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Author Topic: LMC News Sheets - old photos - Stabilimenti Farina Aprilia  (Read 15913 times)
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Parisien
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« Reply #30 on: 19 March, 2017, 01:18:28 PM »


Perhaps the administrator can re-title this thread to show that it is mostly concerned with this special car – say add the words 'Stabilimenti Farina Aprilia'.

Colin


Dually added Colin, if additional tweeking needed let me know


P
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Frank Gallagher
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MY 1600HF IN HEARTBEAT GARAGE


« Reply #31 on: 19 March, 2017, 04:45:24 PM »

I have a very similar photo on my wall possibly same location. mine is a complete side on photo
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FULVIA 1600HF LUSSO
1958 VELOCETTE MAC
Triumph Bonneville t120v 1972
1968 MGC ROADSTER
1958 Series 2 Appia berlina
ColinMarr
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« Reply #32 on: 06 March, 2023, 09:28:28 PM »

This thread was last active six years ago and I have recently had news of this car, and can give an update. The current owner lives near Verona and he has sent me photos and information about how the car is now and its origins. The attached photos show it in a pristine state after a lavish restoration and now with an original Nardi twin-carb head. It seems to have been transformed from the somewhat spartan and gutsy car that I and others knew in the 1960s to something of a luxury touring car, but I guess that is the inevitable result of a complete restoration. It is pleasing to see that Nardi head with cable-drive from the back of the cam for the tacho, which was missing when I knew the car. But it is a pity it has lost its quick-action steering column gear-shift, that was such a delight to use.

The origins of the car and how it found its way to England make an interesting, if complicated story and I should write it up for Viva Lancia. In summary, its engineering design was by Giovanni Basso, bodywork design by Giovanni Michelotti, built by Stabilimenti Farina and first exhibited in 1949. Basso was involved with other innovative designs around this time and Michelotti went on to design other notable cars (including the Flavia Convertible). Although commissioned by Alcide Ferri (another family name to be conjured with), who had the Lancia concession at Udine in north-east Italy, the first named owner in 1950 was Enrico Magnani, when it was first registered as ‘PC 15245’, which it is again now. Surprisingly, Magnani moved to England with the car in 1950 and it presumably soon acquired the UK registration ‘NGP 50’, which is how most of us knew it.
 
There is something of a mystery about what happened to the car until it was first registered under John Maltby’s name in 1958. I will post more about this and other uncertainties later. One question for now that would help date some old photos – does anyone know when Harry Manning was first in business at Heath End, and when did he move from the old Nissen-hut workshop to the ‘modern’ premises in Upper Weybourne Lane, where I first met him in 1963?


* 01 lato dx small.jpg (269.4 KB, 1871x1120 - viewed 45 times.)

* 03 frontale small.jpg (209.07 KB, 1769x1184 - viewed 43 times.)

* 05 1 motore lato dx small.jpg (227.61 KB, 1769x1184 - viewed 47 times.)

* 09 1 selleria anteriore small.jpg (222.23 KB, 1769x1184 - viewed 45 times.)

* 11 plancia small.jpg (214.52 KB, 1769x1184 - viewed 48 times.)
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Sliding Pillar
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« Reply #33 on: 07 March, 2023, 07:20:59 AM »

Thanks for the update Colin 👍
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1955 Aurelia
1961 Lamborghini
Richard Fridd
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« Reply #34 on: 07 March, 2023, 08:33:48 AM »

A most fascinating Lancia, many thanks Colin.
  From page 239 of The Book, wasn't the Nissen hut and part of the plot sold to Shell Petroleum via National Benzole in 1963? Not necessarily the moving date but a date of sale.

  Richard
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Richard Nevison Fridd                                                                      Happy Lancia, Happy Life
ColinMarr
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« Reply #35 on: 07 March, 2023, 03:45:08 PM »

Ade, thanks, this is the same car you photographed in 2012, when I guess its restoration was unfinished. Richard, thanks, I didn’t know the date and it confirms Harry’s place seemed ‘new’ when I first went there.
 
One of the mysteries about that car is what happened to it from 1950, when it was thought to be imported into the UK, until 1958, when a copy of the log-book shows John Maltby as the first owner of it, registered as NGP 50. The attached photos explain more. The “Offers to … Box ...” one is clearly Magnani offering the car in the UK, but there is no clue to the date. The three photos of the car while it is being scrutinised (note the measuring stick!) show it still on Italian plates. These looks to me like they were taken at Harry Manning’s old workshop, but again there is no clue to the date. Could it have been soon after the car was imported in 1950? Can anyone confirm the location? Then there is the photo of an extract from what looks like Motor Sport, which shows it as NGP 50, but no mention of John Maltby and no indication of the date. Does the name John Bremner ring any bells?

Another thing about the “Offers to ...” photo. I remember talking about this photo when first seen in the 1960s – there was a thought that “H E Magnani” might be a spoof name for Harry Manning and it was he advertising a car that he had imported. Now known to be wrong – Magnani really did exist and he continued to live in the UK, and died in 2021 while living at an address in Putney. Did anyone ever hear of him?

More and later mysteries to follow.


* NGP 1st ad.jpg (283.29 KB, 1253x816 - viewed 51 times.)

* NGP First pics 3 Harry Manning.jpg (232.79 KB, 1354x803 - viewed 43 times.)

* Motor Sport, possibly.jpg (161.3 KB, 737x651 - viewed 333 times.)
« Last Edit: 07 March, 2023, 03:57:02 PM by ColinMarr » Logged
ColinMarr
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« Reply #36 on: 08 March, 2023, 04:49:09 PM »

Here are the missing photos that I couldn’t post yesterday.

Also to add, my March issue of Viva Lancia arrived today and there is an interesting article by Sergio Limone, which relates to this story. Sergio includes photos from the recent Retromobile of a 1950 Aprilia-Aurelia ‘special’. This is also a Basso and Michelotti designed car built by Stabilimenti Farina, a sister-car to the Aprilia Mille Miglia car. And until a few weeks ago, when the Aurelia engine car was sold, both cars were owned by the same family! 


* NGP Harry 2.jpg (150.01 KB, 1137x712 - viewed 43 times.)

* NGP Harry 1.jpg (213.56 KB, 1321x824 - viewed 47 times.)
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ColinMarr
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« Reply #37 on: 11 March, 2023, 03:54:48 PM »

In putting so many questions in my last post trying to find out more about what happened in the 1950s, I was being too optimistic – perhaps I should have asked a medium or a clairvoyant! Fortunately, Richard Fridd stepped in and sent me copies of two pages from the October 2012 issue of Viva Lancia, which were to do with Basso and this very car. Somehow, I missed that issue and it helps fill in some of the gaps. It seems the car was imported in 1954 and not 1950. The photos I posted were taken, as I had surmised at Harry Manning’s old place, and they were taken by no less than Gerald Batt. Still no fix on the date, but getting close to when it was first registered to John Maltby as the first UK owner in 1958.

One of the remaining puzzles is to do with the original engine. The Harry Manning workshop photos show the special Nardi head, rocker-cover and twin carbs. However, when I knew the car from 1963 with John Maltby and later with Roger Perry, it had a ‘standard’ Aprilia engine fitted with a single ‘big’ Weber. I have asked John Millham about this and he has the same memory. Had that engine been available when Roger Perry had the car, he would have certainly fitted it. After Roger’s death in 1992, NGP was sold to a mystery buyer in Italy and it was transported by the Rudlers to the workshop of Giancarlo Cappa (KCA), who did amazing restorations. I wonder if Ade or Ed recall a spare engine being part of the package? Whatever, the car now has its original Nardi-head engine and I bet it goes like stink!

Still thinking about special Aprilia engines, the attached photo (copied from a KCA advertisement) shows a Pagani very clever cross-flow head. Wouldn’t that have been wonderful?


* Aprilia KCA.jpg (995.29 KB, 1047x1589 - viewed 48 times.)
« Last Edit: 11 March, 2023, 11:02:43 PM by ColinMarr » Logged
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