Curbside Classic: 1969 Lancia Fulvia Sport 1.3 S Zagato – Beauty Is Overrated

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– Posted on April 23, 2025

Everybody has their own idea of what a conventionally handsome ‘60s car looks like. Your mental picture might include a Ford Mustang, a 1967 Eldorado, a Mercedes-Benz W109 or an Alfa Romeo GTV. But the term “beautiful” or “handsome” is hardly one that is readily associated with the Lancia Fulvia Sport – or almost anything with a Zagato emblem, really.

And yet the Lancia Fulvia Sport is mesmerizing in its own way, because it is so unusual. It’s the same trick Citroën (and, to an extent, Virgil Exner) used to pull, really: leave all conventions and expectations to others, and just go full throttle for the weirdest angles, the unlikeliest shapes and the oddest details.

The problem with this approach, obviously, is that it is by definition hit-or-miss. Citroën DS: hit; but the Ami 6 was a bad miss. When Opron took over as head of styling, the same thing happened: the CX was a hit, but the Visa was not. Likewise, Mr Exner’s ’57 Mopars were a major hit, but by MY 1960, things started going downhill (with exceptions, that’s the one benefit of having to design half a dozen cars at once).

The famously quirky Zagato, when Ercole Spada was holding the pencil (i.e. throughout the ‘60s), did pretty much the same. Among the hits, one might find the Alfa Romeo Junior Z or the Aston Martin DB4 GT. But there were a couple of times where Ercole was off his game, in my opinion.

Source: Koyapop

 

Take the Lancia Flavia Sport, for instance. It just went a little bit too far for its own good. When looking at it from some angles, you do wonder if you’re looking at a finished product or one that is in the middle of being restored. Or being transformed into a wagon or something.

But Signor Spada reined it in for the encore, giving us the gloriously odd-but-sporty Fulvia presented here.

I’m guessing many of you will be familiar with the Lancia Fulvia, but let’s do a quick recap: the Fulvia was launched (as a four-door saloon) in 1963 as part of the new wave of front-drive Lancias engineered by Antonio Fassia. Originally, the Fulvia had a 1.1 litre V4, but this grew to 1.2 and then 1.3 pretty quickly.

Of course, being a Zagato-bodied car, the Fulvia Sport unveils its innards by way of a side-hinged hood. Good thing the V4 is canted to the driver’s side.

The Fulvia Sport arrived on the scene in 1965. Initially, it only had the 1.2 litre V4, but that was compensated by its all-aluminium body. Then the Rallye 1.3 Coupé’s engine found its way in the Sport in late 1966. Steel started to replace the (expensive) aluminium in most places from this point on, by that was compensated by more powerful engines.

In late 1967, the Fulvia Sport 1.3 got an extra “S” at the end, signifying that the 1298cc V4 was upgraded to 93hp with a claimed 180kph top speed. Not bad for the times…

In late 1970, the Fulvia Sport got a facelift of sorts. That included new taillights (from the Peugeot 204 saloon, looking actually pretty good), a plastic grille and a bit of rubber on the bumpers. The hood became front-hinged and all remaining traces of aluminium were eliminated. A 1.6 litre variant was added to the range, too.

The last Zagato coupé rolled off the production line in 1972, by which time over 7000 units had been made. For the Milanese coachbuilder, that was a huge number, their greatest by quite a margin – just as they had invested a tidy sum into much larger production facilities in Terrazzano di Rho.

The gap that the end of the Fulvia left at Zagato was never properly filled, though: there would still be small runs of the carrozzeria’s iconoclastic designs, but from the ‘70s onwards, car production was on the wane. Fortunately, Elio Zagato (son of founder Ugo) saw this coming and successfully diversified in other areas of industrial design, while keeping an automotive arm. It’s still active today and still headed by the founder’s family – nowadays, Elio’s son Andrea Zagato.

Nothing looks like a Zagato – except another Zagato. The idea of breaking up the grille and headlamp bezel like this was Ercole Spada’s, but he surely must have taken inspiration from the “Panoramica” designs that Zagato did in the late ‘40s. Those had extra panes of glass eating into the roofline, making the windshields look like B29 cockpit windows.

Just like the aforementioned Alfa Romeo Junior and a number of other Zagato cars of the period, our little Lancia has a special button to open the rear hatch just a crack to improve air flow and aid in de-misting. Another cool (har har) feature you just don’t see on “normal” cars.

The cabin is almost conservative, by the exterior’s standards. Again, if we’re doing the Citroën / Exner comparison, those two were just as unexpected inside as they were on the outside.

Well, Zagato had to make a few cost savings somewhere, I guess. So they just helped themselves to the standard coupé’s stylish wood dash.

Well, they did pull a weird trick with the seating. The first cars were titled as two-seaters, but somehow, when the 1.3 litre engine was installed, a sort-of quasi rear seat appeared as well. However, it was so tight back there that the Fulvia Sport was only legally qualified as a three-seater. That is, until the Series 2 cars took over in 1970 and this rear seat was re-fashioned yet again, turning the car into a proper 2+2.

Who needs a car that is universally praised and featured in all the “greatest of all time” compilations? The Fulvia Sport is perfect because of its divisive appeal.

It’s a Lancia from the pre-Fiat days, so the engineering and quality behind it are of the highest standard, but it’s all wrapped into a body that will not be everyone’s cup of espresso. Loads of character, and enough room for three. Well, maybe two and a half. Full marks for originality, in any case.

 

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Vintage R&T Road Test: 1967 Lancia Fulvia 1.3 Rallye & Zagato – “An Engineering Tour de Force”, by PN