We Explore the History of a Rare 1964 Lancia Flavia Built for Competition

Its cars haven’t sold in substantial numbers in the United States, but Lancia, one of the automotive world’s genuine historic curios, has had a well-earned reputation for artisanship and technological daring from its earliest years. It’s always had a pronounced motorsport bent, given the fact that founder Vincenzo Lancia was a Fiat works racing driver before striking out on his own.  

Advanced engineering has been part of Lancia’s coda since its very beginnings in 1906. The Lancia Theta of 1913 was Europe’s first car to feature a standard, integrated electrical system. It was followed, eventually, by the Lancia Lambda, which debuted in 1922 and is still saluted as one of history’s most influential automotive designs. The Lambda incorporated a pioneering monocoque chassis design and an early take on independent front suspension that employed sliding vertical pillars as its foundation. Given the founder’s racing background, it didn’t take long for Lancia, the man, and Lancia, the cars, to gain distinction in the great competitions that included the Targa Florio, the Mille Miglia and later, the Carrera Panamericana that charged down the spine of Mexico.  

Given its presence in Europe, it was inevitable that Lancia works cars would also pursue their fortunes in rallying, and today, that evolution has placed Lancia among the truly great marques that participate in rally competition. The works rally team, officially known as Squadra Corse HF Lancia, won its first international rally title in 1972 with a modified Fulvia HF coupe. A few years later, Lancia returned with the outrageous mid-engine Stratos, a prototype-style coupe with explosive V-6 power to sling dirt and gravel. The Stratos gave way to the even more extreme 037 of the 1980s, which combined an insanely hot 2.1-liter supercharged engine with feathery weight of 960kg, which won the WRC world title in 1983 while contesting the deadly Group B rally category. 

Squadra Corse HF returned with the all-wheel drive Delta HF, a flyweight with turbocharging and all-wheel drive that captured six consecutive WRC titles beginning in 1987, giving Lancia a total of 10 international rally championships. It’s a record that makes Lancia the most successful marque in postwar rallying, one that dates to the 1950s with the Ardea, Aprilla, and Aurelia GT, eventually armed with the industry’s first five-speed manual transmissions and V-6 engines. Lancia being Lancia, the rally program grew in variety and technical sophistication as it evolved. This car, a 1964 Lancia Flavia PF coupe, the “PF” standing for coachbuilder Pininfarina, represents the next chapter in that process. 

Owner Mike Kristick of Wellsville, Pennsylvania, is a lifelong enthusiast of both vintage race cars and whimsical Italian automotive products. Largely through contact with a European-based Lancia registry, Mike learned that this Flavia PF coupe is believed to be one of 15 similar cars prepared by the Lancia factory as works rally cars. Thematically, the Flavia—it’s named for a stretch of the ancient Roman highway network—marked the first car that Squadra Corse HF modified for rallying purposes after Lancia established the performance branch. The Flavia immediately acquitted itself admirably, with a win in the event that became today’s San Remo Rally, plus second and third at the 1966 Monte Carlo Rally after the Monegasque scrutineers infamously disqualified the top three Mini Cooper S finishers over questionable headlamp-spec violations, handing the overall win to Citroën. Lancia later refocused its rally efforts on the more swoopy Fulvia HF coupe, with the esteemed Sandro Munari emerging as lead driver. 

Based on Mike’s research, this Flavia PF coupe was exported to the United States and ended up in the hands of U.S. Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti in New York, where the three-time Le Mans winner is believed to have used it sparingly. “They did some rallying of their own in the Northeast, and then Luigi Chinetti Jr., of the North American Racing Team, took some of his drivers to test it on the road course at Lime Rock in Connecticut. N.A.R.T. always had their own race cars, and this Flavia was one of them.” 

What you see here is the car in literal as-rallied condition, both by N.A.R.T. and at least one subsequent owner. It’s definitely a barn find, albeit with a patchy later history, that’s original and real enough to have been invited for display at 2024 The Amelia in the Barn Find category. It’s a fully unrestored car with a gutted, ripped interior, so-so paint and a set of oversize winter tires on factory-built wheels that are so rare that Mike worries about using them on the rare occasions when he drives the Flavia.  

“One guy asked me, ‘How did you put the patina on there?’ He thought I sanded it or somehow aged it when I told him it’s original,” Mike explained. “I thought about restoring it, but a lot of people told me I just had to leave it alone.” 

By American standards, especially when it was new, the Flavia’s decidedly an oddball. It was considered the executive car in the Lancia lineup, or perhaps more accurately, a personal coupe. This Flavia has the 1.8-liter version of Lancia’s iconoclastic horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine, which Mike describes as “looking like an older Subaru engine.” The Flavia also had Lancia’s first all-synchromesh four-speed manual gearbox, mounted ahead of the front wheels, just like the engine, and driving the front wheels. The Flavia is also atypical in that it has early Dunlop four-wheel disc brakes, the same type Mike says were fitted to early Jaguars and other British specialty cars. The Flavia’s front end is unequal-length control arms with a transverse leaf spring. Another leaf spring suspends the beam rear axle. Mike’s car is one of 19,293 Flavia PF coupes produced during Flavia’s 10-year lifespan, which ended in 1971. 

The only significant engine upgrade for rallying that Mike’s aware of is the substitution of downdraft Weber carburetors for the original dual Solex units. The interior was stripped out, with the back seat removed, a roll cage installed, and basic form-fitting seats mounted up front for the driver and navigator, their fabric facings shredded now. The dashboard was replaced with a sheet aluminum panel mounting Veglia and older Stewart-Warner instruments. Map lights throw beams from where the headliner used to be. A 35-gallon fuel tank – not a fuel cell – went into the Flavia, filled through an opening in the decklid. The hood is vented behind the radiator. The tires are 185/15 Pirelli Cinturato items, mounted on steel wheels that the factory cut in half, widened with inserts and then re-welded. These are the wheels Mike wants to protect, so he plans to acquire a set of production wheels and tires for driving farther than the end of his street. 

Again, Mike has done little to mess with this preserved competition icon. Its post-N.A.R.T. history has some gaps in it. Chinetti sold the car in 1972 via an ad in The New York Times. The next known stop for the Flavia was in Philadelphia, where a technician for Algar Ferrari, the local dealership, owned it and did what was likely light maintenance work. From there, it eventually landed in Austin, Texas, where a local car collector and music promoter named Rod Kennedy—founder of the Texas Speed Museum—entered it, unmodified, in a 24-hour Mexican rally with two Mexican drivers. Based on Mike’s conversations with Kennedy, the Flavia dropped out when the water pump failed after eight hours. The Flavia today partially wears the livery of the Mexico rally, including the Mexican tourist visa still glued to one side window.  

The Flavia’s next known stop was Pittsburgh, where Mike spotted it in the mid-1990s in the care of an enthusiast who owned Lancia Consortium, a parts source for American owners. Mike was there with his father, who was also looking for Italian components, and they discussed the Flavia on the way back east on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Once he got it home, some non-aesthetic work followed. 

“There’s been a lot of engine and brake work,” Mike said. “The engine bearings were replaced, the gas tank refinished, carburetors gone over, and I put in a new water pump. It has an auxiliary back-up lamp, and I have a set of correct Marchal lamps for the front. I’m still working on some of the gauges because I’m having trouble finding some people to work on them. So, it’s always a work in progress. When I took it to Amelia Island, Coco Chinetti walked up, put his hand on the car, and said, ‘This is my old car. I’ve missed you.’” 

Owner’s View

“I became a Lancia fan through my father, Mike, who imports Lancia parts from Italy. I’ve always liked Lancias. I also own a Fulvia Sport with aluminum body, a Flaminia PF coupe, a Fiat 124, a Datsun 510 race car and several BMWs. Honestly, if I see an old race car, I’m going to go look at it. This Flavia PF is very original and it’s really a very fun car. I really enjoyed driving it on the roads around Amelia Island. Here, I only drive it up and down our road because of those unusual wheels. I did not restore the car, because so many people told me that it’s only original one time. It makes me smile. I’ll tell you; a lot of people don’t have any idea what it is when they first see it.” —Mike Kristick 

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