Quality lasts
02/12/2023
No, the two cars actually have little in common technically. The Lancia Fulvia (or the Lancia Fulvia ) has a four-cylinder V-type engine measuring just 1100 cm3, which drives the front wheels. The Mercedes-Benz 280 SE, on the other hand, can count on an in-line six-cylinder engine whose power is delivered to the rear wheels. Two carburetors supply the Italian with fuel, while an injection system does the same for the German. After all, they both have four doors.
But perhaps the more interesting characteristic of the two cars, which are actually so different, is their quality. In both cases, it was engineers who ensured that the saloons felt safe and stable. There was no skimping on a few grams, and in many cases they were carved from the solid. The blinker on the Lancia Fulvia still works as precisely as it did on the first day almost 60 years ago. The same applies to the controls in the almost 50-year-old S-Class. Even in the old age of the vehicles, you can still feel this quality.
Only rarely do we come across unrestored cars with half a century under their belt that still feel almost like new cars, at least in some respects. Of course, they were also treated with care, but the cars built 20 or 30 years later were unfortunately no longer "cut from the same cloth".
Incidentally, the qualities of the two vehicles were already being praised when they were still new. The Automobil Revue heralded the Lancia as "a new quality vehicle in the 1100 class". And a decade later, the Mercedes-Benz was praised in a similar way.
We will be publishing reports on both cars in the near future, the Lancia Fulvia will be on the cover of the upcoming SwissClassics Revue, and we will probably be bringing the Mercedes-Benz to Zwischengas before then. If you have any memories of these cars, please leave a comment and we may even be able to quote you in the upcoming report.
_RM.jpg)
