The turn out as usual was quite spectacular, but the depth surprised even the organisers, as The Lancia Club Japan held its main annual meeting, the Lancia Lunch 2007, in the city of Yokohama.

The Lancia Club Japan held its main meeting, the Lancia Lunch 2007, on 18th November 2007 in the city of Yokohama. The Lancia Club's executive committee head is Akihiko Suzuki, and this year's event was was capably managed with the assistance of the club's enthusiastic volunteers.

On the day of the Lancia Lunch 2007 around 90 Lancias of all ages rolled into the meeting, and as this year is the fiftieth anniversary of the Flaminia, three of these gorgeous historic models (two SS and one 3C) took centre stage, alongside another a trio of representatives of another famous model, the Lambda. In fact Mr. Shoutaro Kobayashi, who is a famous Japanese journalist (and the former chief editor of respected Japanese car magazine “Car Graphic”) came to the event in his personal Lambda. He always says, "If I could chose only one car, I am not at a loss, I would choose the Lancia Lambda."

The turn out for the annual meeting as usual was truly spectacular, but the depth surprised even the organisers, and alongside the Flaminia and Lambda other historic beauties that arrived for the day, included an Aurelia B20 and two Aurelia convertibles which sported different 'faces'. The Appia also appeared for the first time at the Lancia Lunch, the stunning car set off by a gorgeous body colour.

Others Lancia models to roll up for the event included the Flavia, Fulvia, Stratos, Beta, Montecarlo, 037 Rally, Gamma, Delta, S4, Prisma, Thema, K, Integrale, Ypsilon and Musa, while beautifully-liveried rally versions of the many legendary winning models were much in evidence. And many of these mouth watering road and rally cars ran in the day's popular slalom event.

The even saw excellent weather, the best possible for a car meeting, and guests even came from foreign countries such as Australia. Lancia Montecarlo Mania's 'Robero' travelled to the meeting, and he joked "In Europe, Lancia cars are not so common anymore, I understand the reason, they are all in Japan!"

All Japanese Lancisti thoroughly enjoyed the meeting and they all are now looking forward to Lancia making its re-launch in Japan shortly. For more information on the Lancia Club Japan please visit: http://www.lanciaclub.jp/

by Akira Harada