Lancia Gamma Coupe - lie to me

[Six-cylinder]

3 minutes ago, Asimo said:

I like the look of this one because it has the radio blanking plate! Perhaps the proper steering wheel and gearlever knob are in the deal.

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1323687

I still have my Radio blanking plate!

[Matty]

That does look a nice place to sit

[Six-cylinder]

2 minutes ago, Matty said:

That does look a nice place to sit

The whole car is special, where the designers locked the accounts in a cupboard and got on with it!

[AnthonyG]

I can confirm that those seats are exceptionally comfortable to sit in, even when just going round the big field of dreams. Chris’ car has an exceptional interior, I suspect as a result of being garaged for most, or all, of its life.

Given the general unlikeliness of the Italian equivalent of boy racers ever wanting one of these when they were cheap, I would imagine the examples left over there are pretty good. 

[dollywobbler]

3 hours ago, motorpunk said:

...or lie so I have a false sense of confidence...

The Lancia Gamma coupe was based on the running gear of the Volvo 262, but with the engine turning the other way and mounted in the glovebox. The bodywork was designed by Fidel Castro and smuggled out of Cuba by a group of spying ninja nuns from Italy. These same nuns also tried to sabotage the Japanese car industry by suggesting to Nissan that it should work with Alfa Romeo.

Naturally, you should buy one.

[Skizzer]

So full disclosure, mine — a series 2 coupe — is off the road awaiting its turn for restoration. But the only faults with it are previous owner wiring bodges and parts made by Bosch, not Lancia.

Let’s deal with the engine stuff first.  It has the usual boxer tendency to leak oil a bit from the (vertical) rocker covers, and like most engines they don’t thrive on lack of routine maintenance. The head gasket thing is mostly internet folklore — the factory fitted paper gaskets but modern gasket materials mean nowadays this is no more of an issue than any other car.  

The 2.5 fitted to all UK cars has bags of torque in the low/mid range and decent power at the top end, a really nice combination. It’s not a particularly fast car, reaching 60mph just inside 10 seconds, but it keeps up well.  It doesn’t have the refinement of a six: it’s nice and smooth when it’s revving but the boxer beat is quite rough at idle.

The ride is smooth and the handling is good in an understeery sort of way. You notice the long overhang at the front in tighter corners, but you get used to it.

Tales of epic rust are just the usual pub bore crap. Mine had most of the paint rubbed off by a dust sheet then lived outdoors for a decade and it just needs a bit of attention at the bottom corners of the rear screen; around the tail lights is another hotspot though mine is fine there. They don’t rust as badly as any Ford of the same era, for example, and no worse than a ‘hewn from granite’ Merc W123.

As @Mrs6C and @Six-cylinder said, the Gamma Consortium keeps a good supply of parts and there are plenty of Italian car places that will work on them. Some are expensive high end specialists but not all.

I would avoid the early cars: they are more delicate and it’s true that on full lock from cold the power steering pump could make the timing belt slip, with fairly disastrous results. This was largely remedied at the facelift with an extra tensioner (or maybe an idler, I forget).

The interior and the detail styling touches are fabulous. Things like the door handles are beautifully engineered and it’s full of delights — I recently drove a 2000HF (=Flavia) Coupe and was surprised how clearly it was the Gamma’s progenitor.

The plain plastic dash and binnacle lets the side down though. It’s not awful but it’s not beautiful, which is noticeable because everything else is.

The rare automatic gearbox is apparently unreliable (AP, not Lancia) and anyway they have mostly been replaced with the fine 5-speed manual, including on my own car.  It’s also fairly pointless — all that torque means you don’t have to change gear much around town. The five speed box is good and has a gorgeous gearstick.

If you haven’t already read it, I strongly recommend Eoín Doyle’s superb essay on Driven to Write: https://driventowrite.com/2016/08/08/lancia-gamma-profile-history-development/

All the ignorance and horseshit about them means they’re about a quarter of the price of a Fiat 130 Coupe and a third that of a Flavia. So GIFB.

[chaseracer]

24 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

The Lancia Gamma coupe was based on the running gear of the Volvo 262, but with the engine turning the other way and mounted in the glovebox. The bodywork was designed by Fidel Castro and smuggled out of Cuba by a group of spying ninja nuns from Italy. These same nuns also tried to sabotage the Japanese car industry by suggesting to Nissan that it should work with Alfa Romeo.

Naturally, you should buy one.

Sounds legit.  Where do I sign?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

3 hours ago, richardmorris said:

I do like cars drawn with a ruler. My favourite is a fiat 130 with an orange fozzy bear interior.

I'd go for the Fiat 130 Coupé, to be honest. It just looks a bit more patrician and respectable, with a hint of Cosa Nostra.

[motorpunk]

10 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I'd go for the Fiat 130 Coupé, to be honest. It just looks a bit more patrician and respectable, with a hint of Cosa Nostra.

I’d love one but as mentioned above they’re quite a bit more expensive, aren’t they?

[barrett]

Obviously you should buy a Gamma coupé, it's one of the best-looking cars ever made and it's a Lancia, a company which I'm pretty sure never built a bad car (modern abominations notwithstanding).

A word of caution if you really think you'll find a cheap one in Italy. I can't speak for that nation, but it's basically no longer possible to import a car from France since we bravely voted to take back control*. The Europeans are having a lot of fun enforcing their new bureaucracy on silly English people. A friend of mine had to pay £4000 to get a car from the South of France to the UK recently (against the £1000 it would have cost before), and I imagine the Italians are going to be just as spiteful. Most UK-based car transporters have just stopped taking on European work because of the extra paperwork and fees involved.

Also, are they not less highly valued in this country, due to being 'forrin' and all the above mentioned pub expert lore surrounding them?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, motorpunk said:

I’d love one but as mentioned above they’re quite a bit more expensive, aren’t they?

Yes, their cheap shite days are over. You can partly blame Martin Buckley for that!

[Asimo]

4 hours ago, barrett said:

Obviously you should buy a Gamma coupé, it's one of the best-looking cars ever made and it's a Lancia, a company which I'm pretty sure never built a bad car (modern abominations notwithstanding).

Also, are they not less highly valued in this country, due to being 'forrin' and all the above mentioned pub expert lore surrounding them?

‘Forrin’ they may be, but the engine has a properly colonial 4 inch bore and 3 inch stroke.  Just like a 302  Ford.

 

[ProgRocker]

I'm convinced that the Fiat 130 coupé & Gamma coupé influenced the styling of the Ford Granada mark 2  (designed by Uwe Bahnsen?).

[Fumbler]

The quality of steel used on these cars surpasses all others in terms of environmental friendliness.

Buy one.

[richardmorris]

4 hours ago, Asimo said:

‘Forrin’ they may be, but the engine has a properly colonial 4 inch bore and 3 inch stroke.  Just like a 302  Ford.

 

Two of those I didn’t know existed. ( estate and targa).

[Skizzer]

29 minutes ago, ProgRocker said:

I'm convinced that the Fiat 130 coupé & Gamma coupé influenced the styling of the Ford Granada mark 2  (designed by Uwe Bahnsen?).

Interesting thought. I can see where you’re coming from, though the mk2 Granada must’ve been well on its way when the Gamma came out in 1978. 

Fun fact: according to a profile in CAR in 1982, Uwe Bahnsen’s office had two car models on display — his own mk3 Escort and a Rover SD1.

23 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

The quality of steel used on these cars surpasses all others in terms of environmental friendliness.

Yawn.

[garethj]

If you have the opportunity, you should definitely buy one.  They’re so pretty I can genuinely feel it in my heart when I look at one.

Everything else in terms of shortcomings can be dealt with by simply adding time or money 👍

[Bitzer]

On 30/04/2021 at 23:19, Skizzer said:

parts made by Bosch, not Lancia

Every Fiatista/Alfista/Lancista knows it is German parts failing, not Italian ones.

The word has it that root cause of 2.0 Twin Spark reliability problems are oil level/pressure sensors made by Bosch.

Una carrozza spettacolare 😍

[motorpunk]

1 hour ago, Bitzer said:

Una carrozza spettacolare 😍

I don’t speak Italian. Please, take my phone and wallet, but don’t hurt my face.

Which is probably also a summary of what ownership is like.

 

[Matty]

Ah just get one bought bud. Any cars a risk, especially older. You have to have what you want in the end 👍

[Tadhg Tiogar]

12 hours ago, garethj said:

... adding time or money 

Both

[Mr Pastry]

No need to worry, really.    As Mr 6C has said, the correct interior cloth has been remanufactured, so you can have a lovely place to sit while you wait for the replacement clutch cable to come from Italy.  They will eventually send the LHD part, which will be too short.

[HMC]

I remember reading various running reports on these by Martin Buckley in the 90s/ 00s and more recently he’s writing about them again. He’s probably owned a fair proportion of the uk survivors/ spares vehicles stock

[motorpunk]

Coming back to this... I never found a Gamma Coupe, but wrote a meaty feature about them in the November 2023 edition of Classic Retro Modern magazine which, if this (and 205s, Kia Elans, Citroen C5s, Renault RX4s etc) takes your fancy, then please buy a copy here and help keep print alive;

https://classicretromodern.com/product/pre-order-issue-25-retail-shop-cover-edition-now-on-sale-in-the-shops-on-1st-november-2023-free-pp-uk-only/

 

[Adrian_pt]

This is gently rotting round the corner from me and it's a crying shame. Lovely things

[motorpunk]

1 hour ago, Adrian_pt said:

This is gently rotting round the corner from me and it's a crying shame. Lovely things

Lovely colour! MOT system says 25k miles and no MOT for 2 years. 

[mk2_craig]

On 20/10/2023 at 16:55, motorpunk said:

no MOT

Exempt now. You would imagine that it's clocked up a bit more mileage than that though! 

[motorpunk]

My feature in Classic Retro Modern now 😎

[Rocket88]

On 30/04/2021 at 18:46, Tadhg Tiogar said:

It may not be a good idea to turn the steering wheel to full lock, especially when the engine is cold. Allegedly. Might be an old wives' tale.

Awkward spares situation. 

It isn’t 😱

[carlo]

On 20/10/2023 at 10:09, motorpunk said:

Coming back to this... I never found a Gamma Coupe, but wrote a meaty feature about them in the November 2023 edition of Classic Retro Modern magazine which, if this (and 205s, Kia Elans, Citroen C5s, Renault RX4s etc) takes your fancy, then please buy a copy here and help keep print alive;

https://classicretromodern.com/product/pre-order-issue-25-retail-shop-cover-edition-now-on-sale-in-the-shops-on-1st-november-2023-free-pp-uk-only/

 

Love your magazine by the way.  Seems others appreciate its quality too with copies of Issue 1 fetching between £50 - £100 on ebay.  (Possibly a better investment choice than the Gamma too?)