LanciaInfo Blog

Walter Miller has long been one of the most important people in automotive literature in the US, with vast archives ofand interest in Lancias. Recently Walter got an Aurelia B12 sedan, which he is driving to several events on the east coast.

Helping Walter is his enthusiastic support crew, still learning about Lancias, but clearly hard workers. We welcome them and trust they will keep their good cheer throughout Best wishes to the whole crew!

The team is in central NY state, and able to go to Watkins Glen, Philadelphia, Massachusetts, and elsewhere. Walter also has a web page on automotive art and style, see: www.moaaad.org

 

from an earlier time, B12 in Kenya:

 

A very dear Lancista, Walt Spak, passed away in June in Pittsburgh. He had struggled with health issues for some time.Our thoughts go out to his family. He will be deeply missed.

The memorial is being held August 24, in Pittsburgh at the Valley Refuge Shelter, Riverview Park.

You can find the location of the Shelter on Google, its in the SE corner of the park.
The event is called for from 2-8, and I’ll be there around 4 on. Look forward to seeing you all and raising a glass….

Walt was East Coast Vice President of the American Lancia Club, and a well known Lancia restorer. His knowledge of Aurelias and other Lancias was deep and unrivaled. He and his friend Bob Williams were resposnbile for some of the best Lancias in this country.

Our friendship started a long time ago, in the mid-1970s, close to forty years back. We shared a common passion in all things Lancia.  His sense of fairness was central to who he was, and for those of us who knew him, he was most generous and gave more to others than himself. His deep respect for the elegance of Lancias, was inspiring.

Walt was also a Vietnam veteran, one of the few I knew, and had done active service for his country.

One of the most compelling moments in Lancia history was the historic handover of the Formula One cars to Ferrari in July 1955. The handover took place in the courtyard of Lancia’s plant in Turin. Six cars and many crates of parts were loaded onto transporters and delivered to Maranello.

Various photos of the event exist, including a famous retouched photo where the Pirelli logo has been eliminated from the transporter. Not seen before is this clip found by Luigi De Virgilio of film footage of the event. Also shown is the shipping and loading of B24 Spiders onto the James Madison, for shipment to the US.

Its rather amazing what comes out of the woodwork these days.

D50 Handover

A recent post on the Apple site (Apple – iPad in Business – Profiles – Ducati) highlighted Ducati’s use of the Ipad to streamline production, communication and general information flow. It stressed the transformation of Ducati’s multiple versions and possibilities, which were difficult to communicate to their clients and vendors, into a streamlined system that allowed customization both for the customer and all other parts of the supply chain.

One feature of small volume  industrial production in Italy is the ability to make small numbers and customize easily. However, this has long been a bugaboo as well, as communicating that to the clients, especially ones farther away, has been difficult, cumbersome and usually out of date. This new “flattening of the information hierarchy” allows what was a difficulty to become a virtue.

If one allows the imagination to wander, is it possible to consider Lancia in the 1950s and 1960s in this light, and to see what was burdensome in their production and managment streaming as really a virtue, but one that was not workable due to the difficulties of information flow and structure. In fact, could one even surmise that if this approach to managing and controlling production had been available then, things would have been quite different? Another way to put this is to say that Ducati, as presented in the video, is doing production much like Lancia did some fifty years ago. The difference is that the support structure is now in place to allow that model to work, whereas it was not many years ago.

 

 

Bo lives in central Illinois and has a great deal of wisdom to share when he says  “You’ve got to love what your doing, else its a waste of time for everybody.”

Bo Dannenberger and  his son Sam are committed Lancisti, with Sam’s Fulvia and Bo in the middle of getting a lovely Appia sedan up and running. Here is a video of Bo in his shop, absolutely compelling and full of seasoned passion. We should all be so happy.

Bo Danenberger

A recent issue of Sports Car Market Letter, Keith Martin’s excellent publication on older cars, had a lovely tidbit from a man who had travelled to England with Phil Hill, where they visited Richard Seaman‘s tomb. Seaman was a Grand Prix driver of note in the 1930s and died after his Mercedes GP car crashed into a tree in the 1939 Belgian Grand Prix.

Noting fresh flowers on the grave, they wondered who had provided them? An older gentleman replied the flowers were sent by Mercedes, weekly since his death.

Nigel Trow has written five books on Lancia and is a veritable expert on the marque. He has a few remaining copies of his books, Lancia Delta, Lancia Stratos, and more importantly, Lancia Racing. Hard to find and priced accordingly, email him directly at: <nitrow@tiscali.co.uk>. He’ll even sign them for you.

A small car introduced in 1939, the Lancia Ardea charmed Italy until it finished production in 1953. Over 20,000 were made, all with the 903 cc engine. Not seen in the US, there is an active Ardea group in Italy. They have a remarkably detailed website ‎www.lancia-ardea.it/index.htm, one of the most extraordinarily detailed sites, full of information rarely seen. It really is a worthwhile visit.

 

 

 

This blog began some years ago on a website on Aurelias and Lancias in general. That site, Lanciainfo.com, is still active with information on Aurelias and their restoration.  It also includes a lot of material on older Lancias, with photos, stories, and links to other sites. Please visit Lanciainfo.com, and share thoughts here.

Each year, Lou Natenshon puts together a show of important historical cars up in Highland Park, north of Chicago. Lou has deep roots in the car community and finds things tucked away. He’s been asking for one of the Lancias and this year the B20 paid a visit. It joined a number of Italian cars, including a 275 GTB that was actually still used for driving, a Fiat 500, and  some lovely vintage English (Aston, Rolls shooting brake, Alvis) an Arnolt Bristol, among others.

Many friends were also up there, including David Cooper (babysitting a 1927 Mercedes), Hillary Raab, with his original Ghibli and a Ferrari 250 Spider, made from some Scaglietti sketches he found in their archive. The B20 was placed between a Lamborghini Countach and a very nice unrestored Mercedes 300 SL. Skip McCabe (the B20 restoration papa) was there as well. It was a good fun time, spending a day in the shaded lawn, surrounded by neat cars and nice people in a very high quality, low hassle event.