1955 Lancia Aurelia Spider America Roadster (Series 5)

In the 1950s, Lancia was famous for its superb engineering, and the Lancia Aurelia performed well on both the road and the track. The American market needed a convertible though, and the Spider America was the answer. The car was styled by Pinin Farina specifically for the United States, but a mere 240 Aurelia B24 Spider Americas were made as production was limited by the capacity of the new Pinin Farina factory, which built the entire body/chassis unit.

The Aurelia was built in six series through 1958. An open version of the model was introduced at the Brussels Motor Show in January of 1955 with the debut of the B24 Spider America. It was based on the concurrent fourth-series cars and utilized a purpose-built chassis that was 200 millimeters shorter than the standard Aurelia GT. It had an independent suspension and transaxle from the B24, though engine displacement was further increased to just over 2.5 liters.

Nardi offered a factory-specified manifold conversion which boosted power even further.

One hundred eighty-one examples of the B24 spider were specified as the B24S, the 'S' (for sinestra, Italian for 'left') denoting left-hand drive.

This particular example lay domiciled on a Central California coastal estate for several decades before being re-discovered and restored. It was acquired by Olof Anderson in February of 1980, who eventually endeavored to restore the Spider American, and partially disassembled the car to that end. The Aurelia sat in a dismantled state until the late 2000s. In 2009, it was acquired by Mark Sange of Bolinas, California. In November 2009, Sange sold the unrestored spider to its current caretaker, who immediately began a full restoration.

The car was repainted in the correct color of light grey. The interior was re-done in proper red leather, completing a factory-authentic color combination that originally accounted for 61 cars.

The work was completed in July of 2012, and it was then presented at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, where it was awarded 2nd in class in the Postwar Sports Open category.