robadr has found and posted one of the loveliest of the new European post-war cars, the Lancia Appia. Like all Lancias, it was a blend of familiar older elements (sliding pillar front suspension) and boldly new ones (10° V4 with dual cams in block). The Appia was designed to be the simpler, cheaper and smaller sibling to the V6 Aurelia, but like almost all post-war Lancias, it came out a bit more expensive to build than the market was willing to pay, and it never met its sales aspirations except in its last couple of years.
But it had many charms, my favorite being the utter lack of a center pillar.
This one with its doors both open is a later Series 3, but they were essentially all the same that way. Makes getting in and out of a compact car like this so much easier. And there was no loss of structural rigidity; Lancia was a pioneer in unibody construction going back to 1922, and this was not a problem at all, especially on such a fairly short car.
The Appia was created under the supervision of legendary engineer Vittorio Jano. The 1.1L V4 made 38 hp, enough to take it up to 75 mph (130kmh). A four speed transmission fed the power to the live rear axle.
The V4 had a mere ten degrees of angle between banks, which made it extremely short and rigid, not unlike VW’s VR6/5 engines. There were two camshafts mounted low on either side of the block, operating rockers that then worked the valves in the hemi heads. This is a Series 2/3 engine, with larger valves and ports and increased output, which peaked at 60hp.
There was also a coupe by Pininfarina (above) and a cabriolet by Vignale. They look great from the right direction, but can look a bit long in profile.
And there were special-bodied version by Zagato, like this GTE. Obviously its wheelbase was also not reduced, with the same result. One suspects that it would have been difficult to cut down the Appia’s floorpan and other key unibody elements, even though this was commonly done with other cars by the custom body builders.
Speaking of tails, the Series 1 has a very lovely one. It’s one of the better executions of the post-war pontoon look, with enough elements to keep from becoming visually boring.
The Appia was replaced in 1963
Beautiful cars. Hits close to the right formula for me. A bit of chrome, nice colors, lots of curves, a comfortable interior. Europe sold cars like that for a long time. In the states the cars grew to such a size that they have less appeal to me. A early 70s Malibu is as big as I’d ever consider.
It looks a bit squashed from the side, but the front and rear views are beautiful; elegant even.
Very nice and elegant, the styling comes through without any unnecessary gingerbread.
On Lancias of this vintage, RHD was standard for the Italian domestic market. That would explain why the wipers are set for RHD.
I assume that the turn signals under the rear bumper are aftermarket. That makes me wonder if the original turn signals were semaphores. It would be easier to tell if the car weren’t such a dark color.
What a great looking car in a beautiful color…I wouldn’t hate having a Zagato find its way to my garage either, even if its proportions in profile suffer a bit compared to the four door.
Lancia was fairly adept at creating four-doors that looked as good as (or maybe better than) their two-doors. I prefer the Flaminia four-door to the two-door, although the Fulvias and Flavias might have suffered in comparison. Was anyone consistently better at producing good-looking four-doors?
Interesting- That’s the first inline 4 DIBC (Dual In-Block Cam) engine I recall seeing, although Harley V-twins do something similar.
There’s also a very large cooling passage on the exhaust side of the cylinders- I wonder if that’s a result of the valve train geometry, or designed to cool the exhaust valves. The head passages around the exhaust ports also contain much more coolant than the intake side.
It’s a V4, the second cylinder is to the right of the front one in this view.
I try to upload a picture which shows it. This is an older version I believe.
The inline 4 in the Riley RM was also a DIBC.
An earlier example, maybe the first, of this layout, is the Riley Nine 1100 cc four cylinder engine family, introduced in 1926, two camshafts in the block plus hemi head, very successful for road use and competition, through its long production life. And followed by Riley’s larger, similar RM series engine, introduced in 1945, first in 1.5 and then 2.5 litre sizes.
OK, but how did it do in side impact tests?
(Yeah I know – there weren’t any)
Ask BMW
And where would a semaphore signal go, in a car with no B pillar ?
Such a lovely animal. The postwar American buyer was already gaining a taste for glitz, which wouldn’t have been gratified by the chaste forms and details of this remarkable sedan. The hot-rodders and customizers here knew better—but it took a little while for Detroit to catch on ?
Again my ignorance leaves me surprised at a rear-wheel-drive Lancia. I’ll catch up sooner or later . . .
On the C pillar, as on this red 1937 Aprilia.
OTOH, this ’46 Aprilia spotted by T87 doesn’t have them:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/curbside-classic-1946-lancia-aprilia-berlina-vincenzos-symphony-in-v4-major/
Either Lancia was no longer using them by 1946, or the recesses for them were filled in on this car.
This photo is about a 10 minute walk from my home. What a cool car, tomorrow I’ll walk down there and see if it’s still there.
The classics are coming out here in Vancouver, the land of mild winters and smooth roads.
can the doors on these operate fully independently, or is the rear door captured by the front, requiring that one to open before the rear can be released?
The second photo, in silver, is exactly like the one I used to own, except the interior in mine was red and entirely in leather: seats, door panels, dashboard. These were not sporting at all, equivalent to a Fiat 1100, but the build quality and unique technical aspects were astounding. Another unusual feature: you could press a lever under the hood and apply grease to lube points.
“One suspects that it would have been difficult to cut down the Appia’s floorpan and other key unibody elements, even though this was commonly done with other cars by the custom body builders.”
It was usually the other way around: Italian carmakers had a chassis version for customers who wanted a coachbuilt special. Coachbuilders didn’t typically tinker with the chassis / platform.
If Lancia did not provide a shorter chassis for the carrozzerie cars, they probably had their (technical) reasons. Not sure they had a short chassis for the Aprilia, for instance. But they did have a LWB version, complete with its own suspension, for coachbuilt limos & wagons.
By “floorpan” I was referring to the chassis that Lancia supplied to custom coach builders. It is essentially a floorpan, as can be seen in the picture below, where a stack of them are awaiting the addition of bodies at Pininfarina’s facility.
Looking at them, I presume it wouldn’t have been all that difficult to cut them down. This was commonly done with the VW platform chassis, and others, but obviously it’s easier to use as is, especially in a RWD car where the drive shaft would also have to be cut down too.
The definition of “chassis” is not always consistent. It can refer to the frame, suspension, a combination, etc.
Just what the various manufacturers supplied to the various coachbuilders during the unibody era is something I’d like to know more about. In the case of the Aurelia and Appia, there’s pictures of their floorpan/chassis. But what about all the Fiats and others? I suspect strongly for the later ones made in larger quantities, like the 124 Sport Spider and such that PF (or Bertone, as the case may be) may well have had the presses to make their own floor pans and such. I haven’t come across any good documentation on that aspect; it’s always about the design. But a key differentiation of PF was that they constantly expanded their production capabilities over the years, to be able to build cars bodies from scratch, including key underbody components.
I should add that my assumption that these Appia floorpans/chassis in the picture were supplied by Lancia and not made by PF may well be wrong. It’s possible that given the volumes PF was hoping for the coupe that they built these too. I don’t know. It’s clearly not a complete rolling chassis, which is why I wonder.
I’ve since learned that the colourful backdrop (The Beaumont Studios) is indeed a human hive. Its denizens include a community of music dj’s, streaming regularly on twitch.tv.
For CC’ers of a certain age, one of the streams (Funknstein Fantasy 🙂 features 70’s style funk. Past streams available on Mixcloud, and worth a listen if you think you may be susceptible.
https://www.mixcloud.com/bsidedotradio/playlists/funkenstein-fantasy/