{"id":497809,"date":"2018-09-14T16:24:28","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T23:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=65120"},"modified":"2025-01-10T21:15:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T21:15:33","slug":"lancia-the-greatest-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/lancia-the-greatest-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"Lancia – The Greatest Cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I were to ask you to name an innovative, Italian sports car manufacturer, chances are good you would instinctively reply, Ferrari. If I were to then ask you to name one of the oldest Italian automobile manufacturers in continuous production, you very well might answer either Fiat or Alfa Romeo. And while all these answers would be technically correct, the vast majority of enthusiast would overlook the one Italian manufacturer that ticks all these boxes\u2014Lancia.<\/p>\n

The founding father of this most venerable Turninese manufacturer was Vicenzo Lancia, born on August 24, 1881, the son of a Piedmont region soup canner. Raised in Fobello, just 100 kilometers northeast of Turin, the young Lancia showed an early facility with both numbers and things mechanical. While trained in accountancy, in 1898, Vicenzo took up a position with the bicycle manufacturer\/importer Ceirano, in Turin. However, the arc of Lancia\u2019s life would be forever altered when, in 1899, a small group of investors took over Ceirano to form a new company dedicated to manufacturing automobiles. This new automotive concern would call itself FIAT.<\/p>\n

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Vincenzo Lancia at the wheel of his Fiat during the 1908 Targa Florio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lancia was quickly assimilated into the new company where he served as an inspector and test driver. But, by 1900, when FIAT began proving the quality of their vehicles in competition, Vicenzo Lancia quickly became one of the company\u2019s most accomplished racing drivers. In 1904, Lancia won the grueling 231-mile Coppa Florio, with a record setting average speed of 72 mph.<\/p>\n

Despite becoming one of the top drivers of his day, in 1906, Lancia gave up both racing and Fiat and with a partner, Claudio Fogolin, formed a new company, Lancia & C. Fabbrica Automobili, on November 29th<\/sup>. The new company\u2019s first offering was the 12 HP (Tipo 51), which featured a 28 hp, 4-cylinder engine. Lancia\u2019s early offerings were well received, both in terms of their engineering and performance.<\/p>\n

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Early Lancia, including the Lambda.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the intervention of World War I, Lancia resumed production of passenger cars and immediately began preliminary development work on a ground-breaking new vehicle, the Lambda. The first Lambda prototype was tested on September 1, 1921 and was revolutionary for its time. The Lambda was the first production automobile to feature monocoque construction, that is to say a frame-less vehicle where the body also served as a structural chassis. Yet monocoque construction was but one of several cutting edge firsts in the Lambda, which also was the first production vehicle equipped with independent suspension, as well as the first to offer a lightweight, V4 engine. A technical tour de force for its time, the Lancia Lambda was produced through nine series or generations, from 1921 to 1931, with over 12,530 examples having been made.<\/p>\n

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Lancia Lambda.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1937, the Lancia company endured the first of several major upheavals that would rock the company over its now 112-year history, when Vicenzo Lancia died suddenly of a heart attack. Management of the company was taken over by Vicenzo\u2019s wife Adele and his son Gianni, whose first decisive action was to hire away genius engineer Vittorio Jano from Alfa Romeo.<\/p>\n