Lancia, one of the most famous and evocative of all the major automotive brand names, was founded exactly 100 years ago. To celebrate this milestone Italiaspeed is presenting an exclusive 15 part history of Lancia.

For the first fifteen-odd years of the company’s existence, Lancia had manufactured cars which were good performers, practical and lightweight, with a number of technical innovations. But in the grand scheme of things, each was a stepping stone to the model with which Lancia would truly make his name. Developed and on the road in 1921, shown to the public at the Paris Salon in 1922, in production by 1923; with the Lambda, Lancia pulled together a great number of influential ideas in a single car, and although none was entirely new, their combination and execution in the Lambda immediately marked it as a great leap forward. The biggest single innovation, and one which instigated a revolution in car design, was the adoption of a load-bearing body and the deletion of the separate chassis. Another first was the use of independent front suspension, while the ‘Tipo 67’ V4 engine, designed by Ingegneres Rocco, Cantarini and Quarello, was also highly advanced. An unusually short engine thanks to its layout, the Tipo 67 employed a cast-aluminium engine block, aluminium pistons, a 13° V-angle and overhead camshafts, resulting in an output of 49 bhp at an unusually high 3250 rpm.

It is worth pausing for a moment to explore the inspiration for the Lambda’s two most important innovations.  Although the execution of a unitary chassis (where the chassis frame and body frame were fabricated in steel to form a single unit) was revolutionary in an automotive context, it was not unprecedented in other areas of industrial design. Legend has it that one day, Vincenzo Lancia found himself on board a ship travelling to the U.S. in an unforgiving sea, and watching the ship’s hull battling against the conditions inspired him to develop a car with a unitary body – but this account remains unverified.

It is however true that the Lambda’s independent front suspension owes its origins to Signor Lancia. As Paul Vellacott has observed, “Lancia was well aware of the importance of minimising unsprung weight and used pressed steel ‘U’ section front axles, rather than heavier cast steel, on models up to the 1919 Kappa. Following an accident caused by a broken front axle on a Kappa, Lancia realised that an independent front suspension would remove the risk of broken axles and improve handling by reducing unsprung weight.

“Having identified a solution to the problem, Vincenzo Lancia did not slave over a drawing board to refine the solution, but handed the challenge over to his design engineers, the most outstanding of whom was, undoubtedly, Battista Falchetto. The story of how Falchetto, on being asked by Vincenzo Lancia to come up with an independent front suspension solution to remove the hazard he had experienced with the Kappa’s broken front axle, is now part of Lancia lore. Falchetto worked well into the early hours of the next morning to produce sketch drawings of 14 possible independent front suspension (IFS) designs. That his 1921 sketches included virtually every type of IFS introduced by other car manufacturers during the next thirty years is quite remarkable.” The sliding pillar design eventually chosen was highly significant, for derivations of the type would underpin the front of every new Lancia from then on, up to the 1953 Appia.

The Lambda was not just a modern car for its time – many of the solutions it pioneered (such as a remote central gearchange, integrated luggage boot and transmission tunnel) would find themselves in use well after the Second World War. Speak to Lambda owners today and apart from unstinting devotion to, and praise for, their cars, there is one remark in particular which comes through – that they drive almost like modern cars, a world away from other cars of equivalent vintage. With their long, low-slung appearance, they certainly looked different: according to Penny Sparke, the launch of the Lambda meant that, “for the first time, a car could really be thought of and conceived from the outset, as a single visual entity.”

The Lambda was in planning for some time, with the original patent for a ‘frameless car’ filed on New Year’s Eve, 1918. An unproven idea, it was put on the backburner for the next couple of years as Lancia pursued development of his new V12, but with these plans falling through, attention focused once again on the design in the patent as the way forward, with the go-ahead given in March 1921. One area of dissent in the development of the car was over the issue of brakes, with Lancia for a long time remaining sceptical of Falchetto’s belief in four-wheel brakes, believing that rear brakes were entirely adequate for the car. It was fortunate that Falchetto managed to convince Lancia after a test run in a car equipped only with front brakes, for as Trow notes, “Lambda braking proved to be one of the features that deeply impressed contemporary commentators.”

Throughout its nine-year life, the Lambda underwent an extensive series of evolutions. Briefly, the original specification saw a top speed of between 70 and 75 mph, with a touring consumption figure of around 26 mpg.  These first cars were almost all bodied in-house by Lancia, the new load-bearing body reducing the scope for the coachbuilders, although a few did make some attempts. The first four series saw small improvements such as new pistons, different windscreen designs and a change in supplier of the electrical system (from Bosch to Marelli). The fifth series saw the adoption of a four-speed gearbox to replace the previous three-speeder, whilst the sixth series used a wheelbase stretched by 320mm and was also produced as a chassis for the coachbuilders. In 1926, the seventh series saw an enlarged capacity engine (up to 2370cc) producing another 10 bhp, and was produced with both the longer and shorter wheelbases, a feature also used in the following eighth series (1928-1929). The latter also received an even larger and more powerful engine (2570cc) with a further 10 bhp, now achieved at 3500 rpm, to offset the ever-increasing weight. By 1931 and the series 9, the Lambda had racked up production of nearly 13,000 units, easily making it Lancia’s best-selling model thus far. Throughout this period, the company itself would also undergo a considerable shakeup, with Fogolin resigning in 1921 and the rest of the firm’s founding members (Rocco, Cantarini and Zeppegno) all departing some time afterwards.

Thanks to their outstanding handling and braking performance, Lambdas were also a natural choice for competition purposes. They were successfully utilised extensively in motorsport in various guises, mostly by private entries, albeit supported by the factory. Officially, the factory was uninterested in motor racing, but Vincenzo Lancia never truly lost the racing bug from his youth, and a 2.5-litre model was prepared by the factory for the 1928 Mille Miglia. Despite lacking performance on paper compared with the supercharged 1.5-litre Alfa Romeo Super Sport of Campari and Ramponi, Gismondi was able to keep in touch as a result of the Lambda’s superior handling, only retiring from second place in the final leg when the engine dropped a valve. 

The 1930s and new challenges

A couple of years prior to the Lambda ceasing production, in 1929, the rather more conventional Dilambda had been introduced to the market. Despite its name, this was not a replacement for the Lambda, but a far bigger model, aimed at a different type of customer – Lancia’s first true luxury car.  In fact, it was born as a project for the U.S. market and displayed at the New York Motor Show as early as 1927, complete with plans to manufacture there, but when the venture collapsed (with no less than a serious threat on Vincenzo’s life), the car was modified for the European market and eventually went into production in 1929. Although it included innovative features, such as a structural fuel tank, independent front suspension similar in design to the Lambda, and was one of the first cars to be fitted with a hypoid bevel, the Dilambda returned to a separate chassis construction to satisfy the demands of the coachbuilding industry, who would be integral to providing a choice of bodies, as would be expected by the buyer of such a car.  Typically, customers had a choice between a four-door, four-seat saloon, a two-door ‘coupe de ville’, and a two-door cabriolet. Amongst others, the Dilambda is notable for providing the base for the first official Pinin Farina special.  Lancia and Farina were good friends and the former was crucial to persuading Farina to branch out on his own by providing commissions.
 

The Dilambda was a large car, the finished vehicle rarely weighing less than two tonnes, and was built in correspondingly small numbers. The total production was just under 1700 cars, with the majority built between 1929 and 1932, although it remained available to special order for a few more years afterwards. It was propelled quite adequately for its purpose by a superb new 100 bhp 4-litre V8 engine, developed from the Trikappa’s motor but in actuality a quite different engine, with a V-angle of 24°, pushrod-operated valves (the first Lancia V engine with this valvegear arrangement) and one-piece casting of the iron cylinder block.

The extent of the Lambda’s advancement had made it the car of choice for the discerning motorists of Europe – a point emphasised by the fact that Lancia sold cars via reputation rather than advertising. Moreover, according to Automotive News, “Lancia (had) gained economies of scale by using the most sophisticated tooling available. The result was that his company could produce more than 4,000 units of his high-end models a year by the 1930s”, while continued investment in manufacturing methods allowed low-volume production of improved models, such as the Astura and Artena, which would debut in 1931 and herald a new era for the company.

With the Dilambda meeting the demand for a large vehicle, Lancia went about developing a replacement for the Lambda, to be available both as a base model and a more luxurious model, sharing their basic layout. The result was, respectively, the Artena and the Astura. The resulting common chassis drew heavily on the design of the preceding Lambda and Dilambda, albeit with a sensible dose of cost-saving measures, with the front and rear suspension also following the same basic layout as those models. 

For the Artena it was decided to retain the well-tried narrow-angle V4 layout, but while it has been described as a much-developed version of the Lambda’s V4 with numerous major modifications (such as the adoption of a chain drive for the camshaft), the changes were so extensive it could just about be called an all-new engine. Whilst an overhead camshaft layout remained, an iron block was substituted in favour of the Lambda’s alloy specification, with the V-angle set at 17°. Slightly under two litres in capacity, a significant innovation was its mounting via silentblocks, which drastically reduced the vibrations passed into the chassis. The Astura, on the other hand, got a simplified and reduced-capacity version of the existing V8. Measuring 2.6 litres in capacity and developing 73 bhp at 4000 rpm, the new V8 was essentially quite similar in concept to the Artena’s V4; clearly with eight cylinders and with a slightly expanded V-angle (19°), but much the same in basic design and layout. 

The Astura, writes Wim Oude Weernink, was, “not a Lancia technical tour de force with regard to chassis design, (but)...must nevertheless be considered as one of the best pre-war Lancias from the points of view of quality, durability and practicality.” Even if they did not display the innovation of the Lambda, the Astura and Artena were fine-handling cars in the by-now Lancia tradition, with their compact engines sited low-down in the chassis, precise steering and well-developed front suspension allowing them to realise Lancia’s mantra that they should be able to maintain, “a high average speed under average conditions”.
 

In particular, early Asturas were regarded as very sporting cars, especially when fitted with low, wide custom bodies by the likes of Pinin Farina, Touring, Viotti and Castagna. It was potential realised to an extent in competition, with Pinaduca and Nardelli claiming victory in the 1934 Circuit of Italy, a grueling trial of some 5654km over which their Astura averaged 85km/h. Trow notes, “it (was) to the Lancia’s credit that Pintaduca and Nardelli beat the new 6C 2300 Alfa Romeo of Scuderia Ferrari, the Alfa works team, by over three minutes,” while third place was claimed by another Astura, piloted by another who would go on to greater things – Giuseppe Farina.

However, towards the end of its life, the Astura would increasingly evolve into a large tourer, in much the same way as the Lambda had done, to suit the demands of the political climate in Italy at the time. Whilst the Artena became more utilitarian given the poor economic conditions at the time and the limited purchasing power of most Italians, the Astura took over as the top-of-the-range Lancia and became more luxurious after the cessation of production of the Dilambda in 1938. In 1934 its engine was bored out to 3 litres, raising output to 82 bhp, while a variety of different wheelbases were offered from the third series onwards. The Astura became a favourite of the coachbuilders and many different versions were built by almost all of the leading names. Around 5500 Artenas and 2900 Asturas were built in production runs which lasted throughout the 1930s.

Nevertheless, despite the relative success of these models, the poor economic situation in Italy was a persistent worry and the idea of a Lancia to tempt upwardly mobile Fiat drivers, pitched between the Fiat Ballila and the Isotta, had been playing on the mind of Vincenzo for quite a while. In 1930, development had begun on the new model 231, the ‘Augusta’.

The first ‘compact’ Lancia designed to be produced in large volumes, the Augusta was first shown to the public in 1932, with production beginning in 1933 and a chassis version also produced for the coachbuilders from 1934 onwards. For all that, however, it was not a car for your average Italian, and sold only a fraction of the amount of Ballilas in a production run lasting between 1933 and 1937. If nothing else, the quality of the car’s construction put it in a different league – Trow describes how it came to be thought of my many motorists as a ‘little Rolls-Royce’.

The small-capacity engine, meanwhile, was a marvel of sorts in itself. Under the direction of Gianni Sola, a brand-new, 1196cc, overhead-cam 18° V4 – with an unusual weight-saving crankcase design – was developed, producing 35 bhp at 4000 rpm. It also possessed, says Paul Vellacott, “(a) preciseness and delicacy (to) its controls, (especially) the steering”; this was combined with sliding pillar independent front suspension (providing excellent handling) and Lockheed hydraulic brakes, although this latter innovation was fitted only after much urging from Falchetto, and was not approved without a great deal of reluctance from Lancia following some problems in testing. 

Despite its diminutive size, this car was a particular favourite with racing drivers of the era, with Tazio Nuvolari, Luigi Fagioli, Antonio Brivio, Achille Varzi and Rene Dreyfus all espousing the qualities of the ‘littlest Lancia’. With some specialists also carrying out supercharger conversions, the Augusta also met with considerable motorsport success in private hands, from the Mille Miglia to the RAC Rally, with their most notable success a 1-2-3-4 class finish in the 1936 Targa Florio.

Altogether, the Augusta is perhaps best summed up by L.J.K. Setright, who wrote that it represented, “perhaps the first really successful embodiment of an ideal that many manufacturers had long sought: an elegant, attractive, efficient and completely convincing good small car. Too often dismissed as merely pleasant, the Augusta – as a transitional design paving the way for the Aprilia – was truly important.” Why was this? Most importantly from a chassis design point of view, the Augusta marked a return to a true load-bearing bodyshell, with even the roof an integral part of the structure. The chassis was also notable for being ‘pillarless’, with the B-pillars being omitted, allowing for outstanding access. This, it might be expected, did little for chassis rigidity, but in fact, thanks to ingenious design, body rigidity was quite superb. Despite weighing just 818kg, according to Setright, the Augusta’s chassis boasted a torsional stiffness of 4520lb ft per degree – an outstanding figure, “unrivalled by any racing car for at least another twenty years and unmatched by many a minor hatchback (well into the 1990s).”

With such thoroughness exemplified throughout its design, the Augusta proved a success, to the point that Lancia set up a brand-new factory in Bonneuil-sur-Marne, in France. Between 1933 and 1937, around 2500 Augustas, renamed ‘Belna’, were produced at this factory, while a further 600 chassis were destined for French coachbuilders such as Franay, Figoni and Saoutcick.  Including Italian manufacture, approximately 20,000 saloons and chassis were produced in total.

By 1934, although the Augusta, Artena, Astura and Dilambda were all rolling off the production lines at a steady rate, Lancia’s thoughts were already turning to his next step, “a quality car built on mass-production lines.”  The car which resulted, the Aprilia, would continue to forge the company’s reputation for innovation, and carve out a wonderful reputation for its quality, spaciousness, performance and dynamic ability.

As with the Lambda, so with the Aprilia: way ahead of their time is an apt description for both.  Like its predecessor, it boasted unitary construction and an overhead-cam alloy-block V4, but it differed in the nature of its advancement. As Paul Vellacott has observed, if the Lambda was, “a remarkably intuitive leap in to the future, the Aprilia was more of a considered step into the future of the motor car...(the result of) the confidence of a further fifteen years design experience.” Falchetto remained the chief designer, but responsibility for engine design passed from Ingegnere Rocco to Ingegneres Sola and Verga, with the whole operation overseen by the company’s technical manager, Giuseppe Baggi. In fact, this was more significant than it may appear, for Lancia’s role as principal of the company meant he simply could not devote the time to become involved in the car’s development, and his direct involvement ran only to laying down its specification, although he kept a constant eye on its development throughout the process. This was to include a medium-capacity engine producing around 50 bhp; space to carry five passengers; a weight, when laden, of no more than 900kg; good aerodynamic qualities; excellent roadholding; and possibly, if the development team saw fit, all-independent suspension.

This last stipulation was realised, and the result was the first Lancia to feature fully independent suspension, a feature still unusual at the time. As with all Lancias since the Lambda, the front suspension was again of sliding pillar type, but the rear was an advanced and complicated trailing arm/torsion bar arrangement at the rear, as opposed to the inferior swing-axle designs of many of its contemporaries. Other noteworthy features included hydraulic brakes (inboard at the rear) and ‘pillarless’ aerodynamic bodywork (Cd 0.47, versus an average for the time of 0.60). This was partially shaped in the windtunnel at Turin Polytechnic by Falchetto, with the help of Pinin Farina, making it one of the first mass-produced cars to ‘recognise’ aerodynamics, although Lancia himself insisted on a less radical aesthetic treatment for the tail than the ideal solution suggested by the tests. Lightness and rigidity were also priorities, in order to fully exploit the benefits of independent suspension, and clever construction allowed torsional rigidity to be improved by no less than 20 percent over the already impressive Augusta.

On the engine side, Sola and Verga came up with another new narrow-angle engine, this time a 1352cc 18° V4 (which would, much later, provide the inspiration for Volkswagen’s famous ‘VR6’ engine).  This was enhanced with the use of valves positioned at 45°, duralumin conrods, and one of the first production applications of a cross-flow head and hemispherical combustion chambers. Furthermore, its spaciousness was a revelation compared with equivalent cars, whilst its performance and handling were to a standard more commonly associated with many sportscars of the day. Lancia himself experienced the car for the first time on a round trip from Turin to Bologna, at the conclusion of which he remarked, “Che macchina meravigliosa!” What a magnificent machine! It was a deserved accolade – even today, the Aprilia is employed as a textbook demonstration of applied aerodynamics, intelligent packaging and excellent performance.

Tragically, Vincenzo would not live to see his creation go into production and receive the plaudits it richly deserved. It was, perhaps, the strain of running what had become a large organisation which was taking its toll. In the early hours of February 15, 1937, Lancia awoke in distress, but the discomfort was minor enough for him to think nothing of it and avoid disturbing his wife or staff. It was not until seven o’clock in the morning that the family doctor was sent for, who came as quick as he could, but by then, tragically, it was too late. Thus, one of the men who had contributed so much to the history of motoring had unexpectedly died at the age of 55, the victim of a heart attack. His work as a manufacturer was marked by intuition, originality, nonconformity and courage. Equally, it is no accident that his spiritual legacy is a car: the Aprilia. The model, which seems to sum up the traditions of the company and the virtues of the man, was initially received with scepticism and a certain degree of incredulity – the design seemed too daring, the technical aspects too innovative. It took some time for this Lancia to become the queen of the road: dynamic, extremely stable, with an incredibly modern style appreciated by all. And it was the genius of Vincenzo Lancia that foresaw it all.

It is for his masterpieces, the Lambda and Aprilia, that Vincenzo will be best remembered. But as Nigel Trow notes, to allow his reputation to rest solely on the innovations displayed in these two cars, “is to neglect the overriding character of all Lancia cars – their quality of understated elegance. Not elegance in the external, decorative sense but elegance as a nicely judged solution to given problems, resulting in engineering as art. Lancia was not concerned with novelty, only with the pursuit of his own personal view of the motor car, and his real brilliance lay in an ability to weld together a number of individually exciting ideas into a workable whole. Underpinning this genius lay a sense of proportion which made Lancia cars the most utterly human vehicles ever made.” Similarly, on the philosophy of Lancia cars, one imbued by Vincenzo himself, L.J.K. Setright observed that, “nothing is given special emphasis, just as nothing is dismissed as unimportant; the whole thing is a balanced design, and it is that equilibrium which – ignoring all temptations to exaggerate any particular aspect of its character – has always been typical of Lancia. (Considering) the car as a whole, rather than engaging in blinkered pursuit of some isolated idiosyncracy, is what has made every Lancia good and no Lancia spectacular”, and this holistic approach is reflective of the philosophy of the company’s founder. Although the company was never quite the same after his passing, Vincenzo’s unique approach would continue to imbue Lancia’s products well after his death, even though persistent financial troubles would plague the company over the next few decades.

by Shant Fabricatorian