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julian67
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« on: 23 November, 2024, 11:00:50 AM » |
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Greetings Lancia owners
Not long ago, an elderly man saw me parking my '70 Lancia Fulvia coupe and came over. saying, “I had a Lancia similar to yours and still have a lot of parts'” Curious I asked him: “What year was it? “A rhd,1970 Zagato 1600 ccc.”. “What parts?”, I asked. “Oh I don't know but I have an attic full in my garage”. “Any chance I could come and look at them sometime?'” “Yes indeed, here's my number”.
A few days later, I gave him a call and went over to his elegant, Georgian house in Gloucestershire. In his garage, was a 1964 Mk1 Triumph Spitfire. “Aha I said, that's a nice Triumph'. “Yes but I haven't had it running for over 5 years and it must go. But to get all the Fulvia parts we'll have to move the Triumph but not now”. In the corner, I spotted a Zagato rear hatch. “How come you've got a Zagato rear hatch?” I asked. “I used to race my Zagato in the '70's and picked up a lot of parts”. Intrigued I asked, “Where's the Zagato now?“ “Come inside for a cup of tea and I'll tell you the story”.
Ten minutes later, he proceeded to tell me his tale.
“When I lived in London, I stored my Zagato'. Wait a minute” He disappeared downstairs to his basement and returned with a detailed file, including all the storage fees up until 2005, photographs and two pristine, late 1960's Lancia Zagato dealer, colour catalogues. He also showed me a 2005 insurance certificate, together with his 1970 original Zagato registration V5 certificate. “Is your Zagato still in storage?”. I asked. “No I went to see in 2004 but the garage owner made some excuse that he hadn't time and so I never saw it.” “But surely, you returned to check it?” “No I didn't because I was in the process of moving from London - Gloucestershire”
“Some time later, I tried to find it but discovered the garage owner had gone bankrupt and most likely dead. Up until 2005. I paid the annual storage fees + insurance'” “What address was the car registered at?” I asked. “My old London house” “Did you not notify the vehicle registration office of your new address?”. “No” he replied I looked at him and thought to myself, “Well if that was me, I'd have done this” Intrigued I said. “Ok well I'm keen to solve this mystery' If as you say, the car was immaculate when you stored it, today it's worth around £30000. How about a 10% Finders Fee?”. “Agreed” he said. “What's the registration?” He gave it to me + the name of the garage owner and a copy of the original V5 car registration certificate. “Give me a week or so, and I'll do some digging”.
His story was not unlike another case I solved . While I was down at the 2019 Monaco Historic Grand Prix when I met a lovely, elderly Swedish lady who told me her late husband's 1964 Jaguar E Type had been missing for over 20 years from a garage in Sweden. Within a week, I was fortunate to locate the car and with the help of the Swedish Kronofogden (the Sherriff) she got her E Type Jaguar back, minus a few valuable parts.
Anyway, back to the Zagato story!
For the next 2 days, I surfed the net and discovered there weren't many Rhd, 1600cc Zagato Sports still on the road. “There must be some sort of list of UK Zagato owners” I thought. The obvious place to look was the UK Lancia Club & the Lancisti forums, specifically, under Zagato posts.
As luck would have it, I spotted a post and contacted the person who had methodically complied a list of all UK Zagatos. I emailed him with the UK registration and he kindly told me the car was sold on Ebay in late 2005 for parts and attached a Ebay pic of the Zagato He also gave me the name of the Ebay bidder but not the address. This required some further digging! Studying the pics, the car was in a very sorry state - a long way from the immaculate Zagato when the owner stored 20 years ago. All that was left was a body and Cromodora wheels. Everything else had been stripped - windows / interior / and all the mechanical parts.
The next day, I had a few leads and tracked down the successful Ebay bidder's address. I decided to have a look at the car. When I met him, he told me he'd bought the car for a around £300. All he wanted was the rear wing for his Zagato. He then scrapped the Zagato. I asked him if he had the Ebay seller's name / address but he didn't as it was over 5 years ago since the car was auctioned on Ebay..
The only lead I had was to go online and check the UK Companies House website. Apparently, the garage owner's company went bankrupt and someone bought all the assets, including the Zagato. This person then sold the Zagato to a well known Lancia dealer who I suspect applied for a new registration document but because the original, elderly Zagato owner was still the legal registered owner, the Lancia dealer realized he wasn't able to register the car.
The DVLA (Motor Vehicle Office) must have written to the elderly man's old London address to send him a new V5 registration document. When they never received a reply, they classified the car as 'scrapped' Once a UK car is 'scrapped-' it can never be re-registered. Consequently, the Lancia dealer stripped the car and sold all the parts to recoup his money. Obviously, he was more interested in making a profit than saving this rare, rhd, 1600 cc Zagato.
When I found all this out, I emailed the owner who had moved to France of my findings + Ebay pics of his car (see below) A week later, his lovely wife replied saying her husband was in shock. Feeling somewhat sorry for him, I hadn't the heart to ask for my 10% Finders Fee! It was enough to uncover this 20 year old mystery!
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