Lancia racing mechanics with a Flavia on the 1970 Tulip Rally. Lucas is in the middle.
By Pete Vack and Lucas van Dobben
Of all the weird and wonderful marque enthusiasts, Lancisti are among our favorites. They are technically astute, very intelligent, well-spoken and articulate and yet have a burning passion usually reserved for Irish soccer fans. Recently when a reader wanted to know if one of our archived Lancia stories was still available (yes, they are), he attached a photo of his daily transportation in the sixties with his young son in the car. It was an ultra-rare Appia Zagato Sport. Are we on this? You bet. A correspondence began and became the story of one Lucas van Dobben and his life of Lancias.
A Lancia Sport Zagato for daily transportation, and van Dobben’s son seems to enjoy it too.
Lucas van Dobben was born in Rotterdam Holland in 1941. But as the city was bombed during the war, his family moved to Wassenaar where he has lived ever since. Comparing notes on living in old communities he tells us that “The village we live in is situated between the Hague and Leiden is known as the Green Village. It’s separated from the seafront by a mile- wide strip of dunes. The oldest existing building is a part of the village church which goes back to ad 1125. Our Royal family also lives close to our home for the time being, as their original residence in The Hague endures a complete rebuild at the moment.” That more or less beat our local church of about 1620 here in Williamsburg.
Van Dobben wedding, the actual wedding car was a white Flaminia a left, and at right Luc’s Flavia enroute to a honeymoon. The couple are still together.
Working with Lancia
Van Dobben’s passion for Lancias began in the 1960s when he went to work at the Lancia importers. “When I got married, the white Flaminia served as the ‘getaway’ car. Then we went on a honeymoon trip in our Flavia.”
Lucas’ father often told him to learn to be multilingual, and being a mechanic that spoke several languages helped him earn a spot on the Lancia factory rally team in 1970 and 1971 for the famous Tulip Rally.
Lancia rally driver Sergio Barbasio.
“I was only one of two mechanics at hand who spoke some Italian and several times accompanied Lancia engineers to visit Lancia dealerships and instruct them how install factory modifications. This also earned me an invitation to work in the Tulip Rallys.” Pictures shown are from the 1970 International Tulip Rally taken at Grenoble France. First shows Lucas with two Lancia racing mechanics; he drove the spare 1600 HF Coupé. Second is Sergio Barbasio who was the pilot, third photo is Sergio with navigator Mario Manucci and two mechanics discussing service points and the last one me again with the boys.
Barbasio with Mario Manucci and mechanics discuss service points.
The Lancia Importers
My brother made this drawing of the Marel Lancia Importer as it was in the early 1970s. Right behind the petrol pump is the Lancia workshop. To the left the Lancia showroom, the body shop and spray booth. Further to the left is the spare parts department. The larger building housed the Marel workshop and had space for the master upholsterer. To the right of the petrol station was the Marel showroom with mostly new American imports and the new French Facel Vegas and Facellias. The large greenhouse at the rear was filled with numerous second hand cars of all makes and in a corner with dust all over a Lancia Lambda which we later brought back to life in the Lancia workshop.
The people who manned the bodyshop, paintshop and the upholstery shop were indeed exceptional masters of their trade; a new aluminum Zagato body part was hammered and welded on without any fuss. A dent I made when fixing a hardtop on a Flaminia Touring was fixed immediately and the paintshop reprayed the former dent some four square inches and although it was a metallic paint, one couldn’t put his finger on where the damage was done. As for the upholsterer, when a client ordered a leather interior he or she was invited to accompany the man in charge to the suppliers to select the hides for the car. The bond with our Lancia owners was close.
A night photo of Lancia dealership in Wassenaar where van Dobben worked. See more showroom images in Part 3.
Learning from Luigi
Lucas learned all about working on Lancias from the former gentleman chief mechanic Luigi Bena. “One trick every Lancia owner wants to learn is how we balanced the long Aurelia and Flaminia driveshafts. One only needs a blackboard chalk, a stroboscope, a hose clamp and several pieces of wheel balancing lead. Including driving up the ramp takes less than 15 minutes to get it done.
“At the time I worked with the Importers, Lancias were mostly bought by well-to-do people like Ministers of State, aristocrats, large company directors, airline pilots and sometimes the ones who just thought themselves famous in the Netherlands; all the way a funny lot. Keeping them all happy was our master mechanic Bena who came from Italy and was a very well-respected former employee of the Lancia factory. He was a keen driver, and did factory test drives and rallying in Aurelia B20s. When head of the technical department in Holland he sometimes contacted Lancia with advice on new models and sometimes production changes were made accordingly.”
Lucas too, met his share of unforgettable people. “I remember that as a young enthusiast during my Lancia years, Lancia author Wim Oude Weernink visited the showroom frequently and always asked for permission to look around in the cellar where all the Lancia sales fliers and booklets were kept. He was always allowed a copy when new announcements were made, must have collected a ton of Lancia paperwork during that time. He had – and still has – some very nice old Lancias including an Appia pick-up.”
VW specials
In our conversation, I mentioned that I had written “The Volkswagen Buyer’s Guide”, and quickly learned that Lucas, too was involved with Beetle projects. One was a Beetle pick up with a camping tent, and another was a Beetle Woody. He also restored a Bobsy Vanguard Formula Vee.
A VW Beetle converted into a pickup then into a camper.
“When the wife’s Bug was changed for a new Lancia Junior, I transformed it into a pick-up with a camping tent on top. We visited Spain and the UK with it and had lots of fun. Then with some friends, we used a Stevenson project to build three VW Woody Wagons.”
Photo of the Bobsy stand at a New York Auto show.
“I also imported an original Bobsy Vanguard Formula Vee which I completely restored and sold it to a German enthusiast. I still have a copy of an original Bobsy sales brochure stamped December 1964. But now I have space for an old Lancia just to drive around on little trips about town. The car will have company of two bikes and one is yes, Italian. An Aermacchi Ala Verde four stroke, just 250 cc, and a retro Triumph T100 Bonneville.”
Another VW project made Woodies out of Beetles.
He then recalled another Beetle project, the VW VEEP kit. This was a VW chassis with a body that looked like a Jeep. There is some irony here. “I was keen to import a whole bunch of them but due to road restrictions it’s still a lot of trouble to get a kit car legal.”
The bearded Lucas in San Francisco with the VEEP which had a replica Jeep body made of steel with VW mechanical components.
But really he was just beginning with Lancia.
Part 2: Lancia ownership, restoration, models, the Boss’s Lancia
Just tell us exactly how to balance the Aurelia/Flaminia prop-shaft with the simple equipment you mention!!
Paul,
This from Lucas: As for the driveshaft balancing one has to be sure that the bearing is OK and the rubber coupling is not hardened. I know of Aurelia’s and Flaminia’s spending many years in a shed without running as the coupling was disfigured and this wrecked the balance. As far as I remember sorry it was more than 50 years ago and Luigi Bena always helped out because the trick was his. The stroboscope wires were lengthened, the longest part of the shaft was marked with a chalk about 14 inches from the bearing and one had the keep the stroboscope steady to see the mark go up and down like one does when timing on TDC. We fitted a hose clamp at 1 inch further and also moved it too and fro and trying several times with several weights of wheel lead fitted till the rumbling stopped. It’s probably not as the factory did but we had pretty good results with it.
I remember my father teaching me this method of prop shaft balancing, that he had carried out since the early 1930’s.
It works !