At $27,500, Is This 1975 Lancia Fulvia A Full-On Steal?

Amazingly, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Fulvia Safari is claimed to be mostly original and rust-free, despite its many travels and Italian origin. Now, it’s offered out of the owner’s estate, and we need to weigh in on what this rare bird might really be worth.

In a recent video, Alex from the YouTube channel Legit Street Cars faced two challenges with the broken Ford Fiesta ST he bought on a whim from an online auction. The biggest issue was why the car thought it was overheating—and hence was being sold with a warning of a bad motor. The other was whether it had some sort of tune. Over the course of the video, Alex deduced both issues, solving the first, and determining the second via a few pulls on a backroad while reading how much boost the turbo was building.

There was no such mystery surrounding the 2001 Lexus IS 300 we looked at yesterday. It could be told that the car had been tuned, dropped, and 2JZ’d just by catching a glimpse from across the parking lot. That didn’t bode well for its sale, as few people are keen to buy other people’s handiwork. A $29,700 asking price didn’t help matters, as evidenced in the comments and the vote. The latter ultimately sank the Lexus in an overwhelming 98% ‘No Dice’ loss.

You could be forgiven if you’ve never seen a car like this 1975 Lancia Fulvia Safari before. Slack could even be cut if you’re just now learning that the marque still exists to this very day. Once one of Italy’s great automakers and a podium mainstay on the rally racing circuit, Lancia today is relegated to one lowly model, and that, embarrassingly, is nothing more than a reskin of the Peugeot e-208. Who is to blame for such a baleful downfall? That would be Fiat, Lancia’s parent company since 1969. Since that purchase, the monopolistic car company has never really understood what to do with Lancia or its cars.

This Fulvia coupe was designed before the Fiat takeover, and shows off some of what made Lancia unique. Power comes from a 1.3-liter narrow-angle V4 engine fitted with a common DOHC cylinder head, a design that presaged Volkswagen’s VR series by decades. Fed by a duo of Solex side-draught carburetors, the mill was good from the factory for around 100 horsepower. Positioned longitudinally and canted over by 45°, the little four is pushed forward in the engine bay, with its radiator tucked in on the left. Power is fed to the front wheels via a four-speed manual transmission, sitting right behind the engine.

This particular car is a Safari edition, one of a claimed 900 built to celebrate Lancia’s win in the Kenyan Safari Rally. Changes over the standard Fulvia 3 coupe include the deletion of the bumpers, special upholstery for the seats with denim inserts, and model-specific badging on the hood and trunk lid. An engraved plaque on the dash denotes this as number 872 out of those 900 Safaris built.

This car has lost its denim seat upholstery and its original wheels, but otherwise looks reasonably original and intact. It is claimed to have begun life in Italy and was bought in Europe by a rally navigator for use as a road car. It came along with the owner when they moved to America and is now being sold from that owner’s estate. It has a modest 43,000 miles on the clock and comes with a clean, Montana title. As a 1975 model, it is also old enough to limbo under the age regs for emissions controls in states like California, so no worries on having to maintain a Montana P.O. Box to keep that registration.

While this Fulvia is claimed to be all original, the ad does note that the rockers show evidence of an older repair. Also, there are those non-authentic Cromodora wheels from a Beta, but at least they keep it in the family. The only other major misstep is the seats. They have been reupholstered in black vinyl or leather, losing one of the Safari’s key components.

A walk around of the exterior shows the car to be clean and without major issues. The seller claims it to be rust-free, and the pictures both above and below the beltline back that up. The only really notable flaw on the outside is the fading of the tail lamp lenses. Those lend the car a patina of age, but might look better with new plastic. 

Underneath, everything looks solid. There is a misting of oil under the gearbox (rear main seal? oil pan gasket?), but that seems minor. As noted, this is a FWD car with the rear end being comprised of a beam axle on cart springs. That’s a fairly crude setup, but with a lateral link and fat anti-roll bar, Lancia made it work. These are quick cars on the twisties, and it’s a lot of fun to wind out that little V4.

The Fulvia line wasn’t Lancia’s last to be free of Fiat’s influence, but it’s one of the company’s greatest achievements. Too few are here in the States, making this one a rare opportunity. This one’s also just rough enough to be a practical classic that can be taken out on weekends and not consigned to a corner of the garage, sequestered behind velvet ropes or hidden under a cover.

The question for us is whether it is worth the $27,500 the estate is asking for its sale. What’s your take on this once fabulous Fulvia and that asking price? Does $27,500 seem like a fair deal to go on a Safari? Or is that too much for a once but not a future king?

You decide!

Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to Don R. for the hookup!

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