Faults:

Fabricated a custom stainless steel exhaust header.

Head gasket recently is blown.

Basic restoration project.

General Comments:

It's an old car. The previous owner of twenty something years took pretty good care of it. Since it's been in my stewardship, I have painstakingly brought it back to its original trim, with a few modifications. All the "strangling emissions" have been removed, and I've added a dual Weber carb set up featuring twin 40 DCNF's and an Alquati intake manifold. The car has been professionally lowered, so it now has a meaner stance. The interior has also been upgraded with the addition of a two-tone look with a sweet black and ivory appeal.

This car needs to be well pampered, hence what makes the "hobby" just that much more enjoyable! Trim and body parts are a hard find, but most mechanical and electrical are all FIAT. So they are somewhat easier to source.

Faults:

After fixing the things that were wrong with the car when I purchased it, nothing has gone wrong.

General Comments:

Lancia Scorpion AKA Fiat 137AS1. Featuring Fiat's ever popular Lampredi twincam in the 1.8 litre variety. Body by Pininfarina. 1806 were made. Around 400 of these were 1977 models and featured flying butresses, electric windows and other perquisites. In europe this car also had a sister car, the Lancia Monte Carlo which was a better car (faster, lighter, hardtops available), available also in small numbers.

80% of the parts on this car are common Fiat parts and can be gotten cheaply and easily, the other 20% are a lesson in patience, fortunately these are mostly body parts and the car runs whether your windshield is cracked or not. Car is only prone to rust in the front hood.

Reliability is directly proportionate to maintenance. If the previous owners treated the car poorly you're going to be fixing a lot of stuff, if they treated it well and you do, it will run superbly.

As with all 76 Fiats, this car's worst part is the emissions. Originally with 83hp, if the emissions are 'fixed', freeflow cat added, and a better carburettor, you can expect over a 100hp out of it, up to around 115-120 without any internal modifications. Lancia was able to pull over 400hp out of it for rallying, so what you put into the engine is what you will get out.

The car can also be lightened by changing to European bumpers and replacing the old Chrysler AC with a modern system. European bumpers, hardtops, etc. are available via reproduction sources in the US.

Handling is not bad at all. Fuel economy is around 21-25mpg. A fuel injected head and injection system (common Bosch l-jetronic) from a later 124 Spider or 131 Brava can be bolted on and give a tremendous power boost and upgrade the economy to around 35mpg. Aftermarket electronic ignition systems (like Crane or Pertronix) can be fitted for under a 100$ and are well worth it.

If you don't work on your car yourself, don't make the mistake of taking this car to anyone who doesnt specifically work on Fiats, and make sure you have mailorder parts catalogs, they are readily available in the US.

Also if you loose a trim item, be prepared to pay through the nose for it, Pininfarina designed the body at the same time they designed the Ferrari 308 and guess where you have to go to get some of the trim items. Fortunately most of these can be ignored.

Faults:

Name it, it failed.

General Comments:

Available only 76-77 in the US. The Eurospec version (Monte Carlo) is far better with its larger engine. The Scorpion looks great, goes slow. Very small following. When the US smog law eases up on these cars then larger 2 liter highly tuned engines can be placed. Until then, stay away. Rust is major problem too.