Mystery 'Havas' barchetta revisited

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You may remember the barchetta, somewhat shrouded in mystery, that we featured a while ago (click here). Meanwhile we’ve been in touch with Havas owner Youri Nieuwenhuizen, who is pretty certain it’s no Havas either, despite looking quite exactly like one. Youri is restoring his car at the moment and is sure his’ is the same as the Zandvoort racer, which has been modified later in its life to turn it into a street car.

So what’s the car in Italy then? That’s an interesting one. Youri says his car was owned in the mid-1960s by a chap named Age Lammertsma, who was a teacher at the technical college in Zaandam at the time. Lammertsma, at one point, decided to build a car together with his students. What he did was using the Havas as an example to build another, very similar in looks and also Simca 8 based, but now with Ford power due to his good contacts with Ford of The Netherlands. It is unknown how it ended up in Italy, though. The vendor of the car, Andrea Cecchellero, adds to it that there is unfortunately no history file with the car but does know it did some races in Italy in the late 1980s, early 1990s. To be continued?

(Text Jeroen Booij, pictures courtesy Youri Nieuwenhuizen) 

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