1950's Lancia Rally Car

Hi,

I was thinking back over all the rarities in the automotive world I've encountered. I was visiting Essex Parts Services when they were in Cumming GA a few years back. In touring their facility, buried in the back of the shop under a tarp was a 1950's Lancia Rally Car. Our host asked if I knew what it was, and I guesses some kind of Alfa due to the grille showing a vague resemblance to an Alfa. It was a Lancia but I don't remember the model he told me it was. As near as I can recall it was green. Would someone know model(s) that Lancia would have homologated for competition use back then? Just a fun exercise in history if nothing else.

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It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
William Ralph Inge

TANSTAAFL

My first guess would be an Appia or Aurelia... I know Appias were rallied (don't know if works or not)

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Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

Most likely an Aurelia or a Zagato bodied Appia. Being a Lancia nut, I think they are all incredible.

Dan

Thanks for the information gentlemen. After googling the two names provided I'm highly confident that is was indeed an Aurelia. I found a link to a photo
http://www.classic-wheels.co.uk/classic_car/vintage462.jpg

It's even in green. The grill looks right, although appears to be much larger than what you'd find on an Alfa.

Dan, would you happen to know any more about these particular cars?

Thanks,

Lee

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It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism, while the wolf remains of a different opinion.
William Ralph Inge

TANSTAAFL

Lee,

The Aurelia that really gained fame was the B20 coupes. The B20's are highly collectible and the styling still holds up. The convertible spiders are the most valuable. There was a limited run of the spiders intended for America called the B24s. There were maybe 100 ?? of these made. They are rare and expensive.

Lancia in those days really was innovating. Sliding front pillar suspensions, front wheel drive, etc etc. These cars had inboard rear brakes, rear mounted transmissions(just like the Alfa Romeo GTV6) 2.0 or 2.5 liter V6 engines (depending on the series), and an extremely successful racing career.
Weak spots on them are the waterjackets in the motors. If the car sits for too long they corrode and you have to tear down the whole engine.

check out www.viva-lancia.com Lots of good Lancia info there, and plenty of pics.

Dan

Thanks for the link Dan.
I owned 2 Appias when a lad but never drove one on the street.
Just up and down the driveway when one started on fire and melted the Weber.
I bought the 2nd car for the carb and my mom gave them away when I was at college to a nice man who knocked on the door and said he was Pres. of the Lancia club.
They were a Vignale conv. and a Farina coupe.
Both were affordable for a high school student with a $2 a week lawn cutting gig.
(translation = rusty pieces of shit)
Learned a lot about how to get stuff apart but very little about putting things back together.

Lol Randy, that sounds all too familiar. The Appias are neat little cars, I especially like the sedan with the suicide doors. There is some collector interest for the pre-Fiat models, but anything after that has little to no following in the States. Do you have any pics of the cars?

I still like the Betas, they are labor intensive and combating rust is a constant. I owned a Fulvia for a number of years, miss that car quite a bit. Not fast but it was perfectly balanced. A real pleasure to drive.