Valerio Moretti – 1986-Autocritica – Rome – Italian text - 100 pages, 110 B/W illustrations, hardbound. Available from Motorbooks Italiano, $32.40 plus shipping. To order [click here]

August 8, 2002
Reviewed by Ed McDonough

The market outside Italy for Italian language books remains small, but every time I wander through the arcades in central Torino where the second hand book dealers sell their wares, I always come away with something that I struggle to read but love for the pure Italian feel of it.and for the evocative photos, many of which never get seen anywhere else.

La Scommessa Di Gianni Lancia -- or, literally, The Bet of Gianni Lancia -- is such a book. First published in 1986, Moretti’s close examination of the little known role of Gianni Lancia in the direct development of the Lancia Tipo D sports cars and the D50 Grand Prix cars evokes one of the most creative periods in Italian automotive engineering, when craftsmanship and creative imagination brought to life some of the most beautiful and functional vehicles ever.

Enzo Ferrari to the left of the car at rear with Jano just after taking the D50s from Lancia.

Lancia and his mother Adele, widow of Vicenzo, ran the company for many years, but their significance, particularly in engineering terms, is played down, not surprisingly, because the presence of Vittorio Jano tended to gain historians’ attention. Nevertheless, Gianni himself was largely responsible for not only the Lancia racing success in the post-war period, but contributed to much of the design and development work personally. This book considers these contributions as well as providing an insight into the racing organisation, where such huge characters as Alberto Ascari, Felice Bonetto, Juan Fangio, Eugenio Castellotti, Gigi Villoresi and Luigi Fagioli and Piero Taruffi were the regular team members.

Alberto Ascari leads the Lancia team before the start of the 1954 Mille Miglia.

Moretti traces the development of the successful race machines from the Aurelia B20 through the D20, 23 and 24 through to the D50 Grand Prix car, that great racing icon with twin fuel panniers mounted between the wheels, and he investigates the way in which the team as well as the cars developed under Gianni Lancia’s guidance. Thus when it all came to an end in July, 1955 following Ascari’s tragic death in a Ferrari test accident, the Lancia family empire crumbled. The ‘bet’ -- the ‘scommessa’-- which Lancia felt he could win to construct a vast racing empire was both won and lost. The cars had great success but the company failed, having spent a fortune getting there. The human and industrial tragedy is fascinating, and the faces of the central characters come hauntingly out of the period photos. There are two great shots of Enzo Ferrari with his new ‘toy’ the D50 just days after the cars were turned over to him, and there is Jano, having gone to Ferrari too. The Gianni Lancia days were clearly over.

Ed McDonough in Ascari colors at the Silver Flag hillclimb in Italy in the Lancia D50 recreation.