Sold out!
Lancia Aurelia Technical Sketches
Price: $100.00
Pages: 144 glossy pages
Dimensions: 8.25″ x 11.75″
Description: Shipping and Handling are FREE.
Long-time Lancia enthusiasts are very aware of a strange anomaly in the production of the famous Aurelia. It seems the factory failed to print a tech manual for the car! Therefore the critical data sheets with complete specs for the mechanical components were never available to the owners, or plain old mechanics.
Data sheets, however, were produced but only sent to official Lancia dealers, and together the sheets served as a tech manual. According to Geoff Goldberg, “They were issued typically in numerical sequence, in Italian and also sometimes in other languages. They date from about the early 1950’s all the way into the 1960’s. Their numbering system is elusive, and their issuance was probably on an as-needed basis.” Furthermore, says Goldberg, “Finding them is not easy. To my knowledge, no one has a complete run of these.” (Goldberg is a world expert on the Aurelia and now just finishing up a new book on Lancia’s De Virgilio, to be published next year by David Bull. If you think you can add any information or photos, here’s the website: http://lanciainfo.com/Lancia_Info/De_Virgilio_book.html.)
Therefore, at face value, it is hard to imagine why this collection of factory Data Sheets, exquisitely reproduced in a 8.25 x 11.75 softbound book, is so unusual and so highly priced. Aurelia owners, realizing the rarity and value (not to mention restoration shops) breathed a sigh of relief when James Steerman first published the amazing number of Data Sheets he had accumulated over the years. Says Goldberg, “The last list I knew of was compiled by Yale Braunstein in the 1970’s. James has gone beyond this and found some previously unknown sheets.”
A superb third series Aurelia warrants the best restoration possible. Photo courtesy Geoff Goldberg.
Trying to restore an Aurelia without the numbers would be a bit of a challenge; lack of correct clearances might result in a noisy engine, over-tightened heads, improper float levels, or a seized transaxle. Getting things right is in the details, the details are the numbers and absolutely correct measurements.
Then Steerman put them together in what must be one of the most attractive tech pubs ever printed, far too nice to be taken to the garage and perused by greasy fingers.
Left, the B10 electrical diagram, and at right the crank specs for the B19-B20s.
According to Steerman, The Lancia Aurelia Technical Sketches, issued by Lancia & Company to authorized service facilities throughout the 1950, are extremely rare and unknown to most Lancia enthusiasts and Aurelia owners. “The set reproduced here was assembled over 42 years by dedicated Lancia collectors Jim and James Steerman; the sheets were collected from dozens of sources in Europe, the United States, South America and Australia, with many coming directly from the Lancia-related paper archives of Hoffman Motors, the U.S. Lancia Importer of the 1950s, which they purchased in the 1970s.
And, how about these data sheets, with the Aurelia body sections identified?
Steerman also told us that most sketches were issued in both Italian and English versions; where possible both have been included. Many were issued in several revised versions and where possible, the last corrected versions were used throughout. The sketches relate to all of the Aurelias, but are particularly concentrated on the 2500cc B20 Coupes and B24 Spider and Convertible.
Overall, Steerman’s compilation of The Lancia Aurelia Technical Sketchesconsists of 144 pages of individual data sheets, ranging from electrical diagrams to crank, piston, and cam engine data sheets, to suspension and brakes as well. Not the entire car, but probably more than you’ll ever find elsewhere. Note that there are no photos of Lancias as such, even though we’ve included one in this review; these are all tech sheets!
We noted the lack of an index…but we also know that 33 degree Aurelia people will be able to zoom in on the the desired pages in a heartbeat. Steerman offers that since there was never an index in the first place….so why now.
VeloceToday will handle the sale of these incredible books for Mr. Steerman, so you can order directly from us and he will ship your copy directly to you. The price is $100 each and shipping is included. There are roughly 40 copies available, so act quickly; supply is truly limited!
Jim & James…You two epitomize the heart & soul of what it is to be a true Lanciste!!
I have had James Steerman’s book since it came out, and it is a beautiful production. It does not include every AST Sketch which covers Aurelias, but all the main ones, and as he said to me, you have to stop somewhere regarding cost and time. There are also one or two strange omissions in the available Sketches which do not yet seem to have emerged into the daylight.
I have a good collection of these Sketches, but there are many gaps, which I would love to fill. They cover pre-war models and commercials as well as production cars. The earliest I have is No. 22 from 1946 on the Aprilia engine. The latest is No. 1556 from 1970 on the Fulvia Saloon with the eery title “Water seepages in the car interior”!
I think I have only seen the AST Sketches in Italian (no suffix to the number) and in English (I suffix to the number = Inglese!), but this does not mean they were not made in French, German, Spanish/Portugese – something to be confirmed.
In 1970 the AST Sketches were superceded by the DICO/SAT Technical Data sheets which were published as the blue covered Technical data Books for Flavia, Fulvia, 2000 & Beta.
There was also a series of documents called “ISTRUZIONE REPARAZIONE” (I.R.) of which I have a few. One of these covers the overhaul of the Aurelia/Appia front suspension. The others are needed in the open!
There were Tool Catalogues, and later on “Time Service Schedules” detailing all the service and overhaul jobs and analysed in the delightful measurement of “centesimal minutes” (100ths of an hour) along with continuous updates to all these types of document. That’s aside from all the wonderful Spare Parts Catalogues and Instructions for Drivers, let alone the Sales Brochures!
I have all the relevant Aurelia Sketches in my “Lancia Aurelia Workshop Manual” and in producing this over many years I have retyped all of these Sketches so that they are much easier to read. They can be obtained from me as can the Manual.
Lancia publications are a fascinating field of study in themselves, as Geoff Goldberg and myself amongst many others have found. The company started with sales and technical literature right from the beginning and usually at a very high standard.
Paul Mayo
PS: I do have a list of all the Sketches I know about – over 500 of them and therefore probably less than a third, if they were all published up to around No. 1560.
Paul
Addingh on to Paul’s notes, I too have a very large collection of these technical sheets covering the Aurelia and Appia as well as Lancia commercial vehicles, as well as parts catalogues, time sheets, brochures, press releases, new model information and mycrofysche sheets, etc.
I reproduced the Aurelia parts catalogue for 4th, 5th and 6th series as well as the B24 versions. They are available from me in Australia.
Email me if you are interested. They are in Italian only.
I also have a the early parts catalogue which I am prepared to reprint if there is sufficient interest.
Very nice. Perhaps another run is in order? It seems to be a needed item and there is some demand. A very interesting model from a truly great marque, I’m sure many would like to know more about it.
I would be interested having a copy “Lancia AureliaTechnical Sketches”; how to proceed?
Thanky and happy 2014!
Joachim