Lancia Gamma Coupé. Type I, 2500, 1978

[christian skjott]

I'm the proud owner of an early model. I bought it in 1995, for money I didn't have and much to wife's displeasure! She didn't like it all, when she first saw it. I can't blame her though, because it was very unusual, but also raggedy to look at from a sober and sane point of view.
I saw it coming out from a sidestreet in our little suburb one day and followed it to a gas station nearby. The driver was a young kid, who had just bought it. I was just curious and getting answers to my curiousity born long before on a strech of motorway through Germany, where I raced against a Gamma (lightmetallic) on my way to studies in Italy, sometime 1986. I never forgot the ghostlike image of that driver, looking ever so comfortable in that lean and sleek car, and roaming along around at 200 km/h, and I'm certain that at some point, I sensed him giggling and grinning from his seat that night, as I would be doing years later in my own car. He would disappear into the night never to be seen again.
I guess it hadn't been moving much after 1986, until then it had been owned by some Doctor in Switzerland, which is the only part of the cars history I know since I bought it from an obscure carenthusiast, who had gotten his hands on various cars, among them a MonteCarlo and a Beta VX.
Just to sum up how I got to own that car I saw in our suburb that day, would be because when I asked this young kid about his car, he happened to mention that his friend had several other models to choose from, and thought I should drop by his house to check them out. So I did, and though my real interest would be in the Gamma Coupe, I was also somewhat intrigued by the MonteCarlo, so I slipped my card in the mailbox with a "i'm interested..." kind of message. He called me back and we chatted back and forth about th cars, without concluding more, as he had allready reserved the MonteCarlo for someone and the VX for himself.
5-6 months would pass, when the phone rang and "the kid in the Gamma" was at the other end. He asked me if I was still interested in the Gamma, and when asked, he explained that he wished swith for the MonteCarlo. I went over there to have a look and got the car out for a test drive. I drove it out of town, to the meadows and backroads up north. It was spring of 1995, a bright sunny day in March with everything emming of things to come. I felt the car out, and it sure felt right. No disturbing noises. Just to make sure I also ran it through a bumpy track leading down to a major lake. I still remember the sound of the rear gas pipping shockabsorbers at work and the smooth glide to the embankment, where I stopped the car and sat for a while for a good look around the cabin. I really liked this car! Then I got out for many glances at the car from all angles and was just taken by the shere elegance of all the lines and curves of this coupe. The pinifarina badges were all bleached and hardly recognizable for the amateur, but I knew them. I was set to buy it.
Feeling comfortably safe with the suspension and roadgear, I rushed it back to the motorway, and gave it full throttle. Now it was the engines turn to fulfill the promises made. I was truly amazed by the agility and power coming out, and the faster it went, the firmer it got....what a car! The grin on my face was miles long.
Once back we began the trade. The price they were asking was horrific opposed to my knowledge of the cars and conditions today, but I was willing to pay anything that day. I just had to have it, which I did. I paid off on it in rates and after a few weeks I went with the last payment to pick it up. Naturally it wouldn't start, so we had had to use jump cables. I would later discover why the battery was always flat, but off I went in my new acquisition. I immidiatly drove downtown to show it off to my wife, who was at her shop that day. I stayed in it, until her attention was drawn to the curiously looking car parked outside, and when she recognised me inside it, I must admit that her expression was not the one I had hoped for! She would eventually forgive me. We talked about it the other day, when we were out shopping in it.
But back in 1995, I knew next to nothing about the car. I was having serious problems getting the car registered for road use, because there had never been any registered in the country before that. They were taxing it very high, because it had all the luxuries listed on the application form: power steering, electric windows, velvet cloth on seats, tinted windows, big engine etc. etc. etc.. Never mind it was nearly 20 years old. While we battled back and forth about the price, things began to go wrong with the car. Never enough juice to fire it up, the battery would always run out of power. I tried everything, installing a new battery, having the alternator revised by an oldtimer specialist, but nothing worked. It was generating enough power when idle, but on the next run it would be out again. I finally managed to get proper information about the alternator, which was my primary suspect. It turned out that someone along the way had replaced the alternator with only 30amp, but the car was born with a 70amp alternator, so I put on an 80amp alternator, and that hasn't caused me any problems since. Then the mechanical fuel pump broke, and by now I had found a Lancia parts dealer in Germany, who for a long while supplied me with new parts, until the day when he would sell me wrong parts that would haunt me for the following years to come. A human error, I suppose, but I just could not forgive him. It nearly killed the car!
We now advance to 1997. I still hadn't had the car registered, it was sitting in a garage, and would only come out and play on occasional weekends. So for nearly 3 years I would reinact my first day out, over and over again.
A good friend of mine with an electromechanic garage, offered his help to get it on the road, after I had battled the import taxes down to a reasonable level. I had bought new calipers and pads, and more stuff from a friendly guy in England, Chris Hall, who also supplied me with an original leatherbound manual. He had scrapped and dealt in Gammas for many years at the time, but now he has switched to a more common marque, which I have forgotten all about. Some bodywork was also replaced around the rear wheel arches on both sides, where it was very much affected.
Finally came the day where I would deposit the import taxes, and lead the car through various official checkpoints for certification. It was a great day indeed, allthough the exhaust system was defected, but they let it pass, and my cousin, who had lent me her garage for those years, was glad to see me and my car off. I spent hours fixing the new license plates just right. It was now roadlegal, and I even got half my money back from the tax office. It was the summer of 1998.
Shortly after the waterpump burst! Initially I thought it was corrosion in the coolingsystem, which was my most sensible guess, since the car had practically been standing still for over 10 years. I tried rinsing it out with mineral water, but it didn't help. Then I tried harsher stuff, you can buy in any gas station. It didn't work either. I don't remember how, but I consulted my old man, who by the way has been my mentor and co-mechanic all the time, and we took the system apart. I have to say, that there is nothing good to say about working in the engine bay. Not at all an accessible nor sensible construction. It doesn't help of course, that work is done in an intermistic homemade home garage, at my old man's old mans house, who's 96 and also an able mechanic. Fixing cars runs in the family I guess. However my Lancia is in good company at the garage, fronted by a statuesque Citroen DS 21, 1972, parts and wrecks in multitude and all the tools and remedies you can imagine except an engine lift.
So with the cooling system out, decisions were made. I got a new waterpump for it from my german supplier, (an immigrant in germany, but a typical egyptian, who manages to get his hands on almost anything you need, and knows his worth in doing so) tubes etc. And since the engine was now more accessible, we also changed the timing belts. This was a rather tricky procedure, as special tools were needed for the operation, but we had to make do, and produced our own little tool to keep the flywheels in place for mounting the belts. It worked.
The waterpump, once taken apart, revealed a broken shovel, and ended as scrap. Pipes were blasted and painted, but you couldn't tell today, as winters here make roads very slippery, and they are very generous with roadsalt. So much for hours on end restoring old cars!
We reasembled everything except the airconditioning, it was empty on freon, and I rather wanted the extra horsepower it would release not being on. But this was another problem, because the alternator was mounted on the fitting for the airconditioning pump. So another phonecall was made to my german connection, who again proved his genius, by having just the right fitting all included and for the right price.
By now we had spent a month working on the car, which was very frustrating, not only because of the time it took, but because, however under a roof, it was in the middle of winter and we were outside in the freezing cold in our thermosuits! But we managed to put the car back together, with many annoying small mishaps, such as broken bolts and more I have happily forgotten, only to realize that the shockabsorbers would be the next problem! They were shot, and would have to prepare to get new ones.
In between, some late evening, on our way home from the local cinema, the rear end of the exhaust fell off. It was shoved in the boot, where it lay until I got to Barcelona, some 3 - 4 months later, where I would be stationed the following 18 months.
In february 1999, I was preparing for my trip to Barcelona, Spain, and had arranged with my german supplier to get me a full set of shockabsorbers, which I would pick up on my way down through Europe.
Sometime march, late in the afternoon, I fired the car up and drove off into the horizon. I took my time feeling the car out, as it was fully loaded with stuff, and it hadn't really been driven much, for the usual runabouts, and certainly not out on the highway since the big repair, and keeping in mind that the shockabsorbers were very tired. It took me a couple of hours getting to the ferry, where I enjoyed a good meal on the top deck, feeling like the coolest guy on the boat, all things considered. Once in Germany, where speedlimits don't really matter, I began tempting the car more and more, and the experience just greatened. If the shockabsorbers were tired they certainly weren't showing the signs. The Gamma sped into the night at greater and greater speeds, big noise coming from the missing exhaust, but with so much intent it was scary, or exhilarating if you will. I couldn't help myself wondering what the other trafficants disappearing behind me may have perceived, but I only felt and saw myself as the only true King of the road.
Around Kassel, which was near my very first encounter with the Gamma back in 1986, the car went marvellously, climbing or descending, curves right and left, was just devoured like snack, and speed was unaffected. I was wearing a grin the size of Hoover Dam, blazing effortlessly past many new, exclusive and pricier cars, who simply couldn't follow no matter how hard they tried.
I made it to Stuttgart, some 1400 km in 13 hours. When I pulled the up, it was still aiming to go. I was way ahead of myself and according to my schedule, many hours early. I wasn't even exhausted or marked by the long run and decided to stay in the voluptious velvet seats, which had been so supportive all the way, like a firm hand gently pushing me along, and found my rest for the remainder of that night.
I made my way to my german supplier the next morning. It was still very early, only bakers were open so I decided to get some breakfast and come back for regular opening hours at the garage.
He was mighty surprised to see me, and we had a long talk among his fleet of cars (delta, fulvia, thema, flaminia sedan, beta cuope cabr. and 1 gamma) and his examination of my Gamma. There in the carpark was an abused Gamma, which looked like the property of a former pimp, which he wanted to sell, though he realised that he would have to straighten some of the detailing out if he wanted a sell. I had to agree, it was truly disgusting. But I did get the fuel lid from it, my own being lost somewhere, sometime earlier, which by the way wasn't even an original fuel lid.
Round lunch we concluded the deal for the new shockabsorbers, which he promised me were the right ones, when asked. Once loaded into the car, he invited me for a genuine ethnic meal prepared by his german wife. CousCous, homebaked bread with spices, rice and more. Just what I liked and needed for the trip ahead. We parted in friendship and promises, and glad about having finally met.
I even testdrove his own Type I, orange/red Beta Coupe Cabriolet, down to the local bank for some cash. Nice car which he was willing to sell for a very affordable price, and which I might have bought, if it hadn't been for the realisation, that the shockabsorbers he had just sold me for a fortune in peoples money, and which were mounted at an authorized Lancia garage in Switzerland 2 days later, would turn out to be the wrong ones.
This was a most unfortunate turn of events. The last bit to Barcelona from Switzerland, was not anywhere near as pleasant as the initial run. Still thrilling, but in a horrifying way. When were the tyres going to explode?
When in Switzerland, I had some time there, which I meant should be put to good use. So in search of a garage, I had found this authorized Lancia garage, and when I looked inside there were some thoroughbread italian muscle cars parked. A Maserati Ghibli and 2 Ferrari 246 GT, one being the property of the mechanic. With these cars around, I was certain he would be in tune with and perfectably capable of refitting my fine car with the new shockabsorbers. I should have been more suspicious of him, because when he ran me up to my hotel, he rubbed it in my face, that only 2 weeks earlier, a friend of his had sold a mint condition, 1 lady owner, always garaged, Dark Blue Lancia Gamma with leather interior and mere 40.000 km on the clock for measly
USD 2.000 to some guy in Zürich. I smiled at him and complemented his friend, just because I needed him to execute the refitting.
The car was ready the next morning and being pressed for time, I took a close look, gave it shove, it seemed allright and he didn't have any comments except that bolts and screws were mighty hard to get out, but it was all managed.
When I drove off it felt good, nice and tight, no unusual sounds except for an occasional rubbery squish from the rear. So I stopped and took another look. There wasn't much to see, but I noticed that now there was very little space between the rear wheelrims and the wheelarch at the top. I figured it was because they were so very new and would need some kilometers to settle to the normal stance.
But this would of course never happen, and some 500 km from Switzerland I desperatly began seeking a garage that would fix the problem. Of course nobody had the time for an immediate repair, specialy for some stranger in a strange car on a back road somewhere in rural France, way off course.
I finally made my way into Barcelona, and while in search of the office I was going to be associated too in the nearest future, I would very quickly come to know about the overhaeting problems, everybody were talking about on this particular model.
I would deeply regret not having trusted my intuition on the weirdly constructed and very expensive thermostat, we studied when we had had the cooling system dismantled. We had discussed it back and forth, mostly against, but in the end put it back in it's place.
This meant that everytime I entered Barcelona and queued with 2 million other trafficants, the heating gauge would mount to center position and just drop into the red. I always narrowly managed to evade it lighting up, but lots of water was needed everywhere I arrived, and casual dismissing explanations had to be made to the many attendants in the various underground parkings when messing up their floor with pools of water.
This scenario went on for quite a while. The rear tyres where stripped of their identity by the nagging wheelarches and it was bleeding water everywhere.
It ended when I bought another car. A big secondhand Mercedes Coupe 1991. From then on the Gamma sat in my garage and was only taken out for the occasional spin, or when the Mercedes was being serviced.
Originally it was my intention, and the reason why I had brought it to Spain at all, to find an able mechanic or garage, who would strip the car down to the very last bolt, fix the body up completely, because it has many dents and rusty parts, prime and paint it in 5 layers of the original Gold metallic colour, and finally reassemble it, so it was reset to it's to former glory.
But the experiences gained from someone else touching or handling any part of my car was now completely out of the question. Besides my opinion about my german supplier had now fallen to below any tolerance, so I couldn't replace the bits as easily either, allthough I had long before made some acquaintances in Italy, the sources of things, but I never thought to ask. Which wasn't an option either, as I was totally put off any ambitions of restoring my car at the time, even when I had the ideal opportunity. So I went shopping for other cars instead, and forgot about for a long while.
Until the day came, when my stay in Barcelona was over. I couldn't just leave my car. So I drove it up to some new found friends in Holland. It was a long drive, but the pleasures I had experienced going down, were revived, and it became another memorable journey through beautiful France along the western coast, through the winedistricts and finally Paris.
I arrived in Den Haag without prior notification, thinking here was a heaven for lost Gamma's of immense proportions, all in my mind of course. Instead, on the given address, was a small electronics business, managed by a fast talking dutchman, who as a hobby restored and fixed Gamma's with his best friend. They each have one of their own. Henry drives a 2.0l Beta on a daily basis and Rutger has a company car.
Anyway, if I could I would describe Harry's expression, when he first saw my car parked outside. Suffice to say, he couldn't believe his own eyes. Somehow I managed to talk both of us into an understanding, though I think it was more his big heart and my apparent despair, which did the trick and we had a good but rushed discussion everything wrong with the car, and later he summoned his friend for a meeting. One thing I have learned about my friends there, is not to come unannounced. I have done it twice now, and been scolded both times. Not that they don't want me coming there, just given more time to plan a visit, rich on dutch hospitality.
They kept my car for some time, and replaced the shockabsorbers, fitted a new exhaust and then some. Unfortunately I ran out of funds for a Royal Gamma treatment, as intended, and even at some point I envisioned my Gamma ending up on their loft, with many other good parts, because remedy seemed doomed.
But my car is here with me, back in Denmark where it all began. Actually it's all the way back in the garage at my grandfather's house, for some repairs. It's not running. The wheels are off and the engineshields are down allround. It's making big noise again as the exhaust system needs a refitting. It wouldn't pass emision tests.
The other day I reset the valves, which was a simple thing. I now know my way around the engine bay, my hands have grown into quite capable handling of all things in there. And I'm still enjoying every minute. The only thing which really aggrevates me during the repairs, is that we're not out and about. But sometime next week, not later, perhaps..






This story was written directly in, so please forgive spelling mistakes or nonsensical sentences. Christian Skjott, the only Lancia Gamma Coupe on the roads of Denmark.

[christian skjott]

Regretably for sale. A rare type 1. Asking price: ? 2.200. This one runs everyday. Write me for information. Reluctant sale, but I can only drive one at a time...