A century of Lancia
Jesse Adams - Classic Car Africa
Pic: Ciaran Nunan
Posted Mon, 16 Apr 2007
Admit it. Every once in a while you find yourself wondering how and where some motoring manufacturers originated. This type of information can come in quite handy at trivia evenings and is also quite a valuable commodity for your memory bank.
Although we’re quite confident that the readers of Classic Car Africa magazine are more than clued up on motoring history, we have to assume that there are some of you out there craving this info. Here the subject is Lancia, and this is how the story goes…
Once upon a time, in Italy, amongst the wail of accordions and the flavourlicious smell of pastas wafting through the air, lived the son of a wealthy soup maker – Vincenzo Lancia. At the time, Vincenzo was a ripe twenty-something years old and he had made the decision to sway from his father’s culinary interests into the blossoming world of motorcars.
Young Vinnie had joined a small car and bicycle manufacturer named Ceirano as a bookkeeper, but soon left his desk job at the company to follow his true interests in engineering internally at Ceirano. Little did Vinnie know, that Ceirano was about to be acquired by another manufacturer called Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, otherwise known as Fiat.
After the acquisition had taken place, Vincenzo Lancia was promoted to chief tester and works Fiat racing driver. With his new high profile position, Lancia was quickly whittling his skills as an advanced motoring engineer and was mastering motorcar technology.
In fact, Vincenzo was getting so confident with his talents, that he decided it was time to break away from the Fiat firm to try his hand at constructing motorcars of his own. Lancia took fellow engineering colleague and friend Claudio Fogolin with him to start their endeavours as a manufacturer.
“When was all of this happening?” – I hear you ask.
Well, it was precisely 100 years ago in 1906. Funny that. Did you think that it was just coincidence that we run a story on Lancia in their centenary year? We think not. Contrary to popular belief, we have a method to our madness here at Classic Car Africa magazine.
Most people know that a 25th anniversary is known as a silver one, and a 50th is gold, but who knows what a 100th is? I did some quick investigation and found nothing. Probably because a marriage has never lasted 100 years. Well, I would like to take this opportunity to name the element for a 100th anniversary – fire.
Why? Because only a few weeks after Lancia had started his new independent firm, it burned to the ground. But Vinnie endured the tribulations and soon had developed his first car aptly named the Alpha.
And Lancia’s tradition of naming his cars after Greek letters of the alphabet by no means ended with the Alpha. The Beta, Gamma, Eta, Kappa and Delta all followed, all the way to the present day, where we now have 2007 model Lancias such as the Ypsilon. Yes, Lancia is still going strong today.
Viva Lancia!
A big occasion like a 100th birthday calls for big celebration, so we at Classic Car Africa took the liberty of organising a birthday bash for the Italian marque. We sent invitations far and wide for Lancias of all shapes, sizes and ages to attend our celebration and were fortunate enough to get five very respectable RSVPs.
Unfortunately grandpa Alpha is enjoying his retirement in Italy, and the youngest generation Thesis and Ypsilon are off gallivanting in Europe, but we did manage to round up a good chunk of the family tree for our local festivities.
Sitting at the head of the table at this party is the 1927 Lambda 2.6. Working downwards is the 1937 Aprilia, 1954 Aurelia, 1971 Fulvia and sitting closest to the cake at the young end of the table is the 1992 Delta Integrale.
In a sign of respect for the old timer, who has to leave early for his afternoon nap anyway, we would like to introduce the Lambda. The Lambda was first introduced in 1922 and became quite an influential motorcar in its day. Believe it or not, the Lambda was the first production car to incorporate not only independent front suspension, but also a monocoque chassis, aluminium engine block, overhead cam, four wheel brakes, remote central gear change, an integrated luggage boot, a transmission tunnel and the V4 engine design. That’s what we call innovation. Most of these features only came about in the fifties.
Seeing as there were only around 11 200 Lambdas produced between 1922 and 1931, we were quite appreciative that one could accept our invitation on the dark continent.
Next up is the Aprilia who is demanding some attention before he leaves to go meet friends for some espresso and grappa.
Up until the 1930s, Lancia had been building quite luxurious cars. But Vincenzo saw a need for a mass produced family car. A number of stipulations were given to the designers of the Aprilia in 1936. The car was to weigh less than 900 kilograms, seat five comfortably, have independent suspension, be shorter than four metres in length, have a maximum speed of 130km/h and consume no more than 10 litres of petrol per 100 kilometres.
The end product was a work of art. The Aprilia incorporated streamlined aerodynamics to achieve the rigorous protocol. The body was a pillarless monocoque with four doors, which happened to be laid out in the sexy suicide format.
By 1937 the car was in full production. And good thing too. By 1949 the Aprilia had sold better than any previous Lancia and close to 30 000 were built between the main factory in Turin and a smaller one in France.
Possibly one of the most attractive Lancias ever made was the Aurelia, of which our unit featured here is of the Zagato type. Zagato’s addition to the already sexy Aurelia was an aggressive bonnet scoop, twin downdraft Webers, a lumpy cam, wooden steering wheel, a floor mounted gear shift and the removal of the conspicuous bumpers.
The Aurelia gave Lancia a proud accolade of racing pedigree, of which it is impossible to list all victories and podiums. It competed in many legendary motorsport events such as Le Mans and the illustrious Mille Miglia, and is considered by many to be the first true Gran Turismo automobile.
On to the infamous Fulvia. How could a story about Lancia be complete without a mention of this iconic Italian piece? The Fulvia was first introduced in 1963 at the Geneva Motorshow. It was developed to replace the Appia, and used the same drivetrain as the bigger Flavia, but on a shorter wheelbase.
The lifespan of the Fulvia was quite a controversial one, as in 1970 as coincidence would have it, Lancia was sold to Fiat. A nice little titbit of info for that memory bank of yours, is that a pre-Fiat Fulvia was equipped with a four-speed box, and a post-Fiat Fulvia had a five-speed. A quick glance at the gear knob of any Fulvia will reveal its true identity.
Last but not least is the Lancia Delta Integrale. This car needs no introduction. For most, this is a love at first sight motorcar, and is almost always immediately associated with the World Rally Championship. Even in incognito white guise, it is easy to mentally apply the Martini livery which we all know it belongs in.
The Integrale was born in 1986, and with its permanent all-wheel drive powered by a 2-litre turbocharged 16 valve engine – it was bound to be a success in rallying. As per usual, success in the motorsport scene reflected success at the dealerships. Total sales for all versions of the Delta Integrale came to 44 296.
Around twelve different special editions became available including a ‘Club Italia’ version of which there were only fifteen made. Various one-offs were produced including an HIT concept car and a cabriolet built for the Agnelli family.
I recently returned from a trip to Rome, where proof that the Lancia marque is still going strong. It is virtually impossible to walk down any of the ancient city’s streets without spotting at least one Lancia. A large number of the new Thesis shape in dark blue guise with blue bubble lights on top for the Carabinieri Polizia proving that the Italian government is in full support.
As I said earlier… Viva Lancia!
