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Jay Leno Drives the 1930 Lancia Dilambda, Compares It to an Iconic Bentley

Set to make a comeback as an EV brand, Lancia is now a pathetic sight with only one vehicle, the Fiat 500-based Ypsilon, in showrooms. But it wasn't always like that. Back in the day, Lancia built some of the most beautiful automobiles out there, as well as a long list of successful race cars.
1930 Lancia Dilambda 8 photos
Photo: Jay Leno's Garage/YouTube
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Some of them made headlines on both the road and the race track, including the Stratos, Delta, and Fulvia, while the Aurelia Spider would steal the show at any classic car event, no matter the competition.

Lancia also won no fewer than seven World Rally Championship titles (six with the Delta) and dominated the Under 2-Liter division of the World Sportscar Championship from 1979 to 1981. In 1956, Juan Manuel Fangio won the Formula One title in a Scuderia Ferrari-run Lancia D50.

And on top of that, Lancia built quite a few innovative cars in its early days. The 1913 Theta was the first European car to feature a complete electrical system, while the 1922 Lambda debuted the first independent front suspension that incorporated the spring and hydraulic damper into a single unit.

It was also the first major Italian automaker to produce V8 engines. Lancia's first narrow-angle V8 was introduced in 1922 and found its way into three luxury automobiles until 1939. The 1930 Dilambda you see here is one of those cars.

Launched in 1928 as a successor to the Trikappa, the company's first V8 automobile, the Dilambda arrived with a 4.0-liter mill rated at 100 horsepower and a four-speed manual gearbox. Production lasted until 1935 and included three separate series that spawned about 1,685 units. Body styles included four-door sedans and cabriolets, but many were also sent to coachbuilders as rolling chassis, as was customary at the time.

The two-tone first-series example you see here has quite an interesting story to tell. Shipped to England in the 1930s, it was damaged during World War II and went missing until 1970. It was rebuilt after it was found and soldiered on for a few more decades before it was restored by the current owner.

Come 2022 and this Dilambda remains a coach-built car that's notably different than its standard siblings. While it still retains its Italian underpinnings, it looks more like a 1930 English automobile. And according to Jay Leno, it also drives like one. The former TV show host compares the Dilambda to the Bentley 4 Litre cars of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

So how rare is this car? Well, the first-series Dilambda included 1,104 units, which isn't all that scarce compared to other iconic cars from the era. However, since many of them were destroyed or scrapped during and after World War II, it's a rare sight in Europe and pretty much impossible to find in the U.S. And of course, being a coach-built automobile, this specific Dilambda is a one-off. But you can find out more about it in the video below.

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About the author: Ciprian Florea
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Ask Ciprian about cars and he'll reveal an obsession with classics and an annoyance with modern design cues. Read his articles and you'll understand why his ideal SUV is the 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer.
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