mid-70s to early 80s, a brown mid-engined Europa (1967-72), this one a Series 2 with twin-cam engine, and a yellow Elan +2 (1967-74)...

Not the kind of thing you'd ever encounter in your average supermarket parking lot.

Then again, there wasn't much on display at the May Coffee and Classics that you'd encounter in the average supermarket lot, and with mild weather, refreshments available at Spruce Confections, and a friendly crowd of people and their pooches, there wasn't anything not to enjoy either. 

Event schedule note: 

For more info on Boulder Coffee & Classics, you might contact Mike Burroughs by way of fuelfedboulder@gmail.com.

Photo Credits:  

All photos are by the author.  

Forgotten Classics: Lancia Flavias by Pininfarina, Vignale and Zagato

In the late Fifties, the Pesenti family that had taken over Lancia after Gianni Lancia's racing expenditures had bankrupted the firm sought a design to fill the gap between small V4 Appia and upper-crust V6 Flaminia. Engineer Antonio Fessia came up with an aluminum horizontally-opposed four, initially in 1.5 liter form, driving the front wheels through a 4-speed transaxle and with 4-wheel disc brakes (2 firsts for an Italian car). The flat four was the first for Lancia, which had gained fame with its V4 Lambda in the Twenties before producing V8s and then the first production V6 with the 1950 Aurelia.  The body design of the Flavia sedan, however, appeared to have been designed (unlike, for example, the Citroen DS) to show no hint of its advanced engineering.  Instead, it was boxy, slab-sided and charmless.  The year after production started, Lancia attempted to remedy this, not by restyling the sedan, but by launching 3 sports versions by 3 different carrozzeria: a coupe shown above by Pininfarina, a cabriolet by VIgnale, and a lightweight Sport by Zagato. The Pininfarina coupe turned out to be the most popular of the three, with production topping 19,000 units, most of these being the 1.8 liter.

The instrument panel signalled the deluxe GT character of the car, which substituted a steeply-angled floor shift for the column shift in the sedan.  The roof and side window design was similar to that on Pininfarina's Ferrari 250 GT 2+2, though the Lancia received horizontal tail lights...

Starting in 1962, there was also a cabriolet version designed by Giovanni Michelotti and built by Vignale.  The car's restrained lines seemed aimed at the same clientele of doctors or lawyers that adopted the Pininfarina coupe. The dark blue over tan color scheme of this example seems to suit its personality.

Unlike the PF coupe, the Vignale cabriolet used the same instrument cluster as the Flavia sedan, a decision that seemed to undercut the sporting character of the car. Though Flavia berlinas originally came with a steering column-mounted shift lever to go with the less-sportive ribbon speedometer; the coupes and cabrios had a floor shift controlling 4 speeds.

Of the 1,601 specimens of the Vignale Flavia produced, only 40 were confirmed to have right-hand drive like the silver example below, which also features the optional hardtop.  Production of the Vignale cabrio ended after 1967.

The Zagato-bodied Flavia Sport, also introduced in 1962, was aluminum-bodied, and equipped with either a 1.5 or 1.8 liter four and 4-speed transaxle, though some higher-performance fuel-injected 1.8 versions featured a 5-speed.  Just under 630 examples rolled out of Zagato's workshops, including 3 prototypes, and 512 of these had the larger engine. They all, however, had somewhat polarizing styling by Ercole Spada.  This included a folded version of the vaguely shield-shaped grille, and chunky proportions belying the car's light weight.

Like Vignale, Zagato adopted the Flavia sedan's instrument cluster, and it seems a bit more surprising in this context. 

The rear view shows off side windows that curve into the roof, recalling the Panoramica* show cars Zagato built in the late Forties and early Fifties, but unlike on those cars create a discontinuity with the front door windows.  The backlight is concave, anticipating a theme that would appear on some GM production cars, and the low rectangular shape of the rear wheel arch seem out of character with the car's sporting intentions.  The Zagato and Vignale cars, unlike the PF coupe, use tail lights from the Flavia sedan.

Production of Zagato's Sport ended after 1967, and Ercole Spada's proposal for a successor car reflected contemporary trends at the same time it suggested a design language that could be applied to the rest of Lancia's product line. 

The Flavia Super Sport Zagato prototype shown above and below, one of two built in 1967-68, represented Spada's response to the creased, wedge-shaped cars then appearing from Giugiaro at Ghia. Spada managed to include plenty of curves as well, in profile, plan and section. This car, from the Lopresto collection, is the 2 liter prototype from 1968; a 1.8 liter car to the same design appeared in the previous year.

This modernist take on the traditional shield-shaped Lancia grille gives the nose more character than the simple rectangle on Zagato's Fulvia Sport, or on the various 1960s Lancias from Pininfarina, Touring or Vignale.  Like the crisply creased and sleekly proportioned profile of the Super Sport, it could have served as a template for establishing a strong Lancia identity across the rest of the line.

Unlike the Zagato Sport, the Super Sport received an instrument panel designed for the car.

In the photo below, the 1.8 liter Super Sport prototype shows off its concave rear window, which is better integrated into the form than on the previous Sport model.  The 1.8 liter engine in it was actually a new unit based on the Type 820 two-liter, and with the same 80mm stroke.  Elio Zagato, son of founder Ugo, liked this car so well he used it as his personal transport for years.  It's possible to imagine a whole line of Lancias based around this design, including sport wagons, sedans, and spiders.  Instead, Fiat management decided to pursue a less risky path...

Not surprisingly given its financial trouble and a need to cast a wider net, what Lancia did authorize for production next was an updated Flavia in factory-bodied sedan form, and in coupe form with a thoroughly revised Pininfarina body.  It was the last Lancia designed before Fiat took over the company late in 1969, and was introduced at the Geneva Show in March 1969.  Engine displacement was increased to 1,991 cc, placing the car in the increasingly popular 2-liter class. Fuel-injected and carbureted versions were offered from the beginning. Your faithful scribe has been hanging out with this carbureted, 4-speed PF coupe for the last 7 years...

It's a 1970 model, and though at first glance looks like a light restyle of the 1962 design, there are almost no interchangeable body panels between the two. Drivers faced the same instrument layout, but initially the only wood was on the steering wheel.  Fiat changed that in 1971, reintroducing wood veneer on the dash. 

Our example has the Lancia Flavia nameplate flanking the trunk latch, with a small "2000" script above the right tail light.  For the 1971 model year, Fiat would rename the series Lancia 2000, and drop the Flavia nameplate.  Of the special-bodied models, only the Pininfarina coupe was continued once the 1.5 and 1.8 liter engines were dropped.  According to Richard Langworth, 6,791 of the the Flavia 2000 and 2000 series coupes with the Type 820 engine, were built.

As with the smaller, more rally-oriented Fulvia V4 cars, Lancia offered an HF version of the Flavia coupe, renamed 2000HF when this version was launched in 1971.  Only 1,229 left the factory before production closed for 1975.  Features included Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection, a 5-speed transaxle, and power steering.

This 1973 example shows off alloy wheels and a chrome-framed, black-finished grille.  Under hood, the geometry of the engine is concealed, unlike on Lancia's V4s and V6s, by intake plumbing and accessories. One misses the visual clarity of the V-engined Lancias, but specialists liked the low profile and center of mass, and employed the drivetrain in a couple of mid-engined prototypes*

The HF has the wood veneer dash and instrument cluster Fiat brought back, but details are different from the dash in our 1970 car; for one, the 3 small instruments centered in the binnacle are now in a 2 over 1 arrangement.  Despite the 2000 HF's refinement, Lancia's sporting program was headed elsewhere under Fiat management.  A Fulvia HF* won the Monte Carlo Rally the year before this '73 HF was built, and the mid-engined Lancia Stratos* would win the World Rally Championship in 1974, '75 and '76.  In the WRC, Lancia's all-wheel drive Delta Integrales would take all Constructors' Championships from 1987-92, and 4 Drivers' Championships.  But the Stratos story has been told in our blog before*, and the Delta story will need to wait for another day.

*Footnote:  Zagato Panoramica bodies on Maserati and Ferrari chassis appear in "Body by Zagato Part 1:  Ferrari and Maserati in the Fifties", posted here on March 31, 2020.  Fulvia HFs were surveyed here in "Hi-Fi: Racing Red Elephants from Lancia", posted Oct. 3, 2016, while mid-engined Flavia-powered specials were the focus of "The Etceterini Files Part 15", posted Oct. 26, 2018. The Lancia Stratos is featured, along with a doomed effort to revive it, in "Lost Cause Lancias", our post for February 15, 2018. 

Photo credits: 
Top & 2nd from top:  bringatrailer.com

3rd:  Wikimedia
4th & 5th:  bringatrailer.com
6th:  RM Sotheby's Auctions
7th thru 9th: bringatrailer.com
10th thru 12th:  George Havelka

13th:  carrozzieri-italiani.com

14th:  classicdriver.com

15th thru 18th:  the author

19th thru bottom:  classicautoinvest.fr