Estimated Price: £30,000 - £35,000 When the Lancia Flavia Berlina went into production in 1961, the in-house design team may have taken the saloon’s name a bit too literally, as the somewhat rectangular saloon wouldn’t have looked out of place in East Berlin. Lancia therefore commissioned two design houses; for the Coupé they used Pininfarina, and for the Convertible, Vignale under the penmanship of Giovanni Michelotti. Whilst his Ferraris are celebrated today as works of art, with prices to match those of any old master, he was also one of the most democratic of all contemporaneous designers, applying the same level of flair and passion regardless of the “list price”, his cars were to be as pretty as the women they were intended to attract.
 
Just 1,600 Vignale Convertibles were produced with a mere 40 examples allocated to the UK in right-hand drive. The price may well have had something to do with that, for in 1963 a Lancia Flavia Vignale Convertible was listed at £2,685 against £1,913 for an E-Type Roadster and the £2,527 requested for a Porsche 356 Cabriolet.
 
This beautiful example was delivered to London in May 1963 resplendent in Bianco Saratoga with a matching hardtop and Nero interior, fitted with the more desirable 1.8-litre engine mated to a four-speed syncromesh gearbox. Understood by our vendor to have been ordered new by Lord Delfont, the lesser known brother of Lew and Leslie Grade, a trio who dominated theatre and television in the mid-20th Century. An enquiry for information via Classic & Sportscar magazine resulted in a letter from a friend of the Delfont family confirming that Lady Delfont, better known by her professional name of Carole Lynne, was a huge Lancia fan and that this was most likely her car when new.
 
Later on, a Mr. Henry Powell from Romford bought the car around 1975 and in 1976, sold it to his father-in-law, Mr. Peter Hayward with the understanding that he could buy the car back when his circumstances changed. This never happened and the Lancia was parked in Mr. Hayward’s garage until his death in 2003 and after his house was sold, the car was moved near to Colchester until 2010 and later to a garage near Brightlingsea.
 
In 2013, the decision was made to sell the Lancia and in November of that year our vendor commissioned a programme of works that went beyond a mere restoration, even going as far as to reinstate the original registration number that the car wears today, which we note is non-transferable. The body was taken back to bare metal and the engine rebuilt, the whole interior was retrimmed in a colour scheme that suited the car better than its original monochrome with a complementary new hood and carpeting. Various parts were researched and delivered, not just from Italy but from as far afield as South Africa and even Slovenia, and when our vendor wasn’t satisfied with the accuracy and design of a reproduction badge, he had one custom made instead to match the re-chromed bumpers.
 
This little Flavia presents beautifully and must be one of the finest examples of these underrated sixties Lancias currently available. It's a refined and practical four seater with a large boot, thoroughbred road manners, traditional Lancia quality and an exotic presence normally associated with much more highly strung and expensive Italian sports cars. Complete with its hard-top and a shade over 40,200 miles on the odometer, this pretty Lancia is presented to auction with a fresh MOT. With prices of Aurelia and Flaminia dropheads now so strong, it's hard to see why the Flavia Convertible won't be heading the same way in the near future.