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Here is the sleeper of the Amelia Island Auctions - 1932 Lancia Dilambda


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Just now, mike6024 said:

Was in damp storage with the rust on the gearshift lever, etc.

 

Makes the restoration that much worse.  Heavier pitting on the chrome,  Hidden rust.   hopefully internals aren't rusted up like gears or shafts.  You wouldn't want to have to start having stuff machined from scratch.  Would probably be pretty tough to find a parts car for to replace anything badly deteriorated. 

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From the side the car looks okay, but that front view is just plain ugly.  The independent front suspension may be innovative, but the lack of  visual frame rails makes it look like someone sawed off the front of the car.  That, combined with a truly uninspired radiator shell, takes the front down to economy car status.  Maybe a front bumper, if there was one, would help, but I doubt it.  About the only attractive view of this car, in my opinion,  is the rear, as I like the squat rear curve of the body and the supports for the trunk.  Just my opinion and I’m sure many might disagree.

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23 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

And then the owner tries to sell it and says, "I need to get all my money back out of it plus a little profit, too."

 

I was looking at a car for sale and the owner wanted to get his money back, make a little profit, AND, since he had borrowed money to buy it, wanted the interest he paid back too!

 

As far as Philistines go, sit down and read Hammurabi's code sometime, if the items in the code were reactionary to what they were doing...... best to leave them out of the conversation. I can't read it without laughing.

 

Bernie

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14 hours ago, mike6024 said:

Was in damp storage with the rust on the gearshift lever, etc.

Yes, appeared that way and rear interior appeared a true mess as a result of that and I am guessing mice  (in really hard to do a preservation car for a period of time and show it for a while).

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I am curious about that thing on the glove box door.

Cant say I have ever seen something like this, what is it for?

If I had to guess, maybe the rich guy in the back could light up instructions to the Chauffer?

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  • 3 weeks later...

OK I'm totally biased here - been around Lancias for all my life, written extensively on them. They were far from crude, in fact, seen at the time as one of the better finished cars from Europe. The Dilambda is a rather unusual beast, big for Lancia (followed by the more well known Astura), one of three V8s they made - all narrow angle, starting with the Trikappa of 1922, the Dilambda in 1929, and then the Astura in 1932. Each had different angles, totally unique motors. The interesting thing of the Dilambda was that it had a special head/cam arrangement - the cam is under the head, which has an open slot down the middle, with  short pushrods to rockers above, allowing one to pull the head, yet leave the cam in place. It was a 24º V, to allow a mono block - note this is the bore angle - the crankshaft in all the Lancia Vs was pushed up in the "V" to make for shorter engines. 

 

I've only seen a few Dilambdas - there is a good running one in NY on Long Island, and then another great sedan in Wales. They are large cars, formidable, and very sturdy. Lancias were all extremely well made, well engineered cars through to the 1970s. The poor American reputation is from the Beta, which came after Lancia had been bought by Fiat, force-fed a Fiat motor to use, and then had to make it in a jillion configurations for Europe: we got an anemic version for pollution reasons. It wasn't straightened out until about 1980, but by then, we had lost patience with the cars. 

 

having said all that, this isn't one that pushes my buttons: huge restoration sink-hole, limited usability, and not quite the most attractive. Glad it found a home. They are substantive cars. 

Edited by GG2 (see edit history)
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lancia%201930%20dilambda-3.jpg

 

52 minutes ago, GG2 said:

to allow a mono block - note this is the bore angle - the crankshaft in all the Lancia Vs was pushed up in the "V" to make for shorter engines. 

 

 

Interesting. I was wondering about that. 

 

So the axes of the cylinder bores would not intersect with the axis of the crankshaft. Or maybe it's better to say the centerlines of the bores do not intersect with the axis of the crankshaft. I would think that would adversely affect performance, and maybe cause greater wear. At TDC would the connecting rods be aligned with the bores?

 

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The journals are offset to have TDC work out nicely. No real issues with wear. Were there issues with excessive vibration? A few of us (two good engineers and one hapless architect) have studied the balancing in detail on all of the V4s. The reality is that most imbalance comes from them being largely an in-line 4, with the secondary forces (common to all 4s) vastly outnumbering the impact of the couples from the slight V. Other benefits were the stiff monoblock and shorter crankshaft (less bending). Same thinking was behind the narrow V6 by VW, the last derivative of this thinking. 
 

The main issue with the narrow V were its unequal inlet tracts, not ideal. VW solved it with injection;  Lancia was largely about torque, not max HP. Although the Fulvia in the late 1960s did well enough in competitions, winning quite a few rallies. 

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Lancia Reprints 1928 2._Page_110 copy 2.jpg

Edited by GG2 (see edit history)
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