{"id":33307,"date":"2025-02-17T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T08:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/?p=33307"},"modified":"2025-02-11T11:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T11:22:09","slug":"the-homologators-lancia-fulvia-coupe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/the-homologators-lancia-fulvia-coupe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Homologators \u2013 Lancia Fulvia Coup\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elephants are unstoppable. Like Alfa Romeo\u2019s \u201cQuadrifoglio Verde,\u201d Gianni Lancia, son of company founder Vincenzo, adorned the company\u2019s racing cars with a lucky charm. He chose a cartoon elephant. Some say the talisman was borrowed from Eastern mythology, where it was believed to bring good luck and victory. Others speculate it is a metaphor, as a charging elephant is a near-unstoppable force. We may never know exactly what he had in mind, but it certainly seemed to work and the Fulvia is a case in point.<\/p>\n

\"automotive,<\/a><\/p>\n

Against all odds, the cash-strapped, under-resourced Lancia HF Squadra Corse became among the most successful racing teams of all time. And it\u2019s mostly thanks to one man – Cesare Fiorio. Son of Lancia\u2019s then-Director of Communications, the young Italian founded HF Squadra Corse in 1963 as an offshoot of the \u2018Hi-Fi Association\u2019. And no, this had nothing to do with your dad\u2019s old stereo. The \u2018High Fidelity\u2019 was a group of passionate Lancisti formed at the 1960 Geneva Motor Show as an exclusive club for those who had bought at least six new Lancias. It was headed by Commander Guido Alberto Rivetti, whose family was rumoured to have purchased as many as 712 Lancias<\/a> in all!<\/p>\n

\"automotive,<\/a><\/p>\n

So why did Cesare Fiorio, a young man with connections at the heart of Lancia, start a race team with practically no support from the factory? Well, first, you need to understand the historical context. The 1950s had been a troubling time for the history of motor racing. The infamous Le Mans Disaster of 1955 dissuaded Mercedes-Benz, and indeed the entire country of Switzerland, from future motor racing. The tragedies continued, with the horrific crash at Quiddizola making 1957 the last of the original Mille Miglia, making a scapegoat villain of Enzo Ferrari in the process. Understandably, manufacturers were deeply concerned for the wellbeing of their drivers and the potential harm these terrible accidents could do to their companies\u2019 reputations. Ultimately, dozens of drivers lost their lives during this dangerous period of motor racing, and it was specifically the untimely demise of Alberto Ascari that prompted Gianni Lancia to cancel the racing programme and even go so far as to leave the firm.<\/p>\n

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It was going to take an outsider to get Lancias to win races again, and that\u2019s exactly what Fiorio and HF Squadra Corse did. He would go on to captain the team to ten World Rally Championship wins and three World Sportscar titles. And the car that started it all? Well, that would be the Fulvia.<\/p>\n

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Ever the innovator, Lancia ensured that the Fulvia was anything but conventional. Fiat and Alfa\u2019s \u201860s saloons and coup\u00e9s played it safe with DOHC inline-four engines driving the rear wheels. But the Fulvia spearheaded a completely different approach, instead using a V4 engine to drive the front wheels. With a 45-degree V-angle, Lancia\u2019s engine proved so narrow that all four pistons shared one twin-cam cylinder head. The very fact they made this engine work at all was impressive, let alone the realisation that it was utterly brilliant. The Lancia V4 thrived on revs, earning a reputation as one of the most tractable naturally-aspirated four-cylinder engines of all time.<\/p>\n