Lancia

Italy, 1906 to date

Fabbrica Automobili Lancia e Cia, Turin, 1906 to date

Vincenzo Lancia, the son of a wealthy soup manufacturer, was apprenticed to Ceirano in 1898 and went on to FIAT as chief inspector when that company took over the Ceirano factory in 1899. In July 1900 Lancia drove in his first race at Padua. Thereafter Lancia was a member of the FIAT team until 1908, making the running in the 1905 Gordon Bennett Cup and taking 2nd place in the 1906 Vanderbil Cup and the 1907 Targa Florio; but in 1906 he formed his own Lancia car company. Production of the first Lancia cars was halted by fire at the Lancia car factory in February 1907, but during the year the Alfa appeared as a 2½-litre 4-cylinder shaft-driven car with side valves in an L-head, a 4-speed gearbox and three-quarter elliptic rear suspension. A Lancia car chassis cost £400 in England. In 1908 there was a companion 3.8-litre 6-cylinder, the Di-Alfa, of which only 23 were made: Lancia was not to produce another Lancia car with a six for 42 years. Suprisingly enough, he did not race his Lancia cars, though Hilliard’s Lancia car won the 1908 Savannah race in America and two years later Billy Knipper won the Tiedeman Trophy on the same circuit with a Lancia car. These circumstances led to the introduction of a near-Lancia car, the SGV, to the American market in 1911: this Lancia car was sponsored by CV Tangeman, the former FIAT concessionaire in New York. Monobloc-engined Lancia cars made their début in 1909 with the 3.1-litre Lancia Beta, while capacity increased to 3.5-litres with the Lancia Gamma of 1910 and to 4.1-litres with the Lancia Delta of 1911, which had its waterpump mounted in one of the engine brackets. There was also a 2.6-litre 15hp Lancia car with a 4-speed rear-axle-mounted gearbox. Electric lighting was available on the 4.1-litre Lancia Eta at £757 in 1913. A year later full electrics (Lancia car company claimed to be the first standardized installation by a European manufacturer) came on the 4.9-litre Lancia Theta: the use of foot operation for the starter together with a cut-out gave the Lancia car five pedals, but in other respects it followed regular Lancia car practice with its 4 forward speeds and a dry multi-disc clutch. From 1911 the Lancia cars had 4-spoke steering wheels, and also the symbolic emblem of a lance, designed by Count Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia for the Lancia car. During the World War 1 years, Lancia Theta derivatives served the Allied armed forces.

After the war the first Lancia car to came was the Lancia Kappa, an improved 90bhp development of the Lancia Theta with detachable head, but the shape of things to come was visible in an abortive 12-cylinder ohc 6-litre Lancia car which appeared at the 1919 Shows, though this Lancia car proved uneconomic to produce. The use of a very narrow-angle V of 22 degrees made a monobloc casting possible for Lancia cars. Though the Lancia Kappa gave place to the ohv Lancia Dikappa and to a 4.6-litre ohc V8, the Lancia Trikappa with conventional chassis, Vincenzo Lancia’s revolutionary Lancia Lambda was running in 1921, on show in 1922 and the Lancia Lambda was in full production by 1923. This Lancia car used once again a very narrow-angle V-type engine and overhead camshaft (though this time with only 4 cylinders, Lancia cars with the V4) which gave plenty of room for bodywork. Unitary construction was used for the standard torpedo body style of the Lancia car, this being available with a detachable hard top. The Lancia cars had independent front suspension of vertical-coil type, found on all Lancia cars until 1956 and persisting in the Lancia car range until 1963. Alloy blocks, pump cooling, full-pressure lubcrication, vacuum feed and 4-wheel brakes were also featured. 13.000 of these Lancia Lambda, in nine series, were sold up to 1931. Capacity of the Lancia Lambda went up to 2.4-litres in 1926 with the Lambda Seventh Series and again to 2.6-litres and 69bhp with the Lancia Lambda Eighth in 1928/ 1929. 4-speed gearboxes were standardized on the Lancia Lambda 5th series (1925). Separate chassis became an option with the Lancia Lambda 7th Series, being standardized on the Lancia Lambda 8th series and Lancia Lambda 9thseries; this last Lancia car series had coil ignition. Separate chassis have always been available as an option on subsequent chassisless Lancia cars. Though looked upon as a sports car in export markets by virtue of its superior handling, the Lambda Lambda car was never intended as such, and the later ‘long’ Lancia Lambda cars (11ft 2 7/8in wheelbase) made excellent taxicabs.

From 1929 Lancia marketed a series of ohc Lancia cars with separate chassis and hypoid final drive, of which the first was the Lancia Dilambda with a narrow-angle ohc V8 engine, electrically-welded frame, centralized chassis lubrication, fuel feed by twin electric pumps and (on later Lancia cars) servo brakes. Nearly 1.700 Lancia cars were made up to 1932. An 11ft 5in wheelbase was available for formal coachwork and a saloon Lancia car cost £1.295 in England.

To replace the Lancia Lambda in 1931 came two variations on this theme, the modest 1.9-litre 54bhp Lancia Artena, and the Lancia Astura, a small, 2.6-litre 73bhp V8 with silent 3rd gearbox, which had grown up by 1934 to 3 litres with servo brakes. By 1939 the Lancia car had acquired hydraulic actuation for these, had attracted some very elegant bodies from specialist coachbuilders and was the recognized transport for dignitaries of Mussolini’s Italy. A return to unit construction came with the little 1.2-litre Lancia Augusta late in 1932: this Lancia car was the usual ohc V4 with hypoid rear axle, but hydraulic brakes were standard on Lancia cars and its roadholding abilities compensated for a 65mph top speed and un-inspired looks. From 1933 to 1937 the Lancia Augusta was made in a French factory at Bonneuil, under the name Lancia Belna. Bodies were by French coach builders including Paul Née and Pourtout. In 1937 came Vincenzo Lancia’s last creation (he died that year), the 1.352cc Lancia Aprilia, which carried the Augusta formula of Lancia cars one step further, with independent torsion-bar rear suspension, a well-streamlined saloon body on the Lancia car, low weight (1.804lb) and engine output increased from 35 to 47bhp. No synchromesh was provided, but with a top speed of over 80mph and a fuel consumption of 30mpg this Lancia car became the exemplar of European light-car design. Capacity of the Lancia car went up to 1½-litres in 1939. The last Lancia Aprilia was made ten years later. Just before World War 2 came the 903cc Lancia Ardea, a miniature 29bhp version of the Lancia Aprilia with semi-elliptic rear suspension. Ten years later this Lancia car was given a 5-speed gearbox.

The first entirely new Lancia car since the founder’s death appeared in 1950. The Lancia Aurelia, the work of Vittorio Jano (late of Alfa-Romeo) and Gianni Lancia, retrained the hull, suspension and basic styling of earlier Lancia cars, but overhead camshafts had given way to a 1.754cc 56bhp push-rod V6, and the top 3 ratios of the back-axle gearbox were synchronized. 1951 Lancia cars were available with an optional 70bhp 2-litre engine and that year the first of the classic short-chassis Lancia GT coupé versions also appeared, with 2-litres and 80bhp. This Lancia car collected both 2nd place in the Mille Miglia and a class win at Le Mans. A 3rd in the Mille Miglia and a 1-2-3 victory in the Targa Florio followed in 1953. Rally wins recorde by later Lancia GT Aurelias included the Liège-Rome-Liège (1953), the Monte Carlo (1954) and the Acropolis as late as 1958. In 1953 Lancia car touring versions were available with 90bhp engines and there was also a seven-seater saloon Lancia car, the Lancia B15, on a 10ft 8in wheelbase, not to mention a 2½-litre 118bhp Lancia GT, which had acquired a De Dion rear axle by the end of the year. Steering-column change was standard on all coupés to the end of production in 1959, only the open Lancia Spyders coming with factory-fitted floor change. Meanwhile in 1953 the Lancia Ardea had given place to the 1.100cc Lancia Appia, a scaled-down Lancia Aurelia with a 38bhp engine. The cylinder block of the Lancia car was only 9½in long, a 2-bearing crankshaft being unusual with a 4-cylinder unit by this time. Though the Lancia Appia could exceed 75mph, the Lancia car was hardly competitive (at the equivalent of £780) with FIAT’s equally new 1.100-103 at £572. Encouraged by the success of the GT Lancia Aurelias, Lancia built some ohc sports-racing Lancia carversion which evolved into the 3.3-litre Lancia D24. Results were encouraging, a failure at Le Mans being balanced by a 3rd in the Targa Florio and a 1-2-3 victory in the Carrera Panamericanan (1953), and wins of Lancia cars in both the Targa Florio and the Mille Miglia in 1954. Less successful were the Jano-designed 2.5-litre Lancia D50s for Formula 1. These Lancia cars had 4-ohc oversquare V8 engines, space frames, double wishbone independent front suspension and 5-speed gearboxes mounted at the side of the differentials; their best performance was a 2nd place at Pau in 1955 and after Alberto Ascari was killed the whole Lancia car operation was disposed of to Ferrari. At the same time the Lancia family lost control of the Lancia car company.

Good seller though the Lancia Aurelia was, Lancia cars were no longer competitive with Fiat or the state-subsidized Alfa Romeo factory, and their 1958 sales were 8.794 Lancia cars to Fiat’s 169.532. 1956 had brought a revolution in the form of the Lancia Flaminia, still a 2.5-litre V6 with rear-axle gearbox and hypoid final drive, but incorporating not only a revised form of unitary construction but also coil-and-wishbone independent front suspension. The 6-light saloon bodywork of the Lancia car derived from the Lancia Aurelia-based Florda exhibited by Pininfarina at Turin in 1955. Standard engines in the Lancia car gave 98bhp, but by 1958 there were short-chassis GT versions with 125bhp and disc brakes were fitted on all Lancia Flaminia cars. Capacity of the Lancia car again went up to 2.8-litres in 1964, when the 3C sports coupé had 152bhp. Even more revolutionary was the Lancia Flavia of 1961, which Lancia car was the work of Dr. Fessia, designer both of the pre-war Fiat Topolino and of the CEMSA-Caproni, from which both its front wheel drive layout and ohv flat-4 engine were derived. Disc brakes, a 4-speed all-synchromesh gearbox and semi-elliptic rear suspension also featured in the specification of this Lancia car, and a 92bhp GT coupé model was available in 1962. 1.700cc bored-out versions of the Lancia car were already being offered by Nardi and in 1963 Lancia themselves offered an alternative 1.8-litre unit in their Lancia car. In 1964 the long-established Lancia Appia gave way to the Lancia Fulvia, which had much in common with the Lancia Flavia, though there was a reversion to an 1.100cc Lancia V4 engine. Sports Lancia car versions developed 71bhp and 106mph was claimed from the Lancia Fulvia GT. The 1967 Lancia Car Programme included standard and sporting models of the Lancia Fulvia. Flavia and Flaminia, with Kügelfischer fuel injection available on the Flavia. There was continuing support for GT racing and rally Lancia cars, the works team’s record in the latter field including two successive wins for Källström and Häggbom with Lancia cars (1969 and 1970) in the RAC Rally, and victories in the 1972 Monte Carlo and Moroccan events. A Lancia car specially designed for rallies was the Lancia Stratos HF coupé, powered by a mid-mounted Fiat 132 or Dino engine. A small production run of these Lancia cars was built in 1973. The Lancia Flaminia was not offered after 1970, but 1969 brought a 1.991cc version of the Lancia Flavia coupé with 131bhp and dual-circuit servo-assisted disc brakes. This Lancia car was followed by a 5-speed saloon model using a miniature replica of the old Lancia car grille. The 2-litre engine was standardized in all 1972 Lancia Flavias. Fulvias were available with 1.3-litre and 1.6-litre units, outputs of the Lancia car ranging from 85 to 114bhp.

Lancia – a firm which has the reputation of never having made a bad Lancia car- made a remarkable recovery in the early 1960s, and built 40.000 Lancia cars in 1966, but mounting debts forced them to sell out to Fiat in November 1969.

The first signs of integration of Lancia cars appeared in the new Lancia Beta model at the end of 1972. This fwd saloon was available with dohc 4-cylinder Fiat engines of 1.4, 1.6 or 1.8 litres, and LX versions of the Lancia car had automatic headlamp beam levellings.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com

Morris

GB, 1913 to date

(1) W.R.M. Motors Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1913 – 1919

(2) Morris Motors Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1919 – 1970

(3) Austin-Morris Division, British Leyland Motor Corp Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1970 to date

W.R. Morris (later Lord Nuffield), an Oxford cycle and motor agent, launched his Morris-Oxford light car in 1913. This Morris car was made from proprietary parts, the engine being a 1-litre T-head four by White and Poppe. At £175 the Morris car was one of the best of the true light cars (as opposed to cyclecars) and over 1.000 Morris cars had been sold by the end of 1914. A larger model, the famous Morris Cowley, arrived on the scene in 1915; this Morris car was assembled from American components, the engine being by Continental. After World War 1 Morris cars marketed two 1½-litre L-head sv fours, with power units by Hotchkiss of Coventry; the Morris Cowley differed from the Morris Oxford mainly in its more austere equipment and the absence of a starter. In an inflationary climate, Morris cars was brave enough to reduce the prices of its Morris cars(a Morris Cowley two-seater cost £465 in October 1920, £299.10s a year later, and £225 in October 1922) and ensured a steady flow of Morris carproduction by acquiring his suppliers, such as Hotchkiss, Wrigley (transmissions) and Hollick and Pratt (bodies).

The Morris ‘bullnoses’ were soon best-sellers backed by a nation-wide service organization of Morris cars, and in 1925 Morris outsold all his competitors with 54.000 Morris cars. From 1924 to 1926 the staple Morris cars were the 1½-litre Morris Cowley and the 1.8-litre Morris Oxford, both with 3-speed gearboxes and the wet-plate clutches which persisted on some Morris carmodels right up to 1939. The Morris Oxford acquired front wheel brakes in 1925, and they were available as an option on Morris Cowleys a year later. 1927 Morris cars produced the flat radiator and also a venture into the export market with the unsuccessful Empire Oxford Morris car of 2½-litres, which had a 4-speed box and worm drive. Equally unsuccessful was a plan to market Gallicized Morris cars built in the Léon Bollée plant at Le Mans.

Meanwhile Cecil Kimber had produced the first of the Morris-Oxford-based MG sports cars, and a new name had been born. Morris had made a few six-cylinder Morris cars in the early 1920s, but his first serious attempt in this direction with Morris cars was a 2½-litre ohc model for 1928, the engine of this Morris car inspired by the Wolseley 16/45, a make which had come under Morris control the previous year. 1929 saw another ohc Morris car, the 847cc Morris Minor at £125. Never a best-seller, the Morris car none the less served as the basis for MG’s Midget. The 1930 6-cylinder Morris cars had hydraulic brakes, extended down the range until they were universal by 1934 on all Morris cars, and in 1931 Morris managed to offer a simplified sv two-seater version of the Morris Minor for £100. The early 1930s proved very difficult for the Morris car company, which had no obvious best-seller and too many different models of Morris cars. Sliding roofs and electric fuel pumps by the Morris-owned S.U. concern were innovations for 1932 and 1933 Morris cars pioneered the semaphore-type traffic indicator in Britain. That year Morris cars sv 1.3-litre Morris Ten-Four came out as an answer to Austin’s Ten and Hillman’s Minx. All 1934 Morris cars had synchromesh and the bigger sixes the added refinement of a free wheel.

The best-seller Morris car came at last in 1935 with the 918cc sv Series I Morris Eight, which retailed at £132.10s for a fully-equipped Morris car saloon and helped reach their first million Morris cars by the summer of 1939. In a bigger category were the Series II Morris carmodels with modern styling, 3-speed gearboxes, and built-in jacking systems, ranging from a revised Morris Ten-Four up to a 3½-litre 6-cylinder Morris Twenty-Five at £280. These Morris cars were contemporary with the Series I, though introduced some months after that Morris car. All 1938 Morris cars except for the Morris Eight had push-rod ohv engines (already applied to Wolseley and MG). Later that year Riley was absorbed into the Nuffield Morris car empire. Two 1939 winners were a revised Series E 8hp with a 4-speed gearbox and headlamps faired into the wings of the Morris car, and the 1.140cc ohv Series M Ten, which introduced integral construction to Cowley and this Morris car was made after World War 2 by Hindusthan in India.

Only the 8 and 10 Morris cars were made in the first post-war years, the first really new Morris car for ten years being the 1949 Morris cars designed by Alex Issigonis. Of these the MM series Morris Minor used the old 8hp sv engine, but boasted integral construction, rack-and-pinion steering and torsion-bar independent front suspension and set a new standard in popular car handling. A million of the basic design Morris cars had been sold by January 1961. Its companion Morris carmodels, also chassisless, and with independent front suspension were a new sv 1½-litre Morris Oxford and the 2.2-litre ohc Morris MS Type Six.

The amalgamation of Nuffield and Austin to form the British Motor Corporation in 1952 resulted in a gradual process of rationalization. First the Morris Minor went over to Austin’s 803cc ohv A30 engine in 1953. The Series II Oxford Morris car and its less powerful companion, the Morris Cowley, of 1954 had Morris hulls, but their engines were also ohv Austins. In 1955 the Morris carrange was completed by a new Isis using the 2.6-litre BMC 6-cylinder unit – this Morris car was discontinued in 1958. In the late 1950s some Morris cars were made and sold in Australia under the Morris car name which were in fact more closely akin to other makes in the BMC group. The 6-cylinder Morris Marshall was really an Austin A105, while both the Major and its Austin counterpart, the Lancer, were based on the Wolseley 1500.

With the arrival of the Farina-styled 1½-litre Morris car saloons in 1959, differences between Austin and Morris cars had been reduced to house colours and radiator emblems. The front-wheel-drive Mini (1960) was shared between the two makes and though its bigger stablemate, the 1100 of 1963 with Hydrolastic suspension, was initially a Nuffield monopoly Morris car, the inevitable Austin variant followed a year later. In the case of the third front-wheel-drive model, the 1800, Austin were ahead of Morris cars in introducing it by nearly eighteen months. The 1968 Morris car range comprised the fwd Mini, 1100/1300, and 1800 as well as the conventional 1.600cc Oxford and the indestructible Morris Minor 1000, now with 1.098cc engine and still selling close on 60.000 Morris cars a year. This sole survivor of independent Morris car design did not disappear until the end of 1970. Minis became a separate make that year. From 1971 Morris car versions of the 1100 and 1300 disappeared; the name was reserved for the Marina, an orthodox rear-wheel-driven family saloon with Minor 1000 front suspension, semi-elliptics at the rear, and drum brakes on the simpler variant Morris cars. Push-rod 1.300cc and 1.800cc B.L.M.C. 4-cylinder engines were used, and the original 2-door coupé and 4-door saloon were joined by a station wagon Morris car in 1973. The largest fwd cars were still available with Morris car badges – there was a version of the 6-cylinder 2200 in 1972.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com