The sorry end of an utterly neglected GTV
In november 1995 we went to Italy to take a 116 chassis GTV back as a parts transplant for Jurgen's GTV6, whilst Eur was in for the 2.0 engine. This car belonged to Alexander, a friend of us wo lived in Italy at that time. He ran into troubles with the Italian customs (to cut a long story short: he didn't register his Belgian-originated car in Italy, and now the thing had to go, either to the scrapyard or out of Italy, or pass the italian road&safety test. No way the latter would be possible as we were soon to find out).
Anyway, Alex promised us the car. I wanted it for the specific GTV parts, Eur wanted it for the 2.0 engine to use it more or less as a stopgap solution in case we would fail to get the 2.0 in his Giulietta running properly, and we both wanted the car to beef up our stock of 116 chassis Ricambi Originale. We planned to get down there in one car, and drive back up in two. Then the GTV would enter a barn to never reappear again (a restoration was not feasible, the body was completely gone. Believe me, I saw the sorry vehicle). So, I transferred the insurance of my red GTV6 to that car, got official Dutch transfer plates, fired up the Lancia Dedra I had as a beater then and thus we drove down to Italy from The Netherlands.
Alex phoned us (after driving 800km already) when we were driving in the St. Gotthard tunnel in Switserland. This is an 11 mile tunnel that undercuts the Alps North to South (one minute yer speaking German, the nexts its Italian or burst). "Yeah, hi, uhm, it seems that the car just gave out on me, just today, just all of a sudden, uhm. It began making ticking noises, and then it just stopped...". This was when we started to get a little pissed, as he promised us that he had left the car untouched for over a week, for us to collect. Apparently, he was still driving it. Hmmm.
We ended up in Milano in the evening, where we had arranged to meet Alex and some of his friends. Had a nice time/dinner, as we were still unaware of the things to come. We drove down to his place at 2:30 AM, and decided to stop by the GTV he'd parked somewhere. The car looked an absolute horror, with not a single body panel either rusted through, scratched or dented and bordering on Flintstone propulsion. A very sorry sight indeed. We jacked up the rear of the car (we'd brought a fairly complete set of tools along, just in case it would go bust in the middle of Germany...), put it in 5th and turned the rear wheel: no budge. HHMmmmm. A seized engine? Shot gearbox? Meanwhile, Alex was playing Mr. Innocent. We left to catch some sleep then, but the sky was turning VERY black indeed, in spite of the beautiful starry night over the Lago Maggiore.
Next morning, at 15 celsius and a nice warm sunny day, we towed the car to a spot right on the edge of the beautiful Lago Maggiore where we could have a better look at it. The engine seemed jammed, so we were getting REALLY pissed. I mean, we were let to believe we could DRIVE the GTV back to the Netherlands. It would appear that the engine had seized, but how? This we found out soon enough as I pulled a dry oil indication stick from the engine. There was NO oil in the engine!!! Not even a little bit, just plain NOTHING! We poured a liter of oil into the block, and the stick still came out clean! That's when we exploded. It became very clear what had transpired: out of sheer lack of interest and utter stupidity, he had not put any oil in the engine, probably for weeks on end! F**k**g a*****e! I mean, to burn close to all the oil!? That's 7 liters! Out of a notion that the car had to go anyway, so why bother, eh? Something like that. He then confessed that 'the ticking noise' began a few days earlier, but he'd thought it would be ok...AAAAAARRRGGGHHHH! In its days-long death throes, the engine finally gave up by ripping (probably) the main bearings and breaking the #4 driveshaft (which was vividly clear after we'd pulled the head...). I had to walk the block to cool down, otherwise I'd surely wrung his neck for destroying a perfectly good 2.0 engine out of sheer neglect. Anyway, we then decided to gut the car there and then, which we did in just 5 hours. There was nothing left of (or on, for that matter) the car when we were finished, except for the rolling material, the shot engine block (we salvaged the head), interior and the body.
We managed to somehow cram it all in the Lancia. The next morning, we towed the remnants of the GTV to a junkyard for a decent burial, removed the steering column and brake booster, and took off. Btw, while shifting Alex's junk from the car, an untouched, filled oil can surfaced... [more foul language omitted]. You can see the can sitting on top of the car in the pictures. Come to think, this dude graduated from a technical university and is (still, 1999) working on his PhD!
We made it back home with a car filled with ricambi to put to good use lateron, so in the end the trip has been worth it for sure. Nevertheless, we had to leave behind the gearbox, transaxle, brake system, driveshaft, wheels, shocks (adjustable Monroe's), and of course, an engine block shot through sheer neglect. GRRRRRRR! We were *NOT* pleased.
