Offbeat barchettas

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Some open top motors are so rare, you won’t find them even if you’ve just won the Euro Millions during New Year’s eve. This ‘Ferrari 250 GTO’ may be the best known example, but how about an Aston DB4 GT Zagato Barchetta? Or a Bizarrinni 5300 Spyder? Somebody even put the heck saw into his Ferrari F40… A Ferrari Dino 196 SP is quite a convertible, too. And when singer Chris Rea decided he needed one – supposedly for filming the movie ‘La Passione’ – he simply had one built. Like the real thing, the body was fabricated from aluminium and the chassis became a space frame, but in it came the mechanicals of a Ferrari 328 with all modernities to match the dry-sumped V8. Rea supposedly drove it regularly, but the car will now be auctioned by Coys during their Autosport International sale in Birmingham on the 16th.

And it’s not the only Italian barchetta recreation they have on offer. This Lancia Fulvia is another good example of a car of which you won’t find its real father. Three of them were built by the chiefs of Lancia’s works team ‘Squadra Corse HF’ at the time: Cesare Fiorio and Claudio Maglioli – hence the F&M name. The idea behind it was that the coupe suffered from intense heath – or actually its drivers did. By getting rid of its roof it not just became much cooler to drive on the Targa Florio; it won from a tremendous weight loss, too. None of the three cars are believed to survive, but this reproduction is very faithful and was built together with Claudio Maglioli. It also comes with the right FIA paperwork. Prefer the heath of the coupe? Don’t worry – Coys has plenty of more for you. Not one, not two, not three, but four more closed Fulvia Coupes. That leaves us with the question: which car would you want to turn into a barchetta?

(Words Jeroen Booij, pictures courtesy Coys of Kensington)
 

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