Lancia Motor Club

The forum has received the following request for information, can anyone help?


The details I have are from a sketch of the interior and a small description in the Oct 31st 1947 edition of Autocar, which was covering the Paris Salon.

The Magazine describes 'The Lancia with Farina four seater body is a superb example of smooth clean lines. Finished in dark blue, including the steering wheel, it has controls of Ivory. The doors open by push buttons instead of handles'. Separately is says 'An open body design  by Lancia, with tip up rear seats.

The Annotation to the sketch says 'Lancia 8 hp 1492cc 1 1/2 litre. Farina open bodywork, tip up seats at rear, giving extra room for luggage.' I think the 8hp is probably a mistake.

Initially I thought it might be the 1947 Astura Cabriolet Stabilimenti Farina, but I think that came with a larger engine and fixed rear seats.

Any info would be welcome.

Thanks

James Coulson



P

1947 and 1492cc it has got to be an Aprilia, although the Aprilia is actually 1486cc, but what's 6cc between freinds!
Would be nice to see the sketch to confirm.

And if it is at the Paris Salon, the 8hp should probably be 8CV?

The 8hp refers to the RAC tax horsepower rating for cars. A complicated system, which doesn't really have a correlation to the actual power of the engine, certainly by the late forties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_horsepower

That article covers both the UK and French systems - eg the Citroen 2cv.

This may be a sketch of the rear seat arrangement. Pininfarina seem to have been particularly prolific in producing concepts on the Aprilia platform in the period either side of WW2 but so far I have found nothing in Lancia blue and without door handles.

In October 2015 a 1947 Pinin Farina Aprilia was listed at the Dragone auction in Westbury, Connecticut . The auction listing explains that Italian makes were barred from the 1947 Paris show but Pinin and Sergio Farina took a Lancia and an Alfa anyway. Not surprisingly they were barred from entry so they set up their own show outside the front. This car doesn't match the colour specification and the door handles seem to be "flush" rather than not there at all buut it does have rear seating matching the sketch that I posted. Hopefully this may stimulate further comment.

https://journal.classiccars.com/2015/10/08/historic-1947-lancia-prototype-pinin-farina-auction/

Love the amber plastics.

Thanks guys, will relay info back to James

P

It might be real amber??

I think I am correct in saying that these 'amber' knobs were used by Stablimenti Farina in many of their post war special bodied cars including Aurelias, Aprilias and Fiats. They are really lovely and yet I have never seen any for sale at any Italian auto jumbles.
Chris

In an attempt to complete the picture this is the Alfa Romeo. I know which one I prefer, which one I think looks more modern and had the greater influence on future car designs. The story on the attached link is worth reading for extra detail about the 1947 Paris anti-salon.

http://www.autofocus.ca/news-events/auto-retro/how-pininfarina-gave-france-the-middle-finger-with-this-alfa-romeo

A couple of cabriolet images, I think  from this 1947 Hoffman advert in America - note the price on the PF cabriolet, especially compared to the berlina. Rather shocking. Love the slogans:
 
"the intelligent car for intelligent people" and even better - "have a Lancia and be happy"!

I enjoyed that "have a Lancia and be happy"! quote. I sent it on to a friend who replied: "Yes, Have a Lancia and be happy/distraught/infuriated/fascinated/captivated/pitied/suicidal/delirious/misunderstood/penniless . . . ". I think I know what he meant.

I liked it so much I have made an A3 poster. Showed it Sarah - and she said well you should be very happy. I said I am thank you very much!!!

Its interesting reading Lancia PR before the Aurelia - even if written by someone else, you get a sense of what they were thinking about at the time.

And so to make things even less clear, I have GG's pictures referenced as the 1939 for the light car and 1949 for the dark car but The Italian Tribune of 23rd March 2016 in its' History of Italian Automobiles attributes the Batista and Sergio "anti-salon" incident to the 1946 show.

 http://www.italiantribune.com/part-8-pinin-farina-and-the-1946-lancia-aprilia-cabriolet-speciale/

Hemmings Daily also attributes the incident to 1946.

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2018/02/02/pinin-farinas-parisian-protest-an-alfa-romeo-6c-2500-designed-to-anger-the-french-and-set-the-world-on-its-ear/

More research is clearly needed.

checked the back of the pictures. From the Detroit Public Library, Automotive History Collection, Cameron Peck Collection, no date. Came with the brochure, but that might just be that they were filed together.

https://www.dragoneauctions.com/1946-lancia-aprilia

As provided by James

P

It would seem from the attached that Pininfarina were allowed inside for the 1947 show.

Pininfarina debuted the original Cisitalia 202 it at the Villa d'Este Gold Cup show in Como, Italy, followed by an appearance at the 1947 Paris Motor Show. Unlike the prevailing automotive designs of the time, the 202 was composed of a flowing, single surface, in which the fenders, hood, headlights and body all flowed as one. A total of 170 largely handcrafted models were built between 1947 and 1952.

https://newatlas.com/european-design-students-cisitalia/21548/