Check out the epic restoration of this unique barn-find Lancia Aurelia

That’s quite some transformation!

Once raced at Le Mans and the Mille Miglia, this 1951 Lancia Aurelia B20GT Series I was thought to be lost forever.

But once discovered in the US, now white and looking like it was held together with rope, this one-off Aurelia was shipped back to the UK where its transformation, by specialist company Thornley Kelham, began.

However the car’s story starts back in 1951, when it was bought new by Giovanni Bracco, a wealthy privateer racing driver and associate of Gianni Lancia himself.

Mere days later, Bracco and this Aurelia took the racing world by storm.

The sweet taste of victory

In the space of just three months, Bracco steered this Lancia to second overall on the Mille Miglia and first in class at the Le Mans 24 Hours, plus he took victory on the Caracalla Night Race.

This was followed by a win at the Pescara Six-Hour Race. Sadly, Bracco crashed it on that year’s Carrera Panamericana; the car came ninth in class in ’52, with its new owner at the wheel.

Thereafter, little is known of its history.

There’s nothing like it

So, what makes this Aurelia unique?

Its lowered roofline, that’s what. News reports of the time stated that this car’s sleek shape was a trial by Lancia in a bid to improve the car’s aerodynamic performance.

On finding the car, its provenance had to be proved. The engine and chassis plates were checked, filled in holes in the bonnet matched up to bonnet straps fitted in period, plus there was a lever beside the passenger seat, an internal system for adjusting the rear suspension, which was said to have been fitted to this car.

The road to recovery

The plan was to bring this unique classic car back to life, looking just as it did when it took the start of the 1951 Carrera Panamericana with Bracco at the wheel, preserving as much of its originality as possible.

And the first task was fixing the strange ‘Americanisation’, a ‘lead sled’ conversion that had been done in the late 1950s or early ’60s, in which the rear ’screen, boot and part of the rear wings of an unknown car had been attached to the B20GT.

Rear of the year

There was only one thing for it – remove the whole back end and make a new one.

That’s no small undertaking, and involved 3D scanning and the use of glassfibre moulds.

At the same time, the body was made structurally sound, which with most of the original floor missing, was another huge task.

Paint it black

Now, the Aurelia was black when it started the 1951 Carrera Panamericana, so that’s what the team should’ve painted it during this restoration, right?

Well, yes. But, to do it properly and to pay tribute to the car’s history, it wasn’t quite that simple.

Attention to detail

In period, this Lancia, B20-1010, started black.

Then, as was traditional for Italian cars, it was painted red for Le Mans, then it was painted black once more before taking the start of the Carrera Panamericana.

Therefore during its restoration, it was once more painted black, then red, then black, before the signwriting was applied to recreate the ’51 Panamericana look.

The beating heart

After so many years left unloved, every aspect of this unique classic required expert attention, including its V6 engine.

Indeed, this engine is notable in itself, because the Aurelia was the first passenger car ever to be fitted with an engine of this configuration.

Grand designs

With a lot of the interior unrecognisable this is another area that demanded a lot of time, work and research, using images from that 1951 Carrera Panamericana to ensure the retrim was exacting.

In all, the team at Thornley Kelham invested more than 4000 hours and over three years in this amazing project.

It’s been a long journey

But there was no way this car could’ve been left as found, surely?

With its one-off experimental roofline and fantastic competition pedigree, it is a small but important chapter in the history of the great Italian marque.

Period perfect

And now complete, this Aurelia is a reminder of Bracco’s ambitions and motorsport exploits.

It is also a tremendous tribute to the skills of those involved in returning this car to its 1951 specification.

The trigger

And that’s not all. Because this car has also inspired Thornley Kelham to create a limited-run of cars called the Aurelia ‘Outlaw’.

Nine will be built in total, all with a lowered roofline, just like B20-1010.

Taking it up a gear

The nine ‘Outlaw’ Aurelias differ from Bracco’s car due to upgrades including a bored-out fuel-injected Flaminia engine, modern disc brakes and a nitrogen-filled front suspension.

But like the Bracco car, these are all unique, each designed, inside and out, according to its owner’s wishes.

History repeating?