1906 –2006: 100 Years of Lancia

This evening, the Lancia Turin International Meeting centenary event organised by Lancia Club Italia inaugurates the exhibition held at the “Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia” national automobile museum as a tribute to Vincenzo Lancia, celebrating 100 years of the marque. The evening event will be attended by six hundred collectors, who have to come to Turin especially for the celebrations and who will be parading their cars through the streets of the city centre tomorrow.

The exhibition in honour of Vincenzo Lancia, devised by the museum director Rodolfo Gaffino Rossi, retraces the century of history of the marque. The models on display – from the museum collection and on loan from private collectors – represent different landmarks in Lancia history, with examples such as the 1914 Theta, the 1919 Kappa, the 1922 Trikappa and the celebrated 1928 Lambda. Other models include the 1958 Aurelia B24 Convertibile, made famous by the film “Il Sorpasso” by Dino Risi (“The Easy Life” in America), while the marque’s racing successes are represented by the 1953 D24, a piece of sophisticated automotive engineering and the star of the Carrera Panamericana of the same year. The exhibition concludes with the 1980s, with the 1983 LC2 Group C rally car and the 1988 Delta HF Integrale Safari that won the world rally championship twice in succession. The exhibition will remain open until 26 November.

Doing the honours for the marque this evening is brand manager Olivier François, who has this comment about the centenary celebration: “This is the end of a very important week for us, in which, in Venice and Turin, we have celebrated the first hundred years of Lancia and laid down the first steps for the next hundred years. The exhibition at the Biscaretti museum and the Lancia collectors’ meeting are a significant acknowledgement for the city where, in 1906, Lancia was born.”

Tomorrow will see the official conclusion of the Lancia Turin International Meeting with a parade through the historic city centre of all the cars taking part in the Turin rally. After a week of regularity trials at the La Mandria circuit and visits to the historical city centre and castle of Saluzzo, the Margherie in the Racconigi park, the castle of Venaria, the Stupinigi Palazzina di Caccia, the Mirafiori production plant and the Fiat research centre, the 300 cars participating in the celebrations will conclude their adventure in the streets and squares of Turin’s historical city centre. The cars will be setting off at 9:00 am from the Palazzo dell’Arsenale to parade through the city and arrive, at 10:30 am, at Piazza San Carlo.

The cars will travel in six groups of no more than fifty cars each along the following route: Corso Matteotti, Corso Galileo Ferraris, Corso Stati Uniti, Corso IV Novembre, the stadium(recalling the recent Olympics), Corso Traiano, Corso Maroncelli, Corso Unità d'Italia, the upper level of Corso Dogliotti (not through the tunnel), Corso Massimo d'Azeglio, Corso Vittorio, Corso Cairoli, Piazza Vittorio, Via Po, Piazza Castello, Via Roma and Piazza San Carlo.

The cars will remain parked in Piazza San Carlo for the whole day.

In the afternoon, fifty cars will be selected from the 300 exhibited in Piazza San Carlo, thirty of which will parade in front of a panel of experts, who will select the best ten of the meeting.

Giorgio Formini, Lancia Club Italia president, was particularly pleased with the results of the Turin event: “I would like to thank General Armando Novelli, Commander of the Army Academy of Military Applications and Studies in the eighteenth Century arsenal for his invaluable assistance, without which it would not have been possible to gather these 360 cars from collections in eighteen countries, including Japan, South Africa, the United States and New Zealand. We have given our guests the opportunity to experience the historical city centre of Turin and the Piedmont area, thus promoting Turin’s unique culture, which is different from, yet equally as important as its internationally acknowledged automotive heritage.

This has been a world class event, with so many participants, and an event that testifies to the affection that the Lancia brand enjoys worldwide.”

Lancia Club Italia is a national and legally recognised brand register, and the holder of the Lancia historical register with the approval of Fiat Auto. The club, founded in 1972, officially represents the historical and collection aspects of the Lancia brand, and currently counts 1200 members, with over 2000 registered cars.

Turin, September 8, 2006