Lancia Ardea
Lancia Ardea
front view – elegant!
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.
Abarth aftermarket two carb setup for the Ardea
Ardea from the back, an unusual notion for a car in 1939
Lanciainfo.com
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.
Auto Historica
liquid metal – America in the 1950s
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.
1968 Indy turbine car motor
Mercedes 1927
grill and headlight on early MB
- vintage American
- B20 in colorful company
Lancia wins at Elkhart
- B20 in the Awards area, with Ferrari and Rolls nearby.
This past weekend was the big vintage weekend at Elkhart Lake. The road cars were in a Saturday night concours hosted by Road & Track. The B20 nudged out in its class by a very nice 1933 Rolls Royce. There was also an excellent Ferrari TdF being shown. However, the B20 was chosen by Peter Egan of Road and Track as “The Car We’d Most Like to Drive”, one of their most significant awards of the weekend. He might have been influenced by John Lamm, his friend and colleague at R&T, a long time B20 owner. Peter appreciated the restoration and the crowd enjoyed the subtlety of the car and its subdued 1950s color, and that the car had been found in 1975, and only now being returned to good running order.
A number of other Lancista showed up for the very hot weekend but there was only one other Lancia – Neal Van Ess brought his Fulvia HF Fanalone, a car I had owned in the 1970s. It was good to see it again and take it for a drive. Bill and Cami Hall hosted the B20 at his lovely house, keeping his lovely Alfa early 1970’s Alfa berlin company. Bill provides a haven for Italian cars on the main street of Elkhart Lake – but his Fulvia isn’t quite running yet.
receiving award from Road and Track, Peter Egan on right.
You can see the video here: B20 gets an award (Youtube) . The fun starts happening at 3′ 00″.
Bill Hall’s unrestored 1972 Alfa berlina in front of the also unrestored 1904 Creamery nearby.
Millers at Milwaukee
One of the best events of the summer is the Miller fest at the Milwaukee Mile, on the weekend after 4th of July. Its typically hot but this year, the breeze was blowing and it was lovely. I’ve been going up there since 1996, when I took young Nathan (3 months) to meet Griff Borgeson. Wonderful people, truly committed folks, and only a few hundred show up so its a very personal event.
The cars are incredible, a real delight. This year was the 100th anniversary of the Vanderbilt Cup, and even more machinery showed up, including 4, 8 and 16 cylinder Millers, Delahayes, Isotta Fraschini, Duesenbergs, lay down Offy Indy cars, vintage Benz, Bugattis, 8C Alfas.
For more photos, click: Millers Milwaukee 2012 sml
New blog site and comments
Welcome to the new blog site. The site was moved because Apple stopped hosting, and the new blog software is more robust. Some of the older entries have been getting updated, so its worth checking your old favorites. Please update your links to the main LanciaInfo site as www.lanciainfo.com.
However, there is a big glitch: comments that were on the site (and valued) appear to have been lost. A lot of effort went into saving them – I thought they were archived so they could (at worst) be moved to the new site. However, I’ve learned that this was only a link to Apple’s site, which deleted them from the archive.
This is really unfortunate and I owe all of you who have made comments an apology. While I’m a big Apple fan, this is the second time that Apple relocated or adjusted their hosting and comments were lost both times. Really frustrating.
The site has been moved to a WordPress platform, and is no longer based on Apple software, but on “professional” blogging software. It is highly unlikely this will happen again. It does mean that files, photos, and large images can be posted more freely, so that is better.
But if you have the urge, please post comments and add your thoughts. Your feedback is really valued.
Aurelia brakes
Many a complaint has been heard about Aurelia brake judder. Various theories have been offered, but the most likely problem is an ill-fit between the shoe and the drum: if the drum and shoe are not cut to the same radius, differential wearing will occur, and may lead to judder.
Shown above is a Zanchi cutter, period type, cutting the shoes on Nigel Trow’s s. 3 B20. Here in the US, I’ve had good luck with Tony Nicosia, who does this for brake shoes and drums.
Aurelia conference in Italy
A conference on the Aurelia took place Saturday, May 12 at Volpago del Montello (north of Treviso), birthplace of Engineer Ugo Gobbato (General Manager of Alfa Romeo in the 40’s and the father of Eng. Pier Ugo).
Called “L’innovazione di Gianni Lancia: l’Aurelia”, it was put on by Parolin Marino, President Club, and organized by Getulio Ferri. The conference began with Marcello Minerbi and featured a DVD of Lancia made some years ago by Fiat, with interesting historical information and images. Also presenting was Giuseppe Marelli, a racer of the Aurelia years ago.
Outside the conference were found a number of Aurelias and other Lancias, lovely to see. There was a very nice Flaminia sedan and a number of Fulvia Zagatos.
cars outside
Lineup at conference
more Fulvias
at the conference: Manfredi Lancia (center) and his wife (left), organizer Getulio Ferri (right) and Luigi De Virgilio (kneeling).
audience at conference
After the conference, there was a glorious dinner, full of good company and even more food. The following day, a few of us went to visit a collection of Fulvia Zagatos, including one of the first four made, along with Gamma coupes, and a couple of Super Jollys. Unusual but nice to see all together.
Super Jolly seen later
For those who are interested, there is an Aurelia meeting in Valsesia (near Fobello) in September as well.
Targa Florio
From Giovanni De Virgilio comes a link to youtube video on the Targa Florio in the 1950s. While the quality is nothing wonderful, in the first three minutes you get to see the 1952 s.2 Corsas and the1953 D20 in motion, with a wee bit of sound. Special, tantalizing and leaves you wanting more. Imagine…. Bonetto winning by pushing across the finishing line.
Targa Florio in the ’50 – YouTube
The Third Driveshaft
The B12 had rarely seen one-piece driveshaft, this one in Ralph de Masi’s car.
It is well accepted that Aurelias came with two styles of driveshafts – the first type (s. 1-4) was a two piece shaft with rubber “spyders” and aluminum paddles. The second type (s. 5-6) was also a two piece shaft with hexagonal doughnuts and larger driveshaft tubes. It was used in the Flaminia also and is similar to that in later Alfa V6 cars and the Porsche 924-944. A more complete article has been posted at: driveshafts (1.12).
There was yet one other driveshaft, a third type, used in the Aurelia – the B12 had a totally different driveshaft, a one piece shaft running from the engine to the transaxle. It also had two centering rubber mounts instead of the more typical one used in the split shaft. Of course, not all B12s were like this – the earlier ones were different – as this was used on the later ones.
And to be complete, the early driveshafts with the rubber spyders varied also, as the first group (I think B20 s. 1-2) had paper thin bushings to center them in the shafts, and later ones had more solid bronze bushings about 2mm thick. Not interchangeable.
Do the words “constant development” apply here?
from the B12 parts book, showing the overall layout of the third type of driveshaft
from the B12 parts book