Lancia Motor Club

Not often one of these comes up for sale. Interesting looks (I quite like them).

What's the view on the price? Given its rarity (and seeming completeness) I would have thought it would fetch good money if not quite £50K

Ghia B52 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Lancia-LANCIA-B-52-AURELIA-COUPE-CUSTOM-GHIA-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem255a70acd4QQitemZ160431123668QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucks#ht_648wt_1165)

Well, if you like the shape:
It is too far gone to be kept as is.
it will cost you 2000 hours of skilled work, at whatever hourly rate.
+ 20'000 pounds in parts, chroming, etc.
And finally you have a rather ponderous vehicle.
Will certainly get a glance and some publicity at Villa d'Este or Pebble Beach if extremely well done. But what do you do with it then?

Just my opinion!

Yes, fair point. But I find myself wondering what do you do with any of the cars that get entered for those types of beauty parades - they mostly seem to be form over function. I guess that's part of the attraction for those with the wherewithall to entertain such a purchase.

'Here's one I did earlier'

I have photos of the same car, that was up for sale by Panorama Bay Motors at the Goodwood Revival Meeting a number of years ago, I think since then it went to the USA as it never sold here, I loved it, typical American style excess, but boy did it have presence!

Brian

I always look at these 'specials' with great interest because of the fascinating way they gave such vision of future car design in large and small ways.
However I have never wanted to own one as to me, the Aurelia B20GT in its original conception was about as perfect a 'total' design mechanically and bodily as one has ever seen. The total package is remarkable and in my view the earlier the car the better when one is comparing it against its competitors.
That is not to say that for example the 6th Series B20 isnt a better car than the 1st Series B20 - it is faster, more refined etc - but against its contemporaries in the second half of the 1950's it does not stand out like the standard versions of the early 50's do.

The B52 Ghia has sold and is going back to Italy to join a collection of other coachbuilt Aurelias.

The ebay pics have disappeared now. Are these them? Also the  one with four headlamps looks rather impressive (BaT and Paracchi photos)

Yes these pics are the ones of the car that was for sale on ebay.
The car with the stacked headlamps is NOT a B52 as captioned in most Lancia books, but it is actually a B55 contemporary with the Aurelia Pinin Farina Floridas and has many of the same styling cues.

Thanks Ade, and also at http://www.finecars.cc/en/detail/car/129108/index.html