Lancia Aurelia (B10/B21/B15/B22/B12/B20/B24/B50/B51/B52/B53/B55/B56/B60) 1950-1958

[henk4]

B53 Giardinetta

[henk4]

a very siginifcant B52, before and after complete restauration

[henk4]

an finally some B20s in Tour Auto, demonstrating what they were, the very first thoroughbred GT car.

[f6fhellcat13]

I remember seeing a Wolseley woodie for sale a few years ago, and this one is quite pretty too.
Were woodies as much of a craze in Europe as they were stateside?

[henk4]

I remember seeing a Wolseley woodie for sale a few years ago, and this one is quite pretty too.
Were woodies as much of a craze in Europe as they were stateside?

the Brits loved woodies (Morris Minor for example) but probably because the Brits liked them nobody else cared...

[NSXType-R]

This is a tribute.

Fiat may issue bond to boost liquidity after Chrysler merger, Marchionne tells paper

I was actually planning to celebrate the 30 grand post anniversary with a tribute to one of my very favourite cars from one of my very favourite manufacturers, but since Mr. Marchionne announced yesterday that Lancia is (all but) dead, there is no point in waiting.

This is a farewell to Lancia. A farewell to what once was one of the most charismatic, innovative, distinctive and stylish car manufacturers ever. Lancia was one of those manufacturers who thought that things could be done differently, better.

Sadly this wasn't enough. So it is doubtful Lancia will live to see it's 110th birthday.

Rest in peace.

I don't quite have the same fondness for Lancia except beyond its crazy rally cars, but would it be fair to say Lancia is a lot like Lincoln?

Lincoln was a great brand but Ford won't bother doing anything for that brand.

[henk4]

I don't quite have the same fondness for Lancia except beyond its crazy rally cars, but would it be fair to say Lancia is a lot like Lincoln?

Lincoln was a great brand but Ford won't bother doing anything for that brand.

comparison is not quite correct Lincoln was a luxury brand created by Ford, while Vincenzo Lancia was a genius in his own right, (apart from Abraham, there is no other famous American I can recall) creating for instance the first unitary body car, the Lambda, in the 1920s. That Lancia ultimately ended in the claws of Fiat, had to do with the rationalisation of the Italian car industry, and its demise was partly triggered a long time ago by some dubious quality aspects in some of their models, and when the quality issues were finally solved, the targeted european customer had already developed his well known snobby Teutonic preference

[Ferrer]

For me Lancia's rally cars are not the most important or interesting part of Lancia's history.

I don't think Lancia is like Lincoln at all. Surely, Lincoln has made some lovely cars over the years, like the 60's Continental, but their beauty never went farther than skin deep and they were for the most part little more than a Ford division.

Lancia on the other hand, as Pieter says, is very different. Their beuty was more than skin deep. Not only they made the first car with unibody, but also the first production car with a 5 speed gearbox, the first production car with a V6 engine or the first production car with an electrical system amongst many others.

The Aurelia is, for me, the peak of Lancia. It has a V6 engine, all round independent suspension and five speed transaxle gearbox, (PLUS THE MICHELIN X-Radial TYRE as standard), all in 1950. In 1951 a standard B20GT finished second overall in the Mille Miglia, just behind the just behind a works 4 litre Ferrari 340 America and the next year a similar coupé won the Targa Florio (Lancia's actually finished in the first three positions).

After the 1969 takeover by Fiat thing definitley were less interesting, nevertheless Lancia still had some left-field options to offer like the HPE, the Gamma (by the way, it's been said that Lancia's flat four engines, first in the Flavia, later in the Gamma, influenced Subaru's flat four engine design) or the Delta S4 with supercharging and turbocharging in the same engine.

So, to summarise, Lancia isn't like Lincoln at all.