Cherished Memories

I am rather proud of this picture — a delightful image of the famous Lancia Gamma of around 1910.
Years ago I was a great fan of Lancia and at the time owned a rather  magnificent Lancia Beta, which for the time was one of the best equipped cars around and  real luxury.
This image which we still keep on the wall at home was a gift during a visit to the Lancia factory in Italy.
Sadly, as it turned out it was the wrong time to buy a Lancia, because mine was one of those models which developed measles rather quickly. A spread of pinpoint rust spots just beneath the surface of the paintwork. In effect it ultimately brought Lancia to its knees in this country. It turned out that the cars were among a batch manufactured with what turned out to be faulty steel. The result — Lancia ended up buying back hundreds of these cars, all suffering the same fate.
At least, through that campaign I was able to get out of my ownership of this car satisfactorily, yet it was a sad day. For its time my Beta was the bees knees in luxury executive cars.
Sad, yet fond memories!