Well Bought

Lancia Appia

CAR 1961 Lancia Appia 3rd series Berlina SOLD £3920 ORIGINAL ESTIMATE £5000-7000, Brightwells online, 4 July

Think Lancia and all too many people will think of Integrales...

….and Fulvias, Betas Gammas and Flaminias to a lesser extent. What that means is that all too often the following is smaller for lesser-known models like the Appia, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. For anyone thinking of throwing their hat into the ring for this smart Italian saloon, there are fewer other would-be buyers competing for the limited numbers of survivors in the UK.

You get more for your money than comparable Brit classics.

Brightwells’ Appia showed just how sophisticated Lancia’s engineering was, in even its small saloons, with a specification that would put British cars of the same era and size to shame. Power came from a 1.1-litre V4 designed by Vittorio Jano (who moved to Lancia from Alfa Romeo in 1937 and later designed the D50 Grand Prix car), with independent sliding pillar front suspension. Style-wise the Appia saloon was very low key, although it featured pillarless doors, the rears opening backwards like those on a Rover P4.

Condition helped make this one particularly good value.

There was much in its favour, as the auctioneer detailed. It was an original right-hand drive model and the engine had been re-built in 1978, since when the car had not been used very much. It had been serviced recently. The only real downside was the paint, which wasn’t the greatest and as the sale notes pointed out, it would ‘benefit from attention to the paintwork’. While the more fastidious would want to sort that out, here was a car that could be enjoyed as it was, with an eye on sorting the paint out come the winter.

You’ll be waiting a while for the next one to come along.

This was a rarely-seen gem – in fact, only the second Appia seen at a UK auction this year - that would certainly appeal to those with an appreciation for engineering. This Berlina’s buyer did well to land this Lancia beneath its lower estimate, even if it’s an under-the-radar offering. The company’s cars from this period were always superior-quality cars, so this was an extremely interesting, great-value buy.