The Francis Lombardi 850 Grand Prix was one of the more unusual Italian small-series sports cars built around Fiat 850 mechanicals. Its low, compact fastback body and rear-engined layout gave it a character quite different from the standard Fiat, while production remained limited enough for surviving cars to be genuinely uncommon today. The model also provided the basis for related derivatives sold under names such as OTAS and Abarth, which helps explain why original Lombardi examples are often difficult to identify in completely standard specification.

This January 1970 example is particularly interesting because of its long competition history. According to the seller, the car spent only a short period in normal road use before being converted for slalom and hill-climb events, and it has remained in the same family for more than 53 years. During the last decades it was stored covered in a dry, heated underground garage. The odometer shows 69,416 km. The photographs reveal a clearly competition-oriented car rather than a preserved road example, with period-style racing graphics, bucket seats, harnesses, simplified interior trim and modifications consistent with its motorsport use.

It is being sold explicitly as a damaged project rather than a running, ready-to-use historic competition car, so its mechanical condition and the extent of previous modifications need to be established in person. The seller also includes an additional steering column and steering wheel, rear lights and a set of Cromodora CD30 wheels. For a prospective buyer, the main questions are the originality of the underlying Lombardi body and chassis, the specification of the engine and suspension, and whether any period competition documentation survives to support the reported slalom and hill-climb history. As it stands, its appeal lies less in cosmetic condition than in its rarity, long-term family ownership and apparently genuine period competition use. Find it for sale at €10,950 (about $12,300) here in Werlaburgdorf, Germany.