Separated at birth
Taxes aren’t all bad. The Zag’s very existence came about when new punitive Italian levies were forced upon owners of big-engined cars. The fallout saw the development of a thriving market for smallerengined ones with distinctive coachbuilt bodies. Lancia’s go-to carrozzeria for this work was Zagato, which fashioned an eccentric body initially fabricated in alloy to clothe standard Fulvia mechanicals. It switched to steel for later cars like mine.
Fulvia Sport Zagato buyers paid a hefty 20.74 per cent premium in order to stand out stylistically; in return they took delivery of a car with a slipperier aerodynamic coefficient, which resulted in both improved performance and fuel consumption. And reduced loss of face.
Fast-forward 47 years and, having moved on from the replacement of the front sill/ subframe mounting box to tackling the rear wheelarch, removal of the interior trim panel caused a sudden thickening of the Zagato plot. The rear of the B-pillar structure itself had been chomped, and not particularly neatly, most likely for fitment of speakers at some point in the car’s life. Also, shining a torch into the innards of the wheelarch itself brought to light what appeared to be a distinct structural puzzle.
Amid a plethora of uttered ‘surely not’s and ‘why would they?’s, I removed the rear wheel and spent the next hour stripping underseal, removing two small riveted alloy closing panels to reveal what we initially suspected – inner and outer wheelarch never the twain did meet.
Instead of welding both together as per the Fulvia Coupé, the fabricators merely toyed with the idea of connecting them before they settled on riveting the aforementioned light alloy panel to both and then seam-sealed it. Job done. Or not.
Further investigation revealed it to be the same case at the front wheelarch, although there was at least a token three-inch welded section between the lower front edges. It appears Sport owners have been lucky that testers never removed the interior trim during Mots; ‘Sir, it appears that your expensive coachbuilt car is, well, a touch structurally unsound.’ And perhaps unlucky should they ever have been in an impact.
Flicking through period road tests there’s no mention of this, although a 1982 profile piece mentions the Sport’s ‘flimsier construction’. Why didn’t the fabricators join them? Cost? Speed? Probably both.
The good news is that I can use the alloy panels as a template for new steel extensions, which I’ll then seam-weld in place to finally connect all inner and outer arches. More work, yes; but opportunity to continue improving my fabrication and welding skills. And when coupled with the other strengthening work I’m carrying out – intermediate sills, seam-welding, and subframe and body kits – it’ll result in one of the strongest Sports around.