If, for some reason, you’re unfamiliar with why Lancia’s post-Fiat cars are generally met with indifference or disdain, this Aurelia convertible will provide you with some perspective. This Pininfarina-designed convertible is a completely different animal compared to the upmarket Fiats which superseded it, with style in abundance and very apparent quality to match. Just look at that two-piece bumper, working together with history’s most elegant hood scoop to frame that expensive looking grille. To those details, add a perfectly matched, bumper-height chrome spear (to break up the visual heft of the substantial door sills needed to maintain rigidity), impossibly delicate side marker lights and a wraparound windshield, and you’ve got a contender for the most attractive roadster in a very competitive era.
Many thanks to Tonymcandrew for sharing this find with CC. Its looks made it stand out among a host of interesting cars in The Cohort, and the ambiguously defined form of the fixed, forward slanting side glass in particular grabbed my attention. You just don’t see shapes like that today and they were uncommon when this car was built between 1954 and 1955. Its mechanicals were also quite exotic, with the world’s first production V6, a rear mounted transaxle with a DeDion axle and the first factory-fitted radial tires. Even if it wasn’t the fastest roadster around, with 115 horsepower, it had to be one of the most stable.
That’s certainly considerate when you consider how much it would cost to repair that beautiful bodywork if you were to skid into the bushes. When people say “they don’t build them like they used to,” just keep this image in your mind. Think about what was involved in forming and joining the panels which surround that narrow hood or the cost to repair them if you were to nudge a mailbox or trashcan. Taking all that into account, it was certainly to leave the car, one of 240, so close to these plebeian hatchbacks, but then again, parking far away from others would be too crass a gesture for the driver of such a progressive machine.
Too beautiful is right. Like a tight red t-shirt (or maybe a tank top, since it’s a convertible) on a perfect torso.
It is cars like this that make me dispair of the present age. So much black or body-colored plastic. I miss the jewel-like brightwork that used to adorn more expensive cars. The Europeans really knew how to set a basic shape off with a little jewelry.
A profile shot of this car would have been nice. But from what I can see, certainly a very attractive car. This one is new to me. Not sure I would be a fan of the V6, that configuration in that era may not have been the smoothest thing on four wheels.
“The Europeans really knew how to set a basic shape off with a little jewelry.” Yeah, the girl in the red outfit knows how to accessorize. An intoxicating shape, and nicely detailed. Shame on you, Perry! This is pornography, plain and simple; I know it when I see it.
In case you didn’t, i really suggest you to watch this episode of Jay Leno’s Garage.
I love when Jay talks of the sliding pillar suspension there is a Morgan poster in the background they still use that system, Gorgeous car and the snarl from the V6 is beautiful.
+1 Snarl is the perfect word.
Yum! I actually prefer the B20 coupe version, but this is just as gorgeous. Hemmings just ran an article in their Sports and Exotic magazine about a Seafoam green B24…
I wonder if I’d like it even better without that GM-ish wrap-around windshield. A bit jarring, especially with such a conservative front end.
I like the wrap, it was the first thing that I noticed on the car too, it does seem strange for an Italian car, but the chrome, hoodscoop and wrap windshield do give it a 50’s “motorama” vibe.
It looks like the rear screen from my Minx.
I like the wrap too. When I grow up, I’m gonna buy one of these and strip it back to look like the original prototype. Great find Tonymcandrew.
I hear ya. It looks really cool from dead-on, though, and I think the whole appeal of the car might be that it marries such a voluptuous shape to that elegant front end, reminding you that its mechanicals and platform are shared with a luxury sedan and coupe.
Another new car discovery for me.It’s gorgeous
I mean exactly like the rear screen, I wonder?………………Certainly given the low production numbers that would have been simpler and much cheaper.
Given the Spyders were built before the series Minx they won’t share a screen.
Given there are a few reasonably similar convertibles, including Alfa Romeos & Fiats, I don’t hold these on such a pedestal but I really like the Aurelia GT coupe.
That door mirror looks wrong and spoils it a bit. I’m trying to think how you would equate where Lancia were, in the scheme of things, in the 50’s. Sort of a cross between Mercedes and BMW now, but more up-market. Ferrari was an upstart, Lancia was old established royalty.
The wrap around screen was copied by Fiat for their roadsters I think. I do wonder if it was free of optical distortion.
Like an Alvis really and they sold to same sort of people.
Wow. Amazing to think they went from this to a hastily rebadged Chrysler 200.
This is the kind of beauty that inspires otherwise sensible men to write embarrassingly florid sonnets.
If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor any man ever loved. 🙂
Some (Chrysler 200) rise by sin, and some (Aurelia) by virtue fall.
The wraparound windshield saw duty in a lot of interesting places in the mid to late 50’s. The Facel Vega HK500 is another notable use on a European GT car.
I tend to agree that these B24 roadsters just may be the cream of a very impressive crop. I wouldn’t rank it above a Series I E-Type, but that was several years down the road and part of a whole different generation.
Don’t forget the engineering and style of American cars still carried a lot of prestige among European makes at this time, so wrapped screens and fins cropped up in all sorts of unexpected places.
Come to think of it, the decline of Lancia in many ways mirrored that of Cadillac…no second acts for Lancia though.
When craftsmanship was appreciated
When artists designed and produced cars.
When cars had individuality and charm
A Lancia looked like a Lancia and a Mercedes looked like a Mercedes.
Today, 95% of the ‘styling’ is over the top dramatic or just plain boring.
And surprise surprise those cars are sold best.
Our parents were more individuals then we are.
I’ve seen one of these tooling around Pasadena. Simply beautiful, I can’t think of a more attractive roadster.
I saw two at Cars and Coffee Irvine a few weeks ago, a coupe and convertible.
.
Beautiful interior, too. You can almost smell the leather just looking at it.
“This is the kind of beauty that inspires otherwise sensible men to write embarrassingly florid sonnets.”
Thank heavens for Italian creativity.