Lancia Motor Club

Model Technical and Interest => Fulvia => Topic started by: 2Lancialan on 03 February, 2014, 09:02:45 PM



Title: Fulvia Coupe FWJ 292
Post by: 2Lancialan on 03 February, 2014, 09:02:45 PM
A colleague of mine at the office was telling me a fascinating little story about a Fulvia Coupe that she owned about 20+ years ago and she would love to know if the car is still on the road or gathering dust in someone's garage. Apparently the car was quite badly damaged in an accident that she had with a Mercedes, that was being driven on the wrong side of the road by a European diplomat. There's an interesting little twist to this story, that I won't reveal right now and unfortunately Tina had to sell the damaged car, as she couldn't afford to get it repaired. Apparently the number plate was FWJ 292, but it was possibly not the original plate. Some time after the accident she saw the car on the road again, having been fully repaired and fully resprayed. If there's anyone out there who knows the whereabouts or fate of this car, could they possibly please get in touch.
Many thanks,
Alan


Title: Re: Fulvia Coupe FWJ 292
Post by: Dilambdaman on 04 February, 2014, 10:58:48 PM
Hi Alan,

I can fill in some of the blanks for you although not the recent history and I'm going to need to do some digging before I can come up with some of the answers.

Ian Kemp (known to some of you) who worked for Tilleys Lancia, Burgess Hill, West Sussex in the 1970s at one time  ran a Lancia repair workshop having also earlier worked for me as a laundry engineer where he spent most of his time looking after my cars! These days he runs a watch and clock repair shop.

I have spoken with him and he remembers buying FWJ 292 from Tina and having started to repair it struck a deal with me to buy it from him on completion. We decided on dark green for the body colour shown in the photograph attached.

I can't remember how long I ran it but my daughter recalls regularly using it and being assaulted (the car that is) by a bicycle which damaged the front nearside wing. Son, Jonathan, was most upset as he was just about to pass his driving test and was hoping to be allowed to take over the use of it. I'd forgotten, but he remembers, that when we inspected the damage it transpired that more than a blow over was going to be necessary so once again it was into a body shop (not Ian's) for repairs and repaint.

There the trail goes cold because we can't recall how much longer we kept it nor how we disposed of it. I did drive at a Goodwood Track Day and dropped a valve which made a fearful mess of the piston which was later presented to me by Jonathan.  :o  What we do know (and this throws a huge spanner in the works) is that when Jonathan purchased a beautiful dark blue S3 Fulvia Coupe from Andy Bounds the FWJ 292 registration mark was transferred to it. It seems most likely that it was at that point that we disposed of it.

So Alan, if it is of interest I will see if a trawl through various records sheds any light on as to where it went following our disposal of it.

Robin.



Title: Re: Fulvia Coupe FWJ 292
Post by: 2Lancialan on 04 February, 2014, 11:44:56 PM
Hi Robin,

Thanks ever so much for shedding as much light as you have on what became of Tina's old Fulvia Coupe. I know that she'll be delighted to hear what happened to it and to see a picture of the car after it was restored to pristine condition.

It's absolutely amazing to hear that you owned the car for some time, as we've met you and your wife (and the Dilambda of course) on various LMC events, although not very recently, as I've been absent from the club for a while, due to a lengthy period of unemployment. However, I started a new job at the Bank of England back in June and that's where I met Tina.

I've forwarded on a copy of your message posting and photo to Tina, by email. I'm sure she'd be delighted to find out some more information about what happened to the car after you disposed of it, but I'd rather you didn't spend a lot of your personal time digging through the archives.

I'll get back to you after I spoken with Tina and let's take it from there.

Once again, thanks so much for taking the trouble to reply to my message and for being so helpful.

Kind regards,

Alan