LanciaInfo Blog

As has been said before, without down days, there would be no up days. And now we are into deep fall weather, and heading toward Thanksgiving and winter. Not good car time in the midwest, to be sure.

There are a few not-so-cheery items: the passing of both Scott Taylor and Gary Byrd (in California) have caused pause in the realm of cars; the B20 needs its engine taken apart this winter, and the weather is no friend to open cars either. The recent economic tumble has taken some luster off the old car hobby, as well. There seems to be an introduction of sobriety into all of this.

All is not grim – while the economy has been stalling, the American electorate has made a good choice. Chicago is in many ways both a small and big town, and it is possible to know some of these people first hand. It is nice to see David Axelrod (who was a classmate in college, and whose office is a block from mine) do so well, as he is a very straight-up thoughtful kind of guy. He and the others are a refreshing change from the dark side we’ve had far too long.

So now is a time to settle down and examine what one has. Work on Aurelia material goes on. I’ve located some lovely early Nardi and Lancia advertisments from the 1950’s – it seems that Lancia was more active in its graphics for a period c. 1953 than we might imagine. While we are a long way from that time, there are still lessons to learn.

Wishing everyone good health, happy motoring and buono fortuna.

the Reunion

The B20 left from Chicago to the East Coast Lancia reunion in northern Pennsylvania on a Thursday afternoon. Tony Nicosia came to Chicago to join me on the long drive east. One day to cross Indiana and Ohio, and a second day across Pennsylvania. About 300 miles a day is the max in the car, which ran superbly.

We met the Lancia 6 folks Friday night in Wellsboro, PA, on the northern border, midstate, about 40 miles south of Watkins Glen, in beautiful hilly countryside. Saturday was spent with a glorious wild run through the country – arranged by the East Coast VP and host, Walt Spak. He found  some tight roads. That afternoon, some drove north to the Corning Glass Museum and saw an amazing collection of glass – from old Roman bottles 18” high to incredible 18th and 19th c. excesses and delicate pieces. Recent examples of experimental glasswork were also compelling – most compelling exhibition of glass I’ve ever seen, and well worth the trip for that alone.

This reunion was also special as it had members of both the east and west coasts – rarely seen. From the east, Armand and Shirley de Gigilo, Mike and Mike Kristick, Walt, Mark Wolf, Steermans and Stewarts (both father and son),Bob Williams and Spaces. From the west, the Lancia 6 crew (Petersons, Wakefield, Pering, and Stebbins), joined by Dick and Judy Buckingham and the Katzmans. A great showing, and for a midwesterner always in-between, a real treat to see everyone together.

Saturday night dinner was capped with by a showing of James Steerman’s Dagrada flying around Monaco (great fun) and images from the de Virgilio archives.

Sunday was a small showing of the cars – about 30 Lancias were there. The B20 was well admired, as was Mike Kristick’s unrestored Aprilia berlina speciale and the Stewart’s Flaminia sedan. My favorite was Mark Wolf’s Fulvia 1.3 HF. Also, Mike Space’s thoughtful restoration of a B24 convertible with its 1960’s inserted Flaminia engine was provoking – as it was done as Griswold had originally converted it in the 1960’s. Changes to the front axle were pretty radical with a bite taken out of it in order to clear the Flaminia motor.

By mid-day Sunday, all had cleared out, and I started the drive home with 150 miles of hilly two lane roads and a short visit to the PA Lumber Museum, with detailed info on the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), from the 1930’s, when they rebuilt America.

Across Ohio, the B20 and I were fast becoming really good friends. By now we understood each other, and all was flowing very well. The car ran strong, the car loaded up with pumpkins to bring home. Images of driving through the night to Chicago were passing through the mind.

A quick coffee stop, and then came an awful sign: diminished oil pressure and a deep rattle from engine. There was no doubt – a rod bearing was failing. No real reason, it just happened. So quickly to a hotel, this trip was over. The next morning the car was flatbedded to Pittsburgh to winter with Walt, and be  taken apart once again.

I have no idea what went wrong. All was carefully built to tolerance, the crank taken fully apart and balanced. The bearings were old, but new. Perhaps… we’ll have to see. One more hurdle along the way, but it will get solved. At least it was a great summer and a lovely fall.

Walt Spak, organizer in chief – a great job!

Fulvia HF

Tireless Lancia 6 Appias and Fulvias

Tireless Lancia 6 crew – with pistons as prizes

This upcoming weekend, an Aurelia will be up at Elkhart Lake at the Vintage Races. Family is coming too.

Then in early october, several Appias are coming from the west coast, across the country on Route 6. I hope to join up with them in Chicago and take the B20 east to the Lancia Club’s east coast reunion in Wellsville, PA, Oct 3-4. Tony Nicosia is planning to fly out and drive with me. Should be a good, but long road trip.

for more, larger photos).

The Gooding auction on Saturday night was rather a hoot – seeing a Bugatti sell for over $7 million was a bit strange.

Much preferred was the natural landscape of Point Lobos, just south of the car action. This state park is home to Cypress Groves, and wonderful stony beaches, where Edward Weston and Ansel Adams cut their teeth. Regardless of the fantastic automobiles (and there were a lot of these), Mother Nature at her best is still impressive.

There is rich history in Detroit. There is Ford’s original Model A plant (from 1904, now a small private museum), Ford’s Highland Park plant c. 1920, where the Model T was made in volume, and assembly line first implemented, now used as a corporate paper depository.

Also seen were the abandoned Packard plant, River Rouge, and notable stunning corporate buildings – the Fisher, Albert Kahn, and GM.

There are some significantly beautiful houses in the inner city of Detroit as well – including a FL Wright block house from the 1950’s. Also, just north of Detroit is Cranbrook, with its amazing Saarinen designed grounds, and a world-caliper  art school. A prototype house on display had off-the shelf parts and some custom CCN milled bits to make special moments. 

From top and down: Ford’s first plant for the model A, his office on the shop floor, and production floor.

Above, the Highland Park Factory for the model T.

Top right – new prototype house at Cranbrook.

Above and below, abandoned massive Packard plant.

Ford’s Highland Park factory, now a paper depository.

In the midwest, the concours of the year is Meadowbrook in Detroit,  a well established concours, with many cars from the 1930’s,a more relaxed event than Pebble Beach.

As cars are to be used, the B20 was driven up the 300 miles to the Concours, with only a small detour to weld up an exhaust break. Highlight of the trip was 100 miles on a lovely two lane country road through Michigan farms. 

The concours was filled with many 1930’s cars – Packards, Duesenbergs, Bentleys. European cars are less prominent here, but there were two classes of Ferrraris, and two European classes. The B20 was with Sports Cars to 1955 with a Bugatti  35, Jaguar 120 alloy, a 1921 Vauxhall from 1921 (same owner for 50 years, it was his first car!), a 1951 Porsche, and a Jag SS 100. Not much chance for the B20 altho the judges liked it. Not too sure anyone else drove their cars – the Porsche had less than 2 miles on it from the year before.

The other class of European sports cars after 1956 included a lovely Bizzarini and Bruce Male’s freshly restored Maserati Zagato.

The ride home at night was a delight – again, that country road, with the soft glow of the B20 instruments and cool summer night air – wonderful. Cruised home between 70-80 most all the way, intoxicating to be sure. A drive to be remembered. 

Sam and Emily Mann’s Duesenberg with custom body for Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. Imposing to be sure.

Above – the Marmon Meteor and another Duesenbergs, Dodge estate.

Below – two Ferraris, and Bizzarini, with Maserati Zagato.

The major differences are two –

A comparison of two Lancia chassis drawings for the B20 allows an appraisal of the differences between series. Here, a s.4 body (in red) is compared to a s. 1 body (in black).

B20 bodies

B20 bodies – s.1 compared to s.4

in the rear deck lid and trunk area  – the s. 4 has a revised gas tank, a longer flatter trunk floor, and a longer rear end.

in the overall cockpit area – the s. 4 is lower, the windscreen is more laid back, and the windows are located  differently.

The factory drawings were found as xeroxed copies on Ebay some time ago. They are dated 1951 and 1954, and show major chassis dimensions, location of major assemblies and control points. The s. 4 drawing is very similar to the s. 1 drawing (probably traced over it), so they can be laid over each other to see variations. They were probably used as a check for chassis fabrication or as a coordination drawing with Pininfarina.

The section comparison shown here has been cleaned up, with only some lines removed.

June 15, 2008

above – title blocks for the two drawings.

below – the differences in the trunk area.

The s.4  has a larger trunk, and revised gas tank.

left – roof line and windows

bottom – overlaid plans.

Note exhausts, and the s. 4 has a longer rear.

above – a comparison of elevations (cleaned up)

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The D50, Lancia’s Formula One car of the mid-1950’s, was much admired at the time. It had a mixed career – great  promise, some successes, some failures. Given over to Ferrari in 1955, it was then modified and turned into a championship car over the next two seasons.

Most of our information comes from the Lancia histories (Trow and de Weerninck) or from Chris Nixon’s recent book, “Rivals….” on the D50 and Mercedes W196.

back to the original design of the car. He concludes that it is impressive an F1 car first designed in 1953 is still relevant in 1957.

If you want to read it, please let me know and I’ll send you a scan.

Living with a new car

Some have asked about how the early B20 compares to the later ones – an informal  Road test is on the web site.

Over the past month or so, the car has been growing as a steady friend – in general it is a delight. Now the goal is finding time to drive the car, and how to find more hills.

Sorting of the front end seems to have worked – its much quieter. Exhaust leaks fixed, cables realigned, and bits of weatherstripping attached.

The 5/50/500 mile rule applies: first go 5 miles, and if all is OK, 50 miles, then 500. After 50 miles mark, there was an awful screech from the engine bay. After getting the car on  a lift, the answer was that a small screw had fallen behind the flywheel and was rubbing against the rear aluminum  cover. Removed, problem solved.  Also tightened up loose bits – steering linkage, a couple of bolts rubbing on hoses, etc. 

A few more hundred miles, and then back to Gianni’s shop for another check – oil change, retorque heads, look over the car carefully. Checked radiator water temperature (155 deg f), the temperature of each cylinder (within 5 deg of each other, good!), retorqued heads, reset valves.

One of the valve springs was found broken. Thank goodness for the “two spring” design in the Lancia head, otherwise it would have been very serious. As it was, no disaster – changed it.

The bottom line: check and recheck. Another 500 miles, and it will be time for another look at the springs. Its bedding in quite nicely, tho.

Its done – taken out for a drive, picked up and brought home. A bit surreal, to be sure.

The people in the shots are Fuji (who works at Skips and did all the body work there), Skip McCabe, George (who hauled the car up back and forth from Skip to Scotty) and my friend Jack. All are good friends with Scott, who did the lions share of the work on the car (and who is in Indiana about 100 miles away). Of course, major thanks are due to him – as he was the guru and shepherd for the entire project.

Also thanks are due to Bob Williams of Will’s Garage in Pittsburgh (who kindly rebuilt the complex sliding pillar suspension), and to Walt Spak (Pittsburgh) who provided endless assistance and advise. Tony Nicosia in Costa Mesa did a fine job with the brakes.

The now-pretty car just gets better and better with more time on it. It definitely likes to warm up, for a while. Most everything else is working just fine. Speedo, tach, throttle, brakes – all is in pretty good fettle. There will of course be the odd bits to work out – speedo cable is a bit fussy, and the front suspension is not quite right yet.

But the car came home with little fuss. Its satisfying to drive – but very different from the later cars. The gearing is of course Lancia’s strongest suit – you can almost take off in 2nd, and while third doesn’t quite stretch as far as in the later cars, its all wonderfully matched together. The smaller motor works very nicely, pulls from down low and revs very freely. It doesn’t have as much in the seat of the pants “grunt” as the later cars – but this one  “squirts” between corners. More fluid perhaps.

The other pleasure is the view out of the car. The car lives up to its brochure – the panorama is wonderful. There seems to have a larger viewing area, possibly due to its different windshield mounting. Airy.

Its been a long journey to get this done. Pretty much finished now. Finally. Now the driving can start.