Lancia
Lancia
LANCIA APRILLA (1937-39)
4-door saloon, 6-light saloon, cabriolet, sports tourer.
One of the most advanced cars built by a European manufacturer in the thirties, the standard saloon had all round independent suspension (by transverse leaf and torsion bars at the rear, pillar type at the front), utilised unitary construction and had an ohc narrow V4 engine producing 46bhp. Good for 80mph in standard form, it stopped as well (hydraulic brakes as standard) and handled superbly. Electrics (6-volt) are a bit dated though, and there's still a hypoid final drive. A separate platform type chassis was available for all the bodies except the unitary four door saloon; wheelbase was 1121/2ins compared to the saloon's 1081/4ins. 1939 models had detail improvements and an enlarged (1486cc) engine, but only first series cars with 1352cc engine were imported into the UK.