Lancia Motor Club

A nice little 7 page comparative vignette of the above cars, owned by our very own Ben Courage, 15 yrs difference in age, but every bit as good if not better than the younger car is the Aprilia!


P

Funny, when doing a presentation on Lancia to my local 41 Club before Christmas I injected a little local interest by comparing the Aprilia to the Javelin. The Jowett factory was just a couple of miles away from where I live. It's a Morrisons supermarket now, how predictable!

Interesting! In my pre-Lancia days ie before I met Nigel Trow and was enchanted by the cars under tarpaulins in his garden, I was very keen on Javelins. Now have Flavia (flat 4) and Aprilia (better) so best of both worlds.

Also, when I was a regular at John Maltby's place years ago there was an ex-John Maltby Ltd car in his garden quietly rusting away. A Javelin! John appreciated quality wherever it occurred.

That was actually owned by Mrs Maltby. I drove it once and thought it was a good thing to drive. Regards, John

I don't think the Jowett lived up to the Aprilia in the reliability stakes. My Dad told the tale of a trip from Yorkshire to Bournmouth in his father's Javelin. One of the head gaskets went half way (a fair old drive in the late 40's). His dad took out the plugs and drove the rest on two cylinders, then fixed the car on their friends drive.

Lancia were much later to the flat 4 party (via Fessia?), but didn't fall into that underdevelopment trap until the Gamma. British engines were always rushed into production; MG Twin Cam, Stag, Maxi, you can go on and on....

In the early 1960s one of the car magazines (Motor perhaps?) did a comparison between Aprilia and Javelin. I used to have a copy but have searched my stuff and can’t find it – all I remember is that both cars were rated about equal and well ahead of their better known contemporaries.

I recall hearing that the Jowett car company’s demise was because they were dependent on Briggs Motor Bodies for supply of their body pressings. Apparently Ford acquired Briggs and either deliberately or otherwise forced Jowett out of business.

In looking for the Aprilia - Javelin article I found another interesting comparison. This was between the Aprilia of 1936 and the Wolsley 1500 of 1957. This is from the Autocar in 1957 under the title “Changing relationship of wheelbase, weights and accommodation”. Scans of my grubby old copy are attached. It looks to me that the author (H. M.) clearly found in favour of the Aprilia, but perhaps his tone is more muted than it might have been in an attempt not to show up the shortcomings of the best that Britain could offer 21 years after the Aprilia first appeared.

Colin