The 1923 - 1931 Lancia Lambda open up the unit trunk method of railroad car construction which today is used by the majority of automobiles .
" No one can look at the chronicle of motoring without view the Lancia Lambda as a major expert milepost , " write the late Michael Frostick . " Leaving aside its novel engine , its independent suspension , and a whole emcee of other pocket-sized innovations , its unique unitary construction , in which soundbox and frame were one , came a unspoilt ten years before Mr. Budd succeed in sell his idea for a monocoque to Andre Citroen . "
incisively where Vincenzo Lancia , that superb pioneer , buzz off the idea of a unit organic structure - flesh is unknown . The only tale commonly replicate is that it gleam aboard ship on the Atlantic , maybe from the way a ship ’s hull holds its anatomical structure together – which is probably about as true as the one about Isaac Newton and the apple .
No matter , for the fact is that on the last day of 1918 Lancia filed for Italian patents on a railway car in which the body was " a self - bear out cuticle without a separate physique , " and had it in product four class by and by . If the Lambda represent a terrible risk on the part of his society , it also emphasized Lancia ’s clean - slate overture to design .
One of his objective was an extremely down in the mouth center of gravity while retaining decent ground clearance and suspension movement . Such a layout precluded the conventional freestanding material body and body as known at the time . Lancia adopted a weld and riveted brand shell with a central open - bottom tunnel for the driveshaft and another tunnel at correct Angle to it for the rearward axle , which simultaneously strengthened the overall shell .
The tunnels in turn allowed for low - mounted hind end , and footwells plan so that the stern cushions could rest even miserable . The shell was made substantial by poke out the sides upwards – with the smallest possible door – to form the eubstance , while a removable hardtop provided weather protection and more rigidity .
The independent front suspension was a slip pillar system with a transverse foliage bound ; the engine a narrow , long - chance event V-4 of 2.1 liters prepare 49 HP . The first Lambdas had three - focal ratio gearbox , but a four - speed was developed in 1925 .
For more on the 1923 Lancia Lambda , proceed to the next page .
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1923 Lancia Lambda
Displayed at the Paris Auto Salon in November 1922 , the 1923 Lancia Lambda was instantly recognized as a young approaching to cars . " Even those with no engineering interests had only to look at it to know that it was dissimilar , " write Lancia historian Nigel Trow . " It was low and angular , with a quality of unity , of being ' all of a piece . ' It face deliberate , something that was designed from lettuce by a squad that know precisely what was want . The railroad car was a full departure from all previous practice . "
Of course , not everything about the railcar was new , but sure as shooting nobody else clapped so many innovation onto one model . The locomotive engine , for example , was unprecedented : a V-4 banked at a midget 13 - stage slant ( afterward 14 degrees ) , with a flat cylinder - head face and combustion chambers in the pulley-block . Nobody had ever seen anything like it .
The hoagie torso , with pontoon or sweeping cycle fenders , face more like a notional doodle than a production 1923 automobile . The pasture brake , to cite another attribute , maneuver on all four wheels . design by engineer Battista Falchetto , they were unorthodox in the extreme : established manufacture at that clock time tend to dictate rear brake system only .
This was , apropos , an example of Vincenzo Lancia ’s standards governing the car ’s development – he merely told his engineers that the brake , whatever they were , must be capable of hale the automobile down repeatedly from 100 kilometers per hour ( 62.5 mph ) . Falchetto suggest the usance of front brake by have Lancia for a examination drive in which the standard was met by a gondola fitted with front brakes only . Only later was it realized that front brake do 80 percent of the work on any motorcar .
The Lambda was quicker over a winding road than anything Lancia had hitherto grow , including the big Tri Kappa , an eight with twice the horsepower . It was soon being raced by privateer all over Europe . In 1924 , the Lambdas of Riva and Gauderman finished 1 - 2 in the under 2,500 - ml class in France ’s Routes Pavees race ; another Lambda won the Indian Tourist Trophy at Simla in 1925 ; the Circuit of La Spezia in 1926 ; the Tunis - to - Tripoli backwash in 1927 .
When Italy ’s noted opened road race , the Mille Miglia , was found in 1927 , a trio of Lancias took the first three place overall . The adopt class see a Lambda entered by the factory , which prepared it merely by fine tune a product exemplar ; it held 2d shoes most of the way and would have polish off secondly to a more knock-down supercharged Alfa Romeo had the railway locomotive not send away a valve toward the finish .
Gismondi , the Lambda driver , actually have the Alfa in average speed , thanks to Lancia ’s superior brakes , handling , farseeing - range fuel army tank , and modified fuel supplying to prevent fuel starvation when ascending the mountains .
To follow the Lancia Lambda account to 1931 , continue to the next page .
1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931 Lancia Lambda
Over the output of 13,000 1923 , 1924 , 1925 , 1926 , 1927 , 1928 , 1929 , 1930 , 1931 Lancia Lambdas in nine serial through 1931 , the specification evolved step by step . Displacement was increase to 2.4 liters on the 1926 seventh series and to 2.6 liters on the 1928 eighth series . Also with the 7th series , Lancia parted with its radical pattern by offering the alternative of a freestanding shape – a product of necessity and the pressing of usage coachbuilder .
The body Almighty had a complaint that would trail every unit of measurement - bodied car from the Lambda forward : The monocoque shell was very difficult to alter , and there was only so much the specialists could do with the manufacturing plant bodies . ( One of the garish complaint came from Vincenzo Lancia ’s good friend , Battista Farina . )
Also , some owners wanted to produce more sporting bodywork for competition ; this often postulate the shape of shortening the wheelbase , which could not have been more disastrous . The adjustment bankrupt the treatment and in earnest weakened the body .
So the Lambda had a problem . coincident with its arrival had total a wave of prosperity in the mid- to former Twenties . There was a huge market for customs duty bodies , and this meant that a separate frame option was crucial . " This is perhaps why enthusiast lay so much store by the 7th serial Lambda , " wrote Frostick , " since this was the last , and most extremely developed variation , of the original fascinating concept . "
These later custom - bodied Lambdas led in metre to the factory ’s own luxury model , the Dilambda , with a V-8 and freestanding form , independent front suspension , servomechanism brakes , central chassis lubrication , and twin electric fuel pumps . Lancia build 1,700 Dilambdas ; they in bend fostered other celebrated production , including the prewar Astura and the postwar Flaminia .
See the next page to find specifications for the 1923 - 1931 Lancia Lambda .
1923-1931 Lancia Lambda Specifications
The 1923 - 1931 Lancia Lambda was an innovative motorcar , the first to use unit - dead body construction and front brakes , which were much more effective at stopping the railcar than rear brakes . Find specifications for the 1923 - 1931 Lancia Lambda below :
Engines:
Transmission:
Construction : Unit body
hiatus , front : Sliding - pillar , transverse leafage spring
interruption , rearward : Solid axle , parallel oval-shaped leaf bounce
Brakes:4 - wheel mechanically skillful , rear roulette wheel handbrake
Wheelbase ( in.):122.0 ( by and by 135.01 )
Weight ( pounds):1,720
Top focal ratio ( mph):72 - 78
Production:12,530 or 12,999 ( depending upon source )
