Lancia Aurelia B20: An Appreciation PI

By Pete Vack
Very special thanks to Geoff Goldberg and Nigel Trow

An article or three, about the Lancia Aurelia, one of the most significant and important cars of the twentieth century. This week, origins and engines.

“The Lancia B20: One of the most significant automobiles of the century of the automobile.”
Who said that?
Maybe it has been written or spoken at some time in the past, distant or otherwise.
Maybe it hasn’t.
So we’ll say it here, loud and clear. You can quote us: The Lancia Aurelia is one of the ten most significant automobiles of the twentieth century, and therefore of all time.

If a 1951 production car with a platform chassis, all independent suspension, four speed transaxle, inboard rear brakes, aluminum V-6 engine confined within the parameters of one of the most beautiful bodies ever envisioned doesn’t mean anything to you, you’re on the wrong website.

Let it also be known that the Aurelia B20, which is our focus here, is a most complex car, each one of the 3,871 coupes virtually hand built, and model lines are confusing. There is engineering excellence with constant changes and as you will see, nothing is as simple as it seems.

The Aurelia story begins with the untimely death at age 55 of the firm’s founder, Vincenzo Lancia, in February 1937. At his side at death, his capable and intelligent widow Adele took control of the firm and steered it through the war years. It is doubtful that this remarkable woman ever received the full credit due her. Mrs. Lancia kept the firm alive until she handed it over to her very able son Gianni.

Fortunately for the widow Lancia, son Gianni, and the world, Vittorio Jano happened upon the scene at just about the same time the great Vincenzo departed. Unlike the late Lancia, Jano was no race driver, but like Vincenzo, was a great engineer. Jano did not step into a void. Vincenzo’s last design was the 1937 Aprilia, a delightfully advanced 1352cc V4, with all independent suspension, inboard rear brakes, four speed transmission and a pillar-less aerodynamic body. It was the commuter car of choice for a number of Grand Prix drivers.

An interesting aside, Enzo Ferrari’s daily driver was the Aprilia’s little sister, the Ardea, almost identical in looks, a bit smaller in size, and with a 903 cc engine. According to Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni of Touring Superleggera, “..Ferrari used the Ardea to
travel every day from Modena to Maranello..” The roomy interior helped Ferrari and Anderloni think through the dimensions of the new Ferrari 166, being constructed at the Touring establishment. Little did Ferrari realize that under Jano, a new generation of Lancias would shortly be giving his new V12 cars fits on his home venues, the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio.

The Aprilia and Ardea set the precedent for the new Aurelia. A new car must have four wheel independent suspension, an more powerful engine and plenty of interior space. The last Aprilia left the factory in 1949, reportedly with a note hidden in the trunk, handwritten by an unknown factory worker. “Dear Aprilia, in saying goodbye I greet you with respect. Your famous name is known to all in the great capitals…The workers in this factory hope and expect that your sister [a reference to the new Aurelia] will give as much glory and even more understanding for the good of all.”

The reference to the Aurelia was fortuitous, because the Aurelia more than exceeded the hopeful expectations of the literary factory worker. Instead of a V4, it came with the first production V6, a good healthy 2 and 2.5 liter’s worth, (engine sizes varying from 1.8 to 2.5 liters, in 4 different sizes) had a full IRS with a four speed transaxle. This was all employed on the revolutionary new B 10 sedan, which was introduced in 1950 and carried over to the B20 coupe of 1951. But it wasn’t just the mechanical marvels—upon its arrival, the Lancia Aurelia B20 said bravely to the world, “Here I am, and this is what a grand touring car is and should be.” Then, almost immediately, it went out to prove it on both the road and track. In that magazine, Griff Borgeson wrote “The Lancia Aurelia was one of the great classic machines of all time, and it was this car that launched the post war Grand Touring trend….it was also an esthetic success and firmly established the sloping fastback as GT hallmark.”

The coupe body design was a derivative of the Cisitalia school of thought. Lancia historian and author of “Lancia, the Shield and the Flag,” Nigel Trow explains why most B20s did not carry a Pininfarina badge. “The actual designer was Felica Maria Boano, and the first 60 or so cars were built by Ghia and Viotti, working in collaboration. Pininfarina became involved only when volume production was proposed. He was, in effect. sub-contractor.” The later Spider was officially a Pininfarina work, one Battista’s finest, blending American and Italian lines into one beautiful bolide.

Throughout the years, Jano has been credited with many designs, first at Fiat, then Alfa Romeo, and ending his long and prolific career at Lancia. He was always willing to share credit, however, and at Lancia he was assisted by a talented young engineer by the name of Franceso De Virgilio, who at the age of 32 had joined Lancia’s engineering staff. Nor do we want to infer that the Aurelia was the result of only two designers. According to Lancia Aurelia website editor Geoffrey Goldberg, “ we should not overlook the other members of the design team that need to be considered–Ettore Zaccone Mina, test driver Giuseppe Gillio, and Luigi Bosco to name a few. While the roles of these others are not yet clearly defined in Aurelia history, it is likely that all the top engineers worked together in the Aurelia.”

Work on the first post-Vincenzo Lancia began during the war, in 1943, when the staff was safely employed at Padua, miles away from the Turin plant which was being bombed with unerring accuracy by Allied bombers.

Although in charge of the entire project, Jano concentrated on the transaxle, (similar to the one he engineered for the 8C35 Alfa Grand Prix car (see related article), De Virgilio investigated the possibility of a V6 engine, finding an earlier Lancia design to support his case. The problem of imbalances inherent in a V6 had frustrated everyone in the industry. Since producing a 2 liter V8 such as Fiat’s would have worked without the balance problem, designing a V6 was not only an engineering goal, but the young Gianni Lancia, who desperately wanted to measure up to his father, might have seen solving the mysteries of the V6 as a chance to make his mark.

Cracking the V6 code wasn’t easy. A prototype V6 with 1569 cc at 45 degrees was built, and after a few more tries De Virgilio realized that an angle of 60 degrees would work best. According to Geoffrey Goldberg, De Virgilio’s papers show the 60 deg V6 balancing drawing in 1943, and the 538 45 degree engine in 1944, with the first test engine being the 538 in 1945. “That engine, which one could describe as the start of things, was installed in an Aprilia in 1948, and driven around.” The 60 degree engine was likely built in 1949, as it was introduced in 1950.

The narrow angle made it difficult to employ hemispherical combustion chambers, and the valves were placed 90 degrees from the normal position, resulting in a very unusual head design. (see diagram). As usual, to make things more interesting, Lancia historians refer to this design as the ’straight valve’ engine. Says Goldberg, “The valves were originally parallel to the axis of the crankshaft. That would be turned 90 deg from the intake/exhaust direction, but are termed the “straight valve” engines.” Valves at any angle were operated via pushrods from a single camshaft in the center of the block.

The 90 degree setup was later changed to a “skewed angle” for better breathing in the series 2 two liter, and for the 2.5 liter GT engines as well. De Virgilio derived the idea of the skewed valve to increase breathing efficiency. It was implemented first on the Series 2 B20, with a nominal increase of 5 hp, but was used for greater power in the competition cars of the 1952 season. The skewed valve solution is then used in all later B20 and B24 cars. In this instance the valves are no longer each 90 to the head, but at different, “skewed” angles. Notably, the Series 2 engines are unique, and very little is interchangeable from a Series 1 or the last 2.5 liter engines.

All very interesting of course, but the bottom line is that De Virgilio’s engine as applied to the B20 series was made in two displacements, 2 liter and a 2.5 liter. Horsepower ranged from 75 hp in the first series to 118 plus. Carburetion ranged from two single-barrels to one two-barrel carb, while almost every aspect of the engine was changed at one time or another to improve power and torque.

Next, we tackle the mysteries of the Aurelia suspension.

Notes and Credits

For further information on the Aurelia, see Geoff Goldberg’s site,
www.lanciainfo.com

On Wiki there is good information at
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancia_Aurelia_B20

Must see Lancias at
http://www.viva-lancia.com/

There is a U.S. East Coast Lancia Club which is still very active. Walt Spak was originally Parts Manager for Tom Sheehan in the early 1970’s, with Aurelia and Fulvias.

The West Coast and Club President is Steve Peterson in California, with Aurelia, Appia and Lambda knowledge.

Last of the real gearheads. A note from Geoff Goldberg: the Lancia community is a group of people who know and appreciate Lancias. Internationally supportive, they are interested in the cars for their engineering and performance. They are not so oriented to service those whose primariy interests are investments and financial return.

Tagged as: b20 coupe, Lancia, lancia aurelia, lancia b20 lancia suspension, lancia engines