Lancia Motor Club

I have really enjoyed the recent exchanges on this forum about some of the things that make the Aprilia such a magic car. I was prompted to look back into my archive of old stuff to look for the article by Paul Frere about the rear suspension, which I had mentioned early on. I couldn’t find it, but I did turn up some other things that might be of interest again now.

One article that I was pleased to read again was by the late Norman Wilson, who did extraordinary things with Aprilias in the late 60s and early 70s – this is a long article from the LMC Journal published in Spring 1973. It describes competing at Shelsley Walsh and tells how he fitted BRM rear wheels to reduce the final drive ratios, and in vivid detail how he got on with it. There is quite a good photo of the car too.

I have scanned this article using OCR (which I think in this instance stands for ‘optimistically capturing rainbows’), but it’s still a large file. If you are interested to see this, please email me and I will send a copy to you.

Also, I have scanned an article I wrote in 1991, which tells of how I got involved in Aprilias and what it meant to me in the 1960s. And there are some notes on maintaining an Aprilia by a number of people including John Savage.

Please let me know if you would like to receive any of this.

Footnote: Dipping back into my chaotic collection of old stuff makes me think again about the advantages of having a proper LMC archive easily accessible online to members. I’ll do another post on this in the Members Only section.

Colin     

hi Colin , i would love to have a look at this old stuff!would i be right in thinking i may already have the 1991 article if i look back through my old LMC mags from that time?      richard.

count me in also Colin please.

I would be most interested in "catching up". Thanks for the offer

Geoff

The article that I refer to as the one written by me is in the LMC Journal of Spring 1992 – it was written as a tribute to Roger Perry who had died the previous year. If you have old copies of the Journal, then best to see it in that form complete with photos that I now seem to have lost.

I’ll send you all copies of what I have.

Colin

Colin,
I have the 92 spring journal and enjoyed the article when I read it. I always liked the look of the farina aprilia I must say.

I would be interested to read the 73 Norman Wilson article if not too much trouble ,
Thanks
William

Whilst not wishing to detract from Colin's kind offer, for all those interested in what has been published by LMC in the past the LIBRARY has a virtually full set of Newsletters, Newssheets, Journals and Viva Lancias and I believe an index of articles.  There are also lists of items held by model for most models and the Librarian can supply photo copies to members at very modest cost to cover copying and post.

The Library is a service for members and a good place to start finding out what is available in you area of interest.

The Librarian's details are pubilshed monthly in Viva Lancia!

Don

Just as a bit of useless information> The ex Roger Perry Aprilia special, used to belong to John Maltby, older members will remember him, I can remember when my father worked with John, he borrowed the car for the weekend and we went to Ramsgate, all four of us, alas i was only a mere sprog at the time , but can still remember it was noisy!! Told you it was a useless bit of information. Regards to all. Roger. Been trying to remember the reg number.

Further to Don's post, the library would seem to be a great starting point for a digital archive. Surely, the least contentious area when it comes to copyright!

Now now Harvey, don't start coming up with your own ideas It can only lead to..............

Roger,

It was “NGP 50” – bodywork by Stabilimenti Farina. I remember it too as being very noisy and not particularly nice to drive. Perhaps unique in having a steering column gearshift into a non-synchromesh box!

The picture below was taken by John Maltby.

Colin

Colin, if you remember the steering column was extended as the driver sat roughly in the place where the rear seat was in a stanard Aprilia!!!  I think Roger sold it to someone in Italy, I wonder where it is now?

Back to the subject of the Digital Archive, it's all well and good that the Club has the Library. I have most News Sheets and Journals back to the year dot........but if you want to find something it takes hours of searching and you keep getting side tracked by other articles. Just imagine how easy it would be if all you had to do was log on, type in Aprilia and hey presto you had a list of all Aprilia articles ever written in the Club publications.  We can but dream!!!!!!!!!

Ade

Thats just what the Library has all be it currently in paper form!  I believe that the cost of electronic archiving is being investigated but this will take time and the expense may not be justified until most members are active computer users.

Don 

I'm all in favour of a digital archive but as the Library currently makes money for the LMC then surely a charge would need to be built into the system, if it's free then I feel a restriction would need to be placed on the amount a member was allowed to print off, otherwise we could have the situation where some people (excuse me being a bit cynical) might be tempted to pull off a complete manual for their own use, or to sell on; it may sound a bit harsh but having lent my one of my Dedra Manuals to someone to look up a particular job for himself, I shortly after found that he was selling copies of my Dedra Manual on ebay :( I was not amused.

Brian
8227 8)

PS.
Harvey, any chance of moving this to a seperate thread of it's own,
My PC was playing silly B's and I lost my place, taken me a hell of a time to find where it is :(

   I drove Maltby's Farina bodied Aprilia NGP 50 many thousands of miles when I worked for him. It was a great car and had the most superb gearchange. I helped Bob West rebush all the bell cranks (when "photographic" business was quiet) and it was probably the best steering column change I have ever used. You could change gear with one finger. The roadholding was more predictable than ordinary Aprilias and it went faster, probably due to its shape and weight distribution.
   At one stage, Maltby put EGF's engine in it, which was a particularly good first series motor, which made it a great car for long distances. Maltby and I went on a job to Scotland in it and he was done for speeding in Glasgow and cautioned by another policeman further north (I forget exactly where). There was an old "hill climb" alongside Lock Lomond which we went up and down a few times, just for the hell of it! That was my favourite Aprilia.
    I don't remember it being particularly noisy, but it had a useless handbrake and on one occasion, Maltby and I drove it back to London from Weymouth without any brakes. We waited 'till it got dark and the traffic thinned out a bit, but we made it without hitting anything. One of the dodgier drives of my life! Happy memories, John

Thanks John & Colin,for the replys and pic, for those who knew John Maltby, you can see it is one of his photos. I am sure that my father has a photo of his old Lambda BCO 987, taken at the same spot as this photo was, when Maltby had BCO, after my father had sold it too him  way back in the early 60s. Re driving without brakes, if someone has to hand the article from the 1992 mag about Roger Perry, then could they please post on here, the bit about when Maltby took Roger out for a drive in his first Aprilia, then you can imagine the glorious noise that i used to hear, as Maltby would be arriving at our house for dinner driving a B20 at full chat, i can remember hearing every gearchange from about 2 miles away, bearing in mind i was only a youngster at the time. One day maybe i will have my own B20, been close a couple of times, but not quite got there. :) Regards Roger.

John,

I agree with you about the gear-change, and nothing I wrote was to disparage this aspect of NGP. You must have done a good job on re-bushing it. As I remember, it was all within the grasp of the outstretched left hand, with a big knurled amber knob and it just clonked in and out with ease. I envy you the hill climb experience! Did you ever have any photos of the dash and controls of this car?

Others have asked - what happened to it?  Some time after Roger died it went to Italy to a buyer who insisted on being anonymous, and then it went on to someone else – who knows. One day it will surface.

Colin 

Sorry to bring this up again on the Aprilia page, but you are correct Brian the Club does make a profit from Library activity........ last year it was £12. Now this is no fault of the Librarian but simply because the Library is under used. If the information was available to all members for free on the forum I am sure we would easily get more revenue from increased membership, something the Club is in desperate need of. As for manuals being reproduced, correct me if I am wrong but I don't think that the Club have any manuals in the Library, as these were owned by the ex-Librarian.  If there are manuals these could be provided electronically for a fee. Ade.

I agree with Ade. I am sure I have paid good money for literature from EBay or other sources that I could have (and would have preferred to) get from the club. If I am am spending a tenner I would rather it went to the club then an individual I don't know. But to make that a reality a searchable resource is what is needed - technical knowledge about Lancias is the key element we have in abundance that no other club has, let us use its to our advantage.

Jumping in with both feet, if we had a complete list (on the forum perhaps) of what the library
contained it would be easy to then contact the librarian and ask for a specific item and cost
of reproduction.

Geoff

following Geoff's theme
A hybrid proposal could be;

1)A list on here of library contents
2)order via the forum the article/info needed.
3)Pay by visa etc on the main website (same system as membership renewal)
4) and we buy a scanner (laptop also perhaps) for the librarian.
5) he sends the attachment electronically to the member.
6)At the same time he archives the doc. on the "library" computer hard drive and we have a basic start to electronic archiving.  Rather than a very complex costly investment discussion

While looking for something else, I find a really nice article by my old friend Howard Moon, who wrote several memorable articles about Aurelia and fine things from the past. This is reprinted from Lanciana in 1992 and is about his Aprilia, and links back to lovely impressions of John Maltby, who he knew from the 70s. I have scanned it in and will be happy to send it to anyone who wants it.

Colin

Well, I am more than a little surprised.
I have publisised lists of the documents, including lots of manuals Ade, also did no one see my note in VL about the model specific lists of articles in all the VLs that it took quite a while to create. I obviously need to re-publisise it. Also I have a list of articles in the Journals that another club member has created.
Oh yes, by the way, I do not have a LMC PC or lap top, I use the family one for accessing personal stuff and my machine has been out of order for a couple of months. It is sort of fixed now, I hope.

My contact details are in the VL. If you need anything that you think the library could help with, then please send me an E-mail as I do not have time to look at the Forum regulary to read everyone's mutterings like the majority of club members.
Chris

Chris,
It was not a criticism of your work if anything it was to make your life easier in the future and to raise funds
for the club. Part of the suggestion was that the Club could possibly purchase a scanner and lap-top for the
Librarian eventually leading to an electronic database, which would be easily accessable, which I imagine with
the piles of literature is not easy at the present time.
regards
Geoff

Chris,

I don't think you should be suprised really, these discussions have been going on for some time now and the take up of library material appears low despite a thirst for knowledge. The idea that if people want something enough they will find it doesn't really promote maximum use of the resource, at least not in the spirit of the club philosophy. If I even mention a need for information , I often have it in my mailbox within a few hours due to the kind efforts of fellow forum users.To follow the logic of your comments , I for one don't have time or patience these days to mess around with stamped adressed envelopes/trips to the post office/photocopying so I wouldn't expect you to operate this way anymore either.
Geoff is right in what he says and some of the ideas mooted might make the job less time consuming.I for one proposed the club supplies a computer /scanner with the idea of simplifying the process of distributing library articles.