[SOLD] Lancia Flaminia Supersport

The Lancia Flaminia Zagato Sport brought together two of the oldest and most respected names in the Italian motor industry. The resulting combination, particularly in the Super Sport form offered here – the final development of the model – is a fitting tribute to both companies. Zagato became famous from the 1920s for building elegant, lightweight sporting bodies, most often seen on six and eight cylinder supercharged Alfa Romeos and again, after the war, on competition versions of Alfa Romeo, Maserati and occasionally Ferrari chassis. Zagato bodied cars have become keenly sought after by collectors both sides of the Atlantic. It is said of Lancia, one of the oldest and most respected names in the car industry since 1907, that they never built a bad car. Throughout Lancia’s long and successful history until the late 1960s innovation, lightness, outstanding engineering and manufacturing quality were the watchwords. During this long period Lancia ranked well ahead of all other Italian manufacturers for these qualities, despite being overshadowed by the competition successes of Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari. Excellence in road car design and manufacture was Lancia’s objective but it showed in the mid ’50s with its revolutionary D24 sports racers and D50 Grand Prix cars that when it chose it could compete on equal terms with pure racing cars, rivalling even the mighty Mercedes-Benz in 1955 and winning the world Grand Prix championship in 1956. The Lambda and Aprilia models before the war and the Aurelia in the 1950s were the transport of captains of industry, film stars, racing drivers and connoisseurs of fine engineering. The Aurelia saloon, introduced in 1949, rapidly developed into the beautiful two-door B20 Coupe first with 2-litre then 2.5-litre engines. The Aurelia coupe, the fastest road car of its day on twisty mountain roads, featured many innovations including the world’s first lightweight all aluminium V6 engine and a rear mounted transaxle gearbox with inboard drum brakes, the complete car weighing barely 1000 kilos. Many competition successes followed, including famously, second overall with a 2-litre car in the 1951 Mille Miglia only minutes behind Taruffi’s wining 4.1-litre Ferrari and first, second and third overall in the 1952 Targa Florio. The Flaminia, introduced in 1959, has until recently lived in the shadow of the Aurelia and been relatively under appreciated. The Flaminia is essentially a development of the Aurelia for the 1960s and in almost every respect an improvement. The V6 engine was re-designed to provide greater smoothness, reliability, power and torque and to accept triple twin choke carburettors; more head studs, a greater bearing area, an efficient oil cooling system and improved combustion efficiency were all significant improvements. The transaxle was improved and strengthened and now incorporated synchromesh on first as well as the upper three ratios. Four wheel, servo assisted, twin circuit disc brakes were incomparably better than the Aurelia’s drum brakes and were far superior to the brakes on almost any other road car of the period. They still provide excellent braking even by today’s standards. By the early ’60s rival manufacturers were making more powerful and lighter cars than the Flaminia but despite this Flaminia Zagatos notched up some notable successes, winning the 2500 GT class in the Targa Florio in 1961, 1962 and 1963 and also winning their class in the 1961 Mille Miglia. Lancia took extraordinary care in the manufacturing of the Flaminia – transaxles were run up by electric motors for half an hour to check their complete silence in operation, all engines were dyno tested and each car was road tested for two/three hours before being passed as fit for delivery to the customer. The Zagato Sport body work, first introduced in 1959, was mounted on a shortened version of the Flaminia chassis with typical Zagato weight saving and aerodynamic features, the cars weighing only around 1300 kgs, despite their very strong mechanical construction. By 1962 the 3c variant with triple, twin choke Weber carburettors was introduced leading to the final Super Sport version, as offered here, with 2.8-litre engine, larger 40 DCN Webers, 152 bhp and much improved torque, as well as a re-styling of the body by Ercole Spada (well known as the designer of the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato) and a truncated Kamm tail. The Super Sport was capable of over 210 kph, with its close ratio gearbox giving speeds of 70, 90 and 160 kph in the gears. Lancia were so confident of the engine’s reliability that there was no red line on the rev counter which reads to over 6,500 rpm! This car, beautifully presented in dark grey with red leather interior, comes from the stable of a well known European Lancia collector. No effort or cost has been spared to bring it to peak mechanical condition over the last eighteen months. Work recently carried out for over £25,000 by well known specialists, Jim Stokes Workshops Limited and Omicron Engineering Limited, includes a complete overhaul of the brakes, front suspension, carburettors, dynamo, starter motor and electrics with original new parts fitted as necessary. Five new original size and pattern Pirelli Cinturato tyres and a new fuel pump and battery have been fitted. This is an opportunity which seldom occurs to purchase an outstanding example of this very rare car – only 150 Flaminia Zagato Super Sports were made.

Tags:Flaminia, Norfolk, Supersport, United Kingdom, Zagato