Think of all the times you wished you could drive along the Amalfi Coast on a hot summer day. Unforgettable feelings require memorable cars, and Italians are certainly known for their stunningly gorgeous cars. This Lancia Aurelia B24 would probably be one of the best convertible sports cars you could pick for the task. Timeless and classic, the design of the Aurelia is outstanding, marking what has been considered the most elegant era of the Pininfarina team's production.
Produced from 1955 to 1958 - in an age where Italian cars wouldn't hide big surprises under the hood - the Lancia Aurelia B24 came in with a 2.5L V6 engine producing 118 horsepower. The unusual performing engine and the vague American look given to this design made the Aurelia a real object of desire. Here are 8 things you didn't know about this Italian spider.
The Incarnation Of The Italian 'Dolce Vita'
These elegant, juvenile and fancy lines definitely embody the features of the Italian ‘Dolce Vita’ period - literally ‘Sweet Life’ - that made the late ‘50s an age of financial growth, general wealth, and youth’s fervor in the peninsula.
The Lancia Aurelia B24 came to life when the city of Rome - as well as others - was living a thrilling moment of enthusiasm. It was a thriving city, recovered from the hardship brought by World War 2, and along with the economic growth came the desire to live and enjoy the beauty, climate, and entertainment of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The Italian songwriter Lucio Dalla depicts Rome as a "floating" city, on a dreamy night described as "so sweet that it could be drunk." Well, the Lancia Aurelia B24 is all about that.
"Il Sorpasso": The Italian Cabriolet On A Movie Set
The Lancia Aurelia B24 also owes its fame to the film Il Sorpasso, in which it is the car driven by the protagonist Vittorio Gassman. The movie (literally '"The Overtaking"', but also occasionally titled The Easy Life) is a 1962 Italian cult comedy film, directed by Dino Risi and starring Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Catherine Spaak.
Considered Risi's masterpiece and one of the best examples of the commedia all'italiana film genre, Il Sorpasso talks about an impulsive braggart who takes a shy law student for a two-day ride through the Roman and Tuscany countryside in his fancy Lancia spider.
Gianni Lancia's Vision Of A Game-Changing Car
Gianni Lancia was an Italian engineer, industrialist, and racing enthusiast, known for running the Lancia company from 1949 to 1955. After his father's death, the young Gianni Lancia took over the family business, bringing freshness to the ambitions of the brand, and contributing to the creation of the first edition of the B24 Spider.
The idea of the young Gianni Lancia was that of a top-quality and sporty product with a line that had to remind to overseas trends. He commissioned the first example to Pininfarina, which had already had experience in the specific sector, having built a spider on behalf of the American company Nash in 1952.
A Closer Look At The Design
Some peculiar traits of the Lancia Aurelia B24 are the panoramic windshield, something we've also seen on the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette convertible, the nose with the classic Lancia grille, the bumpers consisting of four buffers of generous dimensions (two in front and two behind), and a cockpit positioned in the center of the wheelbase, between a wide hood and a large tail.
Italians must have had a physical and tactile approach to this beauty: “When you see a Lancia Aurelia B24, staring at it is not enough: you wish you could touch it” said Franco Martinengo - a designer who worked at Pininfarina - highlighting how the harmony given by a curvy look could resemble that of a human body. In addition to that, bright chrome finish parts and a huge wooden steering wheel undoubtedly would fuel the desire to get our hands on it.
The Aurelia's Beating Heart Was The First Italian V6
The Lancia Aurelia B24 came with a 2.5L V6 engine that produced 118 hp at 5000 rpm, and it really made the difference back then since most of the Italian competitor cabriolets would fit a smaller 4-cylinder engine under the hood.
The Lancia V6 engine was introduced in the 1950 Lancia Aurelia Coupe B20. Lancia had been producing V4 engines for about 30 years and one of the key objectives was to reduce vibrations typical of the V4 engine. The V6 engine had a 60-degree V-angle and six crankshaft pins, which definitely contributed to reducing vibration.
The 3 Versions Of The Lancia Aurelia B24
The first series (including the earliest prototypes) was produced from December 1954 to October 1955. In addition to the mechanical changes that sacrificed a few horsepower, the second B24 - "Convertible" - lost many of the characteristics that had distinguished the first series: the huge panoramic windscreen (which was less enveloping) disappeared, the rear part of the car had a more pronounced wheel arch and a higher "fin", the bumpers were more pointy. The hood scoop was modified and the dashboard got a less rounded shape.
Aesthetically unchanged, the third (and last) series was available for deliveries in Italy starting from the spring of 1957 and remained in production until 1958, with 371 units available, breaking any kind of production record for the Lancia Aurelia.
The Italian Cabriolet In Its Rarest Look: The Fontana Hardtop
Originally designed without any soft or hardtop, The Lancia Aurelia B24 stirred up Pininfarina's desire of having a coupe-oriented feeling: in fact, he would occasionally design solutions to equip the B24 with the hardtop, provided as an "option" by the manufacturer.
Besides Pininfarina and Lancia itself, there was another relevant hard top builder back in those days: the workshop A. Fontana built some rare and unique hardtops, such as the one that features this gorgeous Grigio Pastello model.
Chosen By Pininfarina As His Personal Car
When artists realize that what they have created is a masterpiece, their career could be at risk. Some say that "the higher climb, the harder you fall". Pininfarina and his team must have not taken the creation of the Lancia Aurelia B24 as a hazardous turning point. Rather, from that moment on, the team was destined to be an ascendant star in the automobile's design.
Interestingly, Pininfarina himself would drive a light blue hardtop model for years, and possibly very similar to this model. The story of the Master Designer who loved a car of timeless design - that depicted an Italian era - is one of those classics' stories that will never go out of fashion.