Lancia Motor Club

An interesting detail on an Aprilia for sale https://www.carandclassic.com/car/C1492028, not sure the propose of this flap, I guess there must be a fabricated box behind it.   

Air vent to the foot well?

Vents into the side of the footwell were not uncommon on pre-war cars, like this Dilambda, but it's unusual to see on an Aprilia. An after market modification perhaps?

At first, it looked like it was on one side only, but on closer inspection they’re on both, so must be vents. Nice idea though.   

There are a couple of Aprilia inner wings - S1 and S2 - that have been for sale on ebay.it for a while now (not expensive, but how many people would ever need one?).

They are interesting as you can see the pattern of 'fillet' panels that Lancia used between the inner and outer wings to provide a strong, light structure. Almost a honeycomb sandwich approach, if you like. Perhaps a better way of saying this is that the inner wing (conventionally) is double skinned. The outer wing is of course detachable and doesn't form part of the main body structure.

And... both of these panels have a vent section that could correspond to the A pillar vents seen in the car for sale on Carandclassic (which seems to me expensive for overall condition).

But where did that vent lead to on the inner side? Into the engine bay it seems, so for additional engine cooling? And was this a factory feature (as the repair panels suggest) and if so, which models was it seen on (perhaps hot climate 'Coloniale' for Ethiopia??).

William - amazing images. Thank you so much for sharing. Never knew....

I confess I can't work out those inner wings but regarding the car for sale surely the proximity of the vents to the A pillar means they can only open into the side of the footwell. There is a similar arrangement in this Pininfarina bodied Aprilia. (I'm sorry the Pininfarina pictures are poor.)

I even once saw a Lambda fitted with footwell ventilation!
And very nicely done too!
Maybe the driver had a dog travelling with him in the footwell?
I can also confirm that there were flaps on both sides of the car.