1977 Lancia
Scorpion

From the owner's personal collection

Bob purchased this little Lancia from its second owner in July of 2007. Prior to my purchase, this car had sat idle for 17 years in a garage just three doors away from Boston harbor. Amazingly, there is virtually no rust except for a spot on the lower part of the driver's door that has not rusted through. After sitting for so long, the prior owner was unable to get it running before putting it up for sale on eBay. So, it was purchased as a non-running car. However, after flushing out the fuel system and patching some holes in the gas tank, the engine fired right up and hasn't needed any further attention other than fluid changes and adjusting the ignition timing.

The brakes were another story. These cars came with a really funky setup for power assist on the brakes. The booster sits in the rear near the engine. The brake lines for both front and rear brakes are routed to the rear, but only the front brakes are routed through the booster. Because of some concerns about wet weather breaking with boosting to only the front wheels and a nasty problem with the booster sticking and locking the front brakes, many Scorpion owners simply bypass the booster and run a line directly from the master cylinder to the junction block for the front brakes (located in the trunk). This not only eliminates the unbalanced braking and brake lock-up problem, it also significantily reduces the length of the run required for the front brake lines. Well, shortly after getting the car started, the front brakes locked up. So, the booster was bypassed. Also, the master cylinder and rear brake calipers were replaced.

After verifying that the basic mechanicals were in order, all the A/C rubber lines were replaced and the system evacuated and charged with Freeze 12 refrigerant. Now the A/C blows nice an cold, but the anemic blower fan makes the overall cooling just adequate.

The Eurpean version of this car (named the Montecarlo) was equipped with a 2-liter engine that put out about 115 horsepower. Unfortunately, that engine could not be made U.S. emissions-legal in time for this car to hit the market, so Lancia exported the Scorpion with a 1.8 liter engine that - after emissions were added - only put out 81 horsepower. So, acceleration is anything but impressive. But, once you get going and have the revs up, it does pretty well. Handling is very nice with enough softness to make for a comfortable ride, yet it corners very well and gives you the feel of a sporty Italian car.

SPECIFICATIONS