Fancy an Ardea?
Story and photos by Luc van Dobben
Luc van Dobben is no stranger to Lancias or VeloceToday. To read more about his adventures with Lancias, click here.
In 2019, after selling my last race car project, there was room for something else. But what? Due to my age, I didn’t want another project. So it had to be good restored car, and the only brand for me was Lancia, so the search began.
I preferred a model with the old Lancia grille shape and in a reasonable price range. I began searching for an Ardea, a lovely model, and several were offered for sale in Italy, from projects to fully restored examples. After a lot of Internet visits, I found one to my liking near Pisa. I was contacted by the daughter of the seller, who was helping facilitate the sale. She was familiar with our country, as she had studied in nearby Leiden’s University. She sent extra information, pictures and promised a chrome Ardea sign on the grille as well. All technical questions were correctly answered, and I made arrangements to collect the car ourselves.
As my Volvo V40 is a bit tiny for our large trailer, we went to Italy with my friend’s V70 after robbing the bank for sufficient monies. The trip was grueling, with temperatures up to the forties, lots of traffic jams and a failing A/C unit. It took about 20 hours to reach our destination, but we were welcomed in the friendly Italian way with a rich dinner. Our host was a Lancia lover as well and showed us his nicely restored Aurelia B12 but with a price tag of € 50.000 it was out of budget. A complete wall in his office with hundreds of Lancia scale models was also a sight for sore eyes.
Ardea’s V4 engine
My friend and I found a nice hotel nearby and the next morning we were ready to check out the Ardea. The car was situated in front of a garage business which we later were informed was owned by a friend of the seller. It started right away, and then it was driven up to the car lift for inspection. The body underneath in reasonable state, but there were oil leaks from the gear box and rear end. We began to inspect the paintwork and it showed flaws. A part was poorly repainted and on some places the paint was rubbed down to nearly bare metal. Essentially, this meant a complete respray was needed.
I told the seller that I was not happy that the condition of the car was not the same as the information we were supplied. The reply was, the car is technically 100%, so I was invited for a test ride. This went surprisingly well, acceleration, gear change, steering and braking seemed OK.
Ardea interior
I was about to take the wheel myself when the car hit a small pothole, and we were surprised with a deafening bumping noise up front. Back in the garage the front right side was lower than it should and the seller tried to lift it by hand to get the car horizontal. Not good. The car was in need of new seals on gearbox and cardan joint, a complete respray and a costly front end overhaul. A bill of € 5.000 loomed so I suggested if he still wanted a deal more had to be taken off the asking price. The answer was no, and for that I was glad, as otherwise I would have had a project which I didn’t want. We said good bye and made the return trip 1350km with an empty trailer.
Back home plans were made for another try but this time a trip by plane, as once with a bad outcome was enough.
Let’s Try Again: Ardea Number Two
On the second visit to Italy in search of a Lancia, I was accompanied by my young friend Berend van Straten, the grandson of the former Lancia Importer’s CEO.It was a second chance to obtain an Ardea after the first had ended in a no-go. After another thorough search, I found a beautiful Ardea in Ferrara at Gruppo Promotor, an established company with a showroom full of desirable cars. The Ardea for sale looked as new and I was informed that it was technically superb as well. My Appia friend Berend and I booked flights to Italy and with a rented car drove off to Ferrara.
A mind blowing sight their showroom was, and indeed the Ardea looked as new. After a welcoming espresso off we went for a test ride. Like the first Ardea we found, this one started easily, and we engaged first and drove off well. But when we tried to engage second, the gearbox gave deafening sounds. Third and fourth went well as did the braking and steering.
I was given a try but managed only once to engage second without special alarming sounds. We were told that we had to change gear more precisely, but as I belong to the age of double clutch people I said bullocks. Perhaps a crooked clutch plate was the cause but I replied that this would result in a wobbling feel in the clutch pedal and it was not the case.
Contact with the owner ended in the offer to repair it that night and we were welcome the next morning. With one of the owners of Gruppo Promotor visited a warehouse with other cars for sale. On another Ardea there I told him to try the gearchange, this one without free play as it should be.
Next morning during breakfast we were called and told that the car was ready for a test run. We returned to the showroom and went on the road again. We don’t know what was done to the car but it was not for the better. If they wanted me to buy the car the gearbox had to be repaired otherwise no deal, and disappointed we left and flew back home.
A week later received a WhatsApp with a video showing a correct working gearbox and the question if I was still interested. But after two bad experiences I wondered if the Ardea was the right choice. Not much room on the inside, a bit cramped behind the wheel, and a bit slow in the traffic of today.
Maybe an Appia would be a better choice for what we wanted so had a look in that direction. The old Lancia grille was still a must so a second series Appia should be the one. As mechanically it was the same as a third series but with the old nose.
How about driving an Ardea in the California Mille? Click here!
I have a 1952 Lancia Ardea in Connecticut, which I purchased from Donald Osborne and with which I ran the 2013 California Mille with co-driver Chuck Schoendorf. We finished the 1000 miles and today it runs beautifully up and down the Connecticut hills. I’m fortunate to have Ferrari maestro Francois Sicard, my neighbor, take care of it. I love it.
P.S. Veloce Today published our story about our Mille experience. https://velocetoday.com/california-mille-by-ardea/
Hello!
I enjoyed reading your chase story but was sorry it didn’t finish with a Happy End, ie an Ardea in your garage!.. But why didn’t you contemplate the Aprilia, as it is a bit bigger and more powerful? Both are ever so good looking ! The true question, is the internet the best field to find a genuinely “good” car, I personally reckon One-Make Clubs are a better source, and so is word to mouth with like-minded amateurs.
Good Luck!
Hubert
Loved the story. You are a very brave woman!
er ah, what woman?
Pete
I own an Appia 1st Series, and I’ve owned an Ardea 4th Series and several Appia 3rd Serieses. Of them all, the most fun to drive was the Ardea, but the nicest to own is the S1 Appia. I didn’t miss any of the S3s when I sold them. If you can get the Ardea’s magnificent gearchange (5 speeds on the 4th Series) right, it is the quickest shift on earth. The engine is less powerful than any of the Appias on paper, but on the road I never felt any need for more power, and on a twisty road it was second to none (partly helped by its narrow width). The 3rd Series Appia felt more ‘modern’ and was more robust, usable and probably a lot faster in reality, but I never quite gelled with the S2/S3 Appia interior – the bench seats aren’t very comfortable, the glovebox is a joke, and the dash and controls lose almost all the charm of the S1 Appia, which has a magnificently ‘vintage’ feel, uses ivory rather than the more modern-looking black bakelite, and has much more character than the later cars. It also has a huge amount of aluminum used in it – bumpers, hubcaps, hood, trunk lid, rear fenders, doors, door handles and window surrounds. S2 and S3 Appias use a lot less aluminum, and they feel cheapened and dumbed-down compared with the S1, which is probably not an illusion as they are ‘Pesenti cars’ rather than ‘Lancia cars’. They are also quite a bit heavier, and so although they have more power the power to weight ratio is hardly, if at all, better. The S1 is a bit less practical as a daily use proposition (those babbitt bearings), but the one I still own, which is all original inside and out, is the nicest and most characterful car I have ever owned, and has a lightness and nimbleness lacking in the later Appias, it gives away very little to the Ardea, and it has the huge advantage, again lacking in the later Appias, of looking (and feeling) like a mini-Aurelia. You can read about mine here – the article is 21 years old but it is still all original, still virtually perfect (the interior IS perfect), and I will never sell it:
https://viva-lancia.com/letters/wesson-alan.htm
The steering wheel is filigree-delicate and all the controls are feather-light, and you have the impression of thinking it round corners rather than steering it (same goes for the gearchange, which you can change with one finger without taking your hand off the wheel). Like the Ardea, it also feels fast, but that is probably a function of low gearing. It’s the nicest of the lot though (quite possibly the nicest car ever built) – if you can find a good one, get one!