1932 Lancia Dilambda

Vincenzo Lancia (1881-1937) was the youngest child of a wealthy Turin soup manufacturer. At an early age, he displayed a passion for automobiles and earned his racing victory at Padua in July 1990. Between then and 1908, he had a number of competition successes, including winning the 1904 Coppa Florio. His decade-long racing career was brief but he amassed a total of 19 outright and class victories.

Vincenzo Lancia worked as FIAT's chief test driver and Chief Inspector (at the age of 19) before founding his own company in 1906. He was a gifted automobile engineer and the early Lancia cars quickly demonstrated independence of thought and a departure from conventional design. His first car, called the 18/24 Lancia, was ready in time for trials in February 1907. Before it left the workshop, a fire destroyed the car, tools, and all the drawings. Starting over from scratch, a second car was ready seven months later. Sixteen cars were built in 1907, and approximately 120 the following year with body styles that included a double phaeton, landaulet, and limousine. The first Lancia was known as the 12 hp, but the second model which had a larger engine of 3,120cc, was dubbed the Beta, starting the company's long association with letters of the Greek alphabet.

Along with automobiles, Lancia soon built lorries, vans, military vehicles, and aero engines, the latter endowing Lancia with valuable expertise in the design and construction of vee-configuration engines. The V8 Trikappa sportscar of 1922 was the company's first vee-engined model, and the third was the Dilambda of 1929. Making its debut at the Paris Salon, it used a separate chassis, unlike the previous model, the Lambda V4, which employed a stress-bearing body. The single overhead cam V8 engine - a development of the Trikappa of 1922 - displaced 3,960cc, breathed through a single carburetor, had cylinder banked at a 24-degree angle, and developed 100 horsepower at 4,000 RPM. There was a four-speed manual transmission, four-wheel mechanical drum brakes, a Sliding Pillar independent front suspension, and a live rear axle. Depending on coachwork, the Dilambda was capable of 85 mph. The Dilambda's received a wide variety of luxurious custom-crafted bodies by the era's finest artisans. Pininfarina bodied the majority of Dilambda's, as Vincenzo Lancia was himself a minority stakeholder in the firm.

Production continued until 1935 with 1,685 examples built.

by Daniel Vaughan | May 2020