Lancia Motor Club

I have had an email from somebody who is looking for information about a company called Lanciana Ltd, who later became Italtune Ltd.  Can anybody help and provide some information about this company?  The email is copied below.

Hi Stuart ,
I am afraid that I do not have a Lancia but I tried to get on your forum just to ask you guys if you have any information on an old company which were known as Lanciana Ltd who later became Italtune Ltd. They were located  11-15 Macleod Street , London SE17 in the 1980s. I  have a special Fiat engine that I am restoring and the receipts show that the tuning was carried out by these people in the mid eighties . The Lanciana letter heading has the slogan "Gourmets in Automobile Engineering - Especially Lancias" . Any Ideas ?
all the best Dave

Wasn't this what Barry Waterhouse started out as? The slogan sounds like Barry :)

I had work done by Barry on a Volumex engine for the Stratos back in the very early 1990s. He was trading as "Barry Waterhouse Motor Engineer" out of railway arches called the London Car Centre, Pelier Street, SE17 3JG at the time. It may be the same place?

Guy

Yes, that would have been the late Barry Waterhouse. Barry traded from various locations in SE London as Lanciana, then Italtune and later on as BWE. BWE stood for Barry Waterhouse Engineering, but sadly others referred to it as ‘better-work-elsewhere’, which was entirely unfair. I miss him still.

No photos of Barry-the-man come to hand – so, here’s one of him in his highly developed Fulvia Sport, which was known as ‘Rasttos’.

Colin

Yep, Barry was a top chap. My brother worked for him for a few years and I was in touch with him right up to his passing. He was still giving me advice as to what to look for a couple of days before I went to Italy to look at my car and when I came back he had sadly gone. Much missed.

Anyway, to help the OP it's a long shot but two of the people who were probably around with Barry at the time are still in business;

Peter Ward is now at (owner?) http://www.autofficina.co.uk/

and John Day is at http://www.dayandwhites.co.uk/

Might be worth a try - probably as close as you will get unfortunately.

Yes sadly missed - He supervised the build of an engine for me and for a while I had the only HPE Volumex Bimotore in the UK. Until I got it home and lifted it out of the back  :D :D
The guys worked on the engine until gone 11 one Friday night as he'd promised it would be ready the day I went to collect it! One memory of that day is a customer coming in with a Monte Carlo complaining of rumbling bearings and dodgy steering. Barry gave him three wheel bolts and a spanner and told him to tighted up the wheel before it fell off! Most garages would have kept quiet and charged an arm and a leg to do whatever they could get away with.

Guy

I just found the old phone number.  0171-703-2225   A few years back I gave it a try and Phil who did the machining was still there doing some stuff for himself and some for the business that's now in that arch.  Nothing ventured nothing gained?

...and tell me more about this engine???

David

There's an "Italtune" sticker on the back of my Montecarlo, (the ex Ken Manley one). I didn't know what is was but during the first few months I had the car various people commented on it including one club member (who shall remain nameless) gently stroking the sticker with great reverence whilst saying "Ahh, Barry Waterhouse".

Martin.

I've got that number for Barry Waterhouse Motor Engineering too ( 01 703 2225) which tells you how long back it goes! My engine was worked on by Barry and his staff. It was bored to 84.40 (slight overbore) and fitted with Croma Turbo pistons to give a CR of 7.8:1, the head was fitted with valve seat inserts (for unleaded fuel) which were cut to three angles. New valve guides were fitted and the head was polished and ported. Needless to say the whole lot was thoroughly cleaned before reassembly using new bearings and oil pump with new driven gears off a new auxiliary shaft. The flywheel was lightened to 4.5kg but retained the standard VX clutch. Barry ditched the auto choke and opened up the bore of the standard downdraft carbs to 31mm and rejetted it to suit the new camshafts that he called S4 spec (0.3mm tappet clearances with 3.25mm lift at TDC on both inlet and exhaust, nominal timing 32/62/62/32 with a max lift of 10.5mm - Barrys written description - I'm no engineer!) Barry would have preferred to replace the standard downdraft with a sidedraft but space didn't allow for that except without any form of filtration - not ideal with a supercharger! The supercharger was also geared up, a simple mod involving machining the power steering pumps pulley centre out so that it slides over the crankshaft pulley - from memory this increases the supercharger revs by 10 - 15% - the blow off valve (there to protect the supercharger from backfires) wasn't affected by this increased pressure on the inlet side. Fuelling wise there was an uprated pump with a pressure regulator. The engine was installed in the car and then driven from Liverpool back to London to be set up properly. This only involved some minor tweaking of the vernier camwheels and then some road work to change running jet sizes. Final set up was producing 190bhp with in excess of 200 available if we could have reworked the inlet tract to fit the sidedraft carb. Tickover was lumpy but it has a pretty smooth torque curve and very driveable.

Trouble was, I ought to have had the sump baffled. The Stratos replica can generate more G sideways than the Beta and I had oil surge problems at Aintree on one long right hand bend - the pressure warning light came on at speed for a few seconds each lap and adding oil resulted in the inevitable blown crankshaft oil seal, with oil blown onto the (hot) exhaust the resulting cloud was spectacular but not terminal. Once he problem was identified the sump was refilled and the car driven the 2 miles back home without any damage being caused (except maybe to the environment). At this point the engine was removed and the Alfa V6 installed (unstressed 200bhp and much better fuel economy!) whilst at the same time the bodywork was modified from Stradale to Gp4 Square Arch.

The one really really really good thing about blowing the engine at Aintree that day was the sympathy received from a Ferrari driver that resulted, 40 minutes later, in 20 minutes of a passenger ride in a Ferrari being driven to the limit. Four wheel drifting with opposite lock in a 1963 250GTO is a ride I'll remember as long as I live!

Guy

The person who made the initial enquiry about Lanciana emailed me with some information about the engine which he thought may be of interest.  I have copied it below.

The replies to the posting make fascinating reading & I love all the info & those old stories. Hope it will not be too much of a dissapointment to those interested in my engine as it is a 2 cylinder air cooled engine from a Fiat 126. I currently run a 1972 Fiat 500L with a mildly tuned engine. The Lanciana / Italtune engine was commissioned in the mid 80's by a now retired RAF Sqaudron Leader & Test Pilot who raced classic cars & bikes on the European circuits for a hobby. I can only guess that the 126 engine was twixt bike & car hence the attraction as just from the bills I have which are not a complete set, much more was spent on the "go faster" parts than the original car would have cost. Mechanical work/machining  (Stage 1 Head , Crankcase modifications ) was carried out by Lanciana/Italtune making use of Alquati parts (cam , manifold , sump , barrels ,pistons , etc). Again very little seems to have been recorded about Camillo Alquati but he seemed to specialise in the twin cam 131 type engines and the little 2 cylinder aircooled cars. Twin choke Weber 30 DIC was fitted same as the 850 Sport Coupe . This was missing but I sourced one from a guy in New Zealand. The engine ended up with a Dellorto 38 DFZ which aparently was the preferred choice. Although the engine is said to have only done about 4,000 miles I am slowly going about a complete rebuild along with the replacement of a few missing parts. I only know of one other similar but incomplete engine plus an alledged one that if it is real has been modified from the original spec.

No need to to think anyone should be disappointed, just wish you lived a bit closer as I'd love to see it, back in the 1980's early 1990's I owned at various times 3 fiat 500's the last being a 1972 500l, which according to the DVLA records is still running around, and I bet it's worth a lot more than the £500 I sold it for, but considering I bought it for £5, I have no reason to complain. During that period I also bought another 3 that I broke for spares.
I used to go camping and canoeing in mine and I was quite happy with the handling, terrific, but it certainly could have done with a bit of the power yours will eventually turn out! as top speed was about 55mph, more than adequate to bomb around in. with the throttle pedal always flat to the floor, at that rate of progress you very soon got into the habit of anticipating the traffic ahead to keep it on the boil.
Know I'm probably trying to "Teach Granny to suck eggs" but no doubt you are aware of Middle Barton Garages?

Best of luck with it,
Brian
8227 8)

The one and only Barry Waterhouse pictured with his one time rally Fulvia Fanalone CUC 20H at Castle Coombe during the LMC 50th celebrations in 1997.

Jonathan had just finished rebuilding it and Barry was astonished that it had survived, let alone was once again road worthy!  The engine needed a complete rebuild and he kindly allowed Jonathan to do the job under his watchful eye at BWE charging only for any time spent assisting. 

Robin.