I could have posted dribs and drabs of this over the years, but bear with me anyway if you can.
Around 1957 or 58 I was living in a flat leased by a friend - I often owed her rent but she was a friend - in Powis Square, Notting Hill.
At a certain point a classy, tarty bohemian woman who owned a very insanitary basset hound lived in the flat for a month or two. She had a boyfriend, a man I found unlikeable at the time, but I think well known in vintage car circles.
Looking out of the window one day I saw this rakish twenties four-seat tourer with its hood up, parked across the road. Its sliding-pillar front suspension, and even the radiator shape, made me think: "Ah! Lancia!'.
But it wasn't. It was a (fairly closely related) OM. Interesting, huh? I wish I'd been more grown-up and got on better with the guy, whose name I can't remember. But I was 19 at the time.
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A rare bird indeed. OM were better known for their HGV's, eventually becoming part of Iveco.
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But Fiat all the way.
Lancias were copies more or less of the OMs. But the geezer I remember was an OM collector, as I say even back then known in vintage circles. He had several of them.
Name's on the tip of my tongue but I still can't remember it. Just as well perhaps. I don't want to be beaten up for dissing his then girlfriend.
Faris Glubb was another resident of that flat. There were some jolly Rastas across the road from whom we used to buy weed.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 30 Aug 14 at 20:16
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I was eight in 1957,I do remember one of our neighbours drove a Citroen Traction Avant.I had to look it up.
Got a lift once in a while with my mother in the car,to collect my father up at the docks.Can't recollect Lancias.I wouldn't have known anyway to many Volkswagens about.
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A reminiscence for Sp - Harleyman
