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The Lancia Fulvia is an Italian car introduced at the Geneva Motor Show in 1963 by Lancia. It was produced by that company through 1976. Fulvias are notable for their role in automobile racing history, including winning the International Rally Championship in 1972.

The Fulvia Berlina was designed by Antonio Fessia, to replace the Lancia Appia with which it shared almost no components. The Appia was a rear wheel drive car, however, while the Fulvia moved to front wheel drive like the Flavia; the general engineering design of the Fulvia was identical to that of the Flavia with the major exception of the engine, the Flavia having a four cylinder horizontally opposed engine and the Fulvia a 'Narrow Angle' vee configuration as featured on most production Lancias from the Lambda. The Fulvia used a longitudinal engine mounted in front of its transaxle. An independent suspension in front used wishbones and a single leaf spring, while a solid axle with a panhard rod and leaf springs was used in back. Four wheel Dunlop disc brakes were fitted to 1st series Fulvias. With the introduction of the 2nd Series in 1970 the brakes were uprated with larger Girling calipers all round and a brake servo. The handbrake design was also changed - using separate drums and brake-shoes operating on the rear wheels.

One element that was new was the narrow-angle V4 engine. Designed by Zaccone Mina, it used a narrow angle (12°53'28") and was mounted well forward at a 45° angle. The engine is a DOHC design with a one camshaft operating all intake valves and another operating all exhaust valves. The very narrow angle of the cylinders allowed for use of a single cylinder head.
Displacement began at just 1091 cc with 58 bhp with a 72 mm bore and 67 mm stroke. A higher (9.0:1) compression ratio and the fitment of twin Solex carburettors raised power to 71 bhp soon after.

The engine was bored to 6 mm to enlarge displacement to 1216 cc for the HF model. This, and some tuning, raised output to 80 to 88 bhp.

The engine was re-engineered with a slightly narrower bank angle (12°45'28") and longer (69.7 mm) stroke for 1967. Three displacements were produced: 1199 cc (74 mm bore), 1231 cc (75 mm bore), and 1298 cc (77 mm bore). The new 1298 cc engine was produced in two versions; the type 818.302 produced 87 bhp at 6000 rpm and was fitted to 1st series Coupes, Sports and Berlina GTE and later to the 2nd Series Berlina. The Type 818.303 was first produced with 92 hp and was fitted to the 1st series Coupe Rallye S and Sport S. For the 2nd Series Coupe and Sport power was slightly reduced to 90 hp at 6000 rpm. The 1199 cc engine was only fitted to the Berlina sold in Greece.

The engine was completely reworked for the new 1.6 HF with an even-narrower angle (11°20' now) and longer 75 mm stroke combined with a bore of 82 mm gave it a displacement of 1584 cc, and power ranged from 115 to 132 bhp depending on tune.

The Fulvia was available in three variants:- 'Berlina' (4 door saloon) 'Coupe' and 'Sport' an alternative coupe designed and built by Zagato on the Coupe floorpan. he Fulvia saloon was updated for 1969 with a 20 mm (0.8 in) longer wheelbase, new styling, and an updated interior.

I bought our starship mileage Skoda Favorit 1.9 SDI off Ebay about four years ago for Ł1500 and it is now approaching its 200,000 mile birthday. For the most part it has been frugal and reliable until a month ago.
It started with the nearside brake caliper stuck on fast. As the car failed outside a garage I had used before in the distant past I left it there. They replaced the nearside caliper and the master cylinder, as this had been affected by the brake fluid, which had boiled.
I got the car back, but both front calipers were now binding, albeit only slightly but enough for both front wheels to become extremley hot after a few miles. I took the car back to the garage, where they declared the valve in the pipe that connects the vacuum pump to the servo was faulty causing the latter to recieve to much vacuum, so they replaced it. Still no better.
The garage then declared that either the servo or the vacuum pump must be faulty as there was nothing else to replace. As a new servo is over Ł300, I obtained a second hand one and a vacuum pump from Ebay, these were fitted by the garage, but still no improvement.
By this time there now really was nothing left to change, so I agred to take the car back faulty, as long as I only paid for the new parts they had used, to whit one nearside caliper, a master cylinder and a vacuum pipe.
At this stage a mate of mine, who had links to the garage trade, suggested we do it ourselves, two days later we had found the fault. The servo is connected to the master cylinder by a rod with a flat head at one end. This head engages bayonet style, behind three clips on a metal pad within the spring of the servo. When the garage had attached the master cylinder to the brake servo,prior to bolting up, they had simply slotted the rod into the servo and it was resting on top of the three clips, rather than behind them. This meant that rod was in effect too long and parially applying the piston in the master cylinder, when the brakes were supposed to be off.
Problem solved, well not quite. A couple of days later the clutch packed in and had to be replaced. This was put down to the fact that the clutch had been trying to power the car against the resistance of the sticking calipers.
"Some guys get all the luck", but the car is now running properly.