Date sent: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 18:49:26 +0100
To: huib@viva-lancia.com
From: "Alberto" <reebaa@libero.it >
Subject: R. Lettera aperta

I'm writing from a small town in the province of Cuneo (Italy).

The events happened about a year ago, or maybe a little more, but to this day I am still thinking and feeling a little sorry about what happened.

I visited a breaker's yard in search of a certain mechanical part when, as I entered the yard, i was struck by a nice dark blue Fulvia Coupé.

"That's incredible" - I thought - "someone with my same passion is looking for parts for his beloved car". But I soon noticed something peculiar : the car had no number plate ! you could clearly see the little dark rectangle of where the number plate had once been, standing out against the rest of the recently polished paint work. It must have been one of those nice white-on-black number plates that you seldom see nowadays.

I could hardly believe it and I asked an employee of the yard for more information, and he plainly said : "The tub and the whole engine are sold, but you can pilfer parts off the rest of it". I take a closer look at the cabin and I immediately recognise the wafer-thin hay seat covers, oh so useful in summer and perfect for preserving the brown seat. I actually knew the car, as it was always parked in an alley near my school, and that's where I had left it six years ago, apart from a few trips every now and then to see how it was.

This would happen in those moments when life is demanding and you need to understand, to take a step back, even if only with your thoughts. By raising the carpet I notice what must have been fairly recent work on the sills. Here was a victim of the MOT, or of the incentives for the demise in favour of catalytic cars. Receiving money to destroy something, that's the truth of the matter.

To this day, when I drive with my Fulvia through the alley lined with trees, I still look for the old dark blue Fulvia that I liked so much but all to no avail : all I would find in it's place are Puntos, Clios, maybe a Lancia Y...nothing that can make me dream like I used to.

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