Thought to be one of just 334 RHD Series 1 Spiders built, this absolute beauty comes with the added scarcity bestowed upon it by its ultra-rare Verde Chiaro metallizzato livery.

A Montecarlo in this colour starred in Lancia’s 1978 UK advertising campaign, featuring a photo of the car at some Dolomites ski resort, accompanied by a gaggle of long-haired hipsters wearing dodgy 1970s ski-suits.

The headline read – ‘Some spectacular Italian scenery is now available in Britain.’ The final line of the copy was the decidedly un-PC sentence, ‘Probably nothing more desirable has come out of Italy since Sophia Loren’.

Different times.

The car was purchased new from Autoyachts Ltd of Gillingham on 21st June 1978 by Mr T J Clarke of Kent.

It has had six owners in total, and the vendor has had the car for over 10 years.

When he bought the car in 2014 it had just had all and any necessary bodywork repairs completed, with the rear bulkhead, rear and front suspension turrets and front floor secti...