Lancia Motor Club

Back in the 70s I had a series III Dilambda chassis which I had rescued from Eddie Gee who had in turn rescued it from a scrapyard somewhere in the SE.   It had had a saloon body which Eddie had basically scrapped leaving the comlete chassis with fine flowing wings with side mounted spare wheels and bonnet/radiator/scuttle but little else.   I never got round to it and eventually sold it to Northern Ireland to a bloke who reckoned to be running a Dilambds consortium and heard no more.  I seem to remember the registration was BYL...   Anyone know of it now?

Would that be the same car that John Robertson of Highgate owned in the 1960s? It had a couple of arm chairs sort of attached but little else in the bodywork department. It resided in a lock-up behind a pub which was frequented by Innes Ireland, amongst others. Robertson also had an early B20 and an Astura, but I doubt that any of them survived his style of driving. I moved away from the London area in 1964 and completely lost touch with him soon after that.
Regards, John

I remember John Robertson – he lived in Bisham Gardens Highgate in the 1960s and was key-holder to the lock-up garages in Townsend Yard that held a whole collection of Lancias in various states of decay. John also had a Northern Irish connection – at one time he was attempting to buy some Lancia armoured cars that were thought to exist there. Maybe that’s the connection with the Astura

I revisited Townsend Yard in the early 1980s and was agreeably surprised to find Hugh Ross there working on his Lambda in one of the lock-ups. I don’t think Hugh knew that there had been a Lancia association with that place. And again, almost ten years later when I first met George Minden, his 6th Series B20 was housed in Townsend Yard. The garages are still there, but I doubt there are any Lancias in them now and the whole site is up for development.

Colin

The Irish "armoured cars" were said to be triotas (spelling?) the Irish army were trying to sell. I never did hear if they sold or who got them. A few of my friends put bids in. Perhaps Roland knows?
The Astura was the really beautiful one owned by Richard Samuel. Richard wouldn't sell it to John Robertson, because he realised it wouldn't last long in his hands, so Robertson got a friend to buy it for him! Richard was not best pleased when he found out. I had forgotten the name of Townsend Yard, but I had one of the lockups there for a while to store my "spare" Aprilia. Regards, John

I think not, John, Eddie found this one in a rural scrapyard in the early 70s and it had a rather nice saloon body on it at the time, before Eddie decided that wood frame was rotten and scrapped almost the whole body.  I have an idea that the body panels were aluminium as were, certainly, the wings.   Maybe the instruments were brown faced?