It looks like a typical 1920s town car that’s been chopped and channeled; look how low that driver is sitting, like in a sports car. We’ve sung the high praises to lots of later Lancias here over the years, but the legend really started with the 1922 Lambda, a car that was radically ahead of its time, pioneering a number of new technologies in a production car: Unitized construction (hence the low profile), independent front suspension, four wheel brakes, shock absorbers, and a compact narrow angle SOHC V4 engine.
The Lambda was more typically seen with open two and four seater bodywork, but this Limousine Coupe by Weyman shows that it could dress up formally too.
Here’s a Lambda chassis, showing how the unitized body construction worked. Obviously it was a bit different than modern unibodies, where the roof structure plays a significant role. It worked brilliantly at a time when cars sat tall on their big and heavy ladder frames, allowing the Lambda to be substantially lighter. And with its sliding pillar front suspension and low center of gravity, its handling was in a wholly diofferent league.
The V4 was built in two versions, with 13 and 14 degree angles between the banks, similar to VW’s VR engine family, which allowed it use a single head, with a single ohc. Although its displacement was modest (21., 2.4, 2.6 L), its power was quite high for the times (49, 59, 69 hp, respectively), giving the light Lambda sparkling performance at the time.
The Lambda’s performance and handling made it more suitable for a sports car body, like this one by Zagato, than a limousine, but it was game to play many roles.
I’ve read quite often that early Lancias were very innovative but didn’t know the specifics.
Four-wheel brakes are something I assumed cars had almost from the start, but I guess not.
Cars of that time only had brakes on the rear wheels. 4 wheel brakes were a great innovation.
Front brakes took a while longer to introduce. The problem was how to transfer the mechanical brake system through the pivoting part of the steering action.
In addition, while there had been significant progress in making cars go faster, there had been little research into making vehicles stop, especially when the general top speed of a car was 15 to 25mph. As vehicle speeds increased, manufacturers realized their brakes were now unable to cope with higher speeds. This was a major reason they began to change from band-type rear brakes to internally expanding shoe brakes. But engineers quickly realized this improvement was still not sufficient. The final result was 4 wheel brakes.
If I remember correctly, Ford was the last major manufacturer to use rear axle externally contracting band brakes on the TT series of trucks, right up to the end of the TT. As many car guys have never seen rear axle brakes on a 1920s Ford, I’m attaching a photo of the rear axle brakes on a TT dump truck I had the pleasure of knowing some years ago.
So the future was revealed in 1922, and it took the Industry another fifty years to catch up? This Lancia reveals that brilliant evolutionary innovation doesn’t win the day, year, or decade unless the environment is ready for it.
I’m still using a QWERTY keyboard, designed a century ago to prevent keys from jamming and still being used today as the standard. Sometimes, best is shunned for workable and being workable often wins the day, year or decade.
What a fantastic vehicle. How well would it have handled the drive from Grand Junction Colorado to Hutchinson Kansas in 1923? Or across the Outback? It was the reality of daily life in Bumf**k, Bug’s Hollow, and Nowheresville that gave us the Ford Model T. How well would it have handled an attached farm implement? Hauled livestock? Sadly, that was what our lives were like when this space ship arrived, courtesy of Lancia.
It is quite possible, that the most inhospitable environments create the most robust, winning designs. Have you seen the new Jeep Grand Cherokee? For decades Jeep drivers were shot at. Today Jeep drivers ride on butter-soft leather, right?
This Lancia reminds me of how long it took to get television in Denver Colorado. It wasn’t that Coloradoans didn’t want or understand what television was – it was those damn mountains and valleys that prevented it from arriving.
Fabulous vehicle. Mind-blowing awesomeness. Thank you for presenting this to us Paul!
Perhaps dress styles by the time that limo was produced were conducive to entering and exiting a lower car like that, but I have to imagine that among the older and more formally-dressed folks in 1923 (such as who would likely be a passenger in the limo) a low car like that probably wasn’t very popular. I’m thinking of women, dressed as was the style in the years around WWI, with all of those clothes, hats, etc., getting into a lower car was probably an ordeal.
Still, a striking vehicle to modern eyes, from a time when one wouldn’t expect it.
Fascinating .
-Nate
Love it! The Chrysler Executive Limousine of the vintage era.
A car I was vaguely aware of, but the photo of the panel-less unibody isn’t something I recall seeing. At the time, since most cars were open-roofed, optimizing the design around that configuration made sense; think about how many ‘80’s and ‘90’s convertibles had heavy stiffeners added when the tops were removed. The tall sections under the door openings and along the sides of the engine bay certainly helped bending stiffness and torsional stiffness, not only for strength but for a better ride and handling. But the limousine coupé (what a wonderful name!) seems to show doors extending further down. Was its unibody notched for easier access? The red roadster is not only showing off its front brakes, which I think were more common by then, at least on that style of car, but they are big. And red! Reminds me of the modern trend for brightly colored brake calipers.
Some Italian cars continued to follow a similar philosophy of putting much of the load into the floorpan and sills, to facilitate custom bodywork, open or closed. The original Alfa Romeo Giulia is one example.
The same is true of other unit bodies intended primarily for open cars, like the MGB
Where did the intake/carburetor sit? I don’t think that downdraft carburetors were available in 1922, at least not in North America, and perhaps not even sidedraft carburetors.
Fascinating article, thank you. A beautiful car.
JM,
Looking at the photo of the engine, note the exhaust header is in the form of a Y. At the upper end where the manifold attaches to the head, look between the manifolds and you will see a black, thick, horizontal mount. That’s the intake manifold. You can just barely see the attached base of the horizontal carb to the right of the intake manifold.
Hispano Suiza v8 aircraft engines as produced by Wright in the U.S. had switched from updraft to downdraft carburetors by 1923 or maybe ’24.
The first unibody was in 1903 by Vauxhall, nothing after that was a first.
Seems this Weymann was related to the Weymann in the UK that built buses and later became part of Metro Cammell Weymann, started by Charles T. Weymann.
Not sure about that relationship – typically a “Weymann body” of that period refers to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weymann_Fabric_Bodies
I always found it hard to picture what a Weymann body was like, but I came across a car with one in a museum a few years back
bloody photo upload…