Series Three Berlina returned to the road

[GerardJPC]

Sport Utility Vehicle.  







The car is spending a bit of time in London.   Might as well load it up with an old chair and a few boxes of books and transfer them between country pad and London flat.

Off along the M40 at 60 to 65 mph.  Blown sideways by passing Audis.  The uphill performance and the braking distance notably affected by the heavy load on board.

Anyway, London innit  -

[frankxhv773t]

A recent e-bay purchase was the LMC Journal for the Lancia Clubs International Meeting of 1973 in which Graham Aylett recounts similar exploits in an Aprilia. The challenge to beat though is getting a Georgian dining table to seat 10 packed inside your small Lancia!

The Journal is a fascinating read, telling tales of Lancia life as it used to be.

[GerardJPC]

Very splendid!

Using classic cars as trucks is a very good idea.  I was once at the local authority dump with the huge boot of a Jensen Interceptor full of household trash, but I was outdone by a bloke who turned up in a Rover P4.

Meanwhile, there may be some skinny tyre fun this morning -

[GerardJPC]

It appears that Lancias have been classic cars since at least the 1920s, when the idea of a classic car first arrived.  It's fun to see an LMC magazine from 1973, the year that one of my other Italian cars was made.  I feel my age because cars that I could have bought and driven when they were new in the 1980s (and sometimes did) are now classic cars.   Using Lancia to cart Georgian tables is of course the classy option.  None of yer IKEA!

[GerardJPC]

Machine polish!

[frankxhv773t]

It looks positively smug!

[GerardJPC]

Ha!

Back from London next week to get an alternator fitted and a new heater diaphragm.  I am still trying to find a door mirror to match the one on the left hand side.

[Mikenoangelo]

For a moment I wondered what you had been doing with an angle grinder.
It looks great.

Mike

[GerardJPC]

I have been slammed by work for the last two weeks, but tomorrow, after taking a video speed awareness course following from some modern Jag-induced wickedness, I shall take the rest of the day off and go for a twirly whirl in the shiny Appia.  Then on Friday it is getting an alternator.

[tzf60]

Oh no!!! You should have taken the Appia out instead! What self-respecting police officer could reprimand you for speeding in such a wonderful machine!!! 
 
Tim

[GerardJPC]

ADVENTURE TIME!

Early yesterday morning I set off in the Appia from Central London to drive to South Oxfordshire.  Bright, cold weather, and moderate traffic.   I would have taken the old A40 as a more Appia-friendly road but the fan belt has been slipping so that the car gets hot in traffic, and Wycombe goes on for ever.  I did not have time for a B road route.   To avoid the M25 I drove along the 50 mph M4 and turned north on the A404 to join the M40 at Wycombe. Approaching the roundabout near Marlow at about 60 mph, the brakes failed.   Pulling on the handbrake had no effect.  Changing down had some effect but not enough.  By great good fortune I was able to enter the roundabout safely and immediately exit onto a quiet country road, where I rolled to a halt in a car park for a children's play area.

The wheels did not feel hot.  Under bonnet inspection showed the brake fluid to be very low, but still above the minimum mark.

After too many bad experiences with the RAC and AA, I have joined GEM.  Recommended!  Their bloke arrived in 25 minutes, found brake fluid on the rear right hand brake, and took me to my destination on the back of his truck in another 25 minutes.

My mechanic had just arrived at my place ready to fit the alternator.  He confirmed a split seal on the cylinder, with fluid contamination of the shoes, but he did not have his puller tool for the front hubs with him so we haven't been able to check why the front brakes also failed.  Anyway, the hoses are new but we plan to change all four cylinders.  

Hairy stuff, but all well.  The last time I had a total brake failure was in 1989.  I was driving a Triumph Vitesse too fast, and ended up in a ditch, but was unhurt.

Anyway, the alternator fits.   This will solve the slipping belt problem which was caused by the dynamo moving about.

I add that I was wearing suitably chappish clothing but did not have a pipe clamped in my steely jaws.  Perhaps I should get one.

[GerardJPC]

As a consolation, my Beta Coupe now has an Aldon Amethyst mappable ignition system, a new exhaust centre section, and new Pirelli P1s.  So I am off out to play in that car.  Brakes?  Hope so, but, hey, who needs 'em?  You've got a horn haven't you?


PS:  The horn on the Appia is broken.

[nistri]

I don't know if and when the Appia brakes were last serviced. However, there are around dodgy rubber seals for the brake cylinders: they start leaking even after moderate use. Check the internal condition of the existing cylinders as if they look OK, you might just be fitting another set of new dodgy seals. Andrea

[GerardJPC]

Thanks, we'll check all wheel cylinders and the master cylinder.  There ought to have been some front brakes at least, as there was still fluid in the reservoir, and the front shoes should not have been contaminated unless one or more front cylinder seals had failed, so the apparent absence of any brakes needs investigating.

[GerardJPC]

You have to love a car all the more once it has tried to kill you.