Experimental 1951 Lancia Aurelia restoration took 4,000 hours

Introduced in 1950, the progressive Aurelia is a person of the most sought-following Lancia models manufactured following Environment War II. Collectors spend a quality for cars with a documented racing history, and a person-offs created as in-residence experiments are interesting, so it’s no speculate a 1951 coupe that ticked equally containers deserved a four,000-hour restoration.

United Kingdom-dependent store Thornley Kelham explained a wealthy privateer racer named Giovanni Bracco purchased this 1951 Aurelia new in Italy and took it racing almost instantly. It completed next all round in that year’s Mille Miglia, very first at the Caracalla Night time Race, and it earned very first in its class (and twelfth all round) in the 24 Several hours of Le Mans. These had been spectacular final results for the Aurelia, whose main declare to fame was becoming the very first common-creation car outfitted with a V6 engine, but Lancia was no stranger to podium finishes.

Its story took an intriguing flip when it confirmed up at the 1951 edition of the Carrera Panamericana with a markedly lessen roof line. Bracco understood the Lancia family members perfectly, and he arranged to have its major chopped at the manufacturing unit to make it extra aerodynamic. He crashed on the fourth working day of racing, bought it to a Mexican architect, and returned house. It re-appeared at the adhering to year’s Carrera Panamericana and completed ninth right before disappearing. Some speculated it was concealed in America other individuals assumed it experienced been crushed and recycled.

The very first speculation was correct, but proving it was less complicated claimed than finished. The car experienced acquired a redesigned rear conclude Thornley Kelham described as hump-backed and Volkswagen Beetle-like. Some of the primary elements experienced been minimize out and discarded, which manufactured the restoration process exponentially extra tough.

The store fabricated a new, period of time-correct rear conclude employing 3D scans and fiberglass molds. It then painted it black, its primary shade, right before giving it a coat of red, the shade it wore when it was entered in the 24 Several hours of Le Mans, and at last spraying a next coat of black, the shade it was painted in when it raced in the Carrera Panamericana. It was fitted with seats from an Ardea — Lancia’s V4-run entry-stage model — when it raced, so Thornley Kelham sourced a pair and re-trimmed it. Interval-correct lettering included a finishing touch to the restoration.

The V6 engine and the 4-pace handbook transmission had been totally rebuilt. All explained to, resurrecting this a person-of-a-type Aurelia required four,000 hrs of perform spread out over a 3-yr period of time.

“Many years of modifications and misuse manufactured this maybe a person of the most challenging restorations we’ve ever finished,” explained Simon Thornley, co-founder of Thornley Kelham, in a statement. The store is at present working on a undertaking that appears to be even extra ambitions than reviving the Lancia. It’s in the process of bringing a 1930 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 purchased new and raced by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini back to lifetime following many years of neglect.