Dr. Howard Moon in his Lancia B20, neither lost nor lonely. Pretty happy in fact. Photographer, time and place unknown. But a nice photo to illustrate Montague's story.
By Montague Gammon III
Hard on the brakes at well over the speed limit in the left lane of Route 13 on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, I spun the wheel of my slightly tatty Plymouth Horizon and screeched into the break in the median strip.
I think I heard curses from the driver of the pickup that had been behind me, as he went on his way after getting his cardio stimulation for the day.
You see, parked in the field across the road was a grey Lancia Aurelia B20 – considered the progenitor of the modern GT car.
OK – not exactly a sports car, but a true classic, meant for sporty driving.
The underside was rusted solid. The farmer who materialized to greet me – I didn’t see from where – told me he would sell it for $1000.
But what would I do with a “project car,’ with no garage on the campus of the boarding school where I worked and lived in Westchester, nor at my parents’ Norfolk (VA) apartment?
I was very far from being motivated enough or skilled enough to do the work myself, and surely not solvent enough to pay anyone else.
So I went on my way, and left a car that is worth a huge multiple of that one grand, even if it remains rusted solid 28 years later.
I needed a car I could drive, albeit chosen for fun. So I’m not kicking myself like I do about other missed automotive opportunities. but I do wonder what happened to the B20. I can’t believe it rusted away – I was surely not the only person driving up the Delmarva Peninsula who would recognize it. I have asked about it through online Lancia bulletin boards, but no one has answered me.
I guess the questions of how it came to be there, and where it went, will remain unanswered until the day I die.
By then I may be the last person in the world who remembers the sight of Pininfarina’s finely sculpted form, subtly curved and grey and graceful, standing alone in a flat plowed field, in the farm land of eastern Virginia.
Montague Gammon III is an Ivy League educated arts writer, auto enthusiast and Henry Manney fan in Norfolk, Virginia. He currently
writes for Veer Magazine, Hampton Roads Magazine, and Examiner.com
Like my B20, I’m glad I (we, Pete) had the cars I did when I did. I couldn’t afford any of them any more. The B20 covered a lot of ground in Italy and California. It was the very best handling car of its era. John Lamm has had it for many years and Phil Hill told him to keep it. Dr. Moon’s car is a curious one. It has Series 5 or 6 wheels, but no windwings like the Series 1-4. Did the first series with the big gearbox, not have windwings yet?
Dr. Howard Moon’s car is a 1956 Aurelia B20 GT series 5 and was the Inskip showroom car in Manhattan. It was originally yellow. I had a wonderful breakfast with Howard just a few weeks ago.
I remember meeting Howard at a New England Lancia Reunion in 1976 when he had his new find there on a trailer. It was very rusty!!!
A long time ago when I was President of the Lancia Club of America, rallyed a flaminia Zagato and enjoyed all things Italian, we as Lancia enthusiasts were definitely on the fringe, and possibly over the edge….we still are and I would bet that to a man (and possibly a few women) we are happy to stay that way. I hope that the great masses never discover just how great Lancia was.
And as far as Howard ( Dr. Moon) is concerned, he may have been the worst ( or best) of us all.
Phil
Well said, Phil.
Larry, the Series 1 is very different. It’s shorter and a little stubbier front & rear–not at all in a bad way, but it completely changes the proportions. And it has a wilder, mid-’50s dash.
The car in question is amazingly still in same area and still unrestored, but the owner has specifically asked me not to give details on many occasions, and I try to honor such agreements with close friends. But it does survive….rest assured, and is in no way beyond repair. How it came to be there, well, that’s a story that will never be answered.
This was brought to my attention on the UK Lancia Club Forum. In my Aurelia Register I have a note from 1977 that Howard Moon owned B20S-1518 with engine B20.4446. This is of course a 6th Series. I wonder if this is the red car illustrated?
Howard also, much later in the 1990s, bought one of a pair of 1950 Coupe Stabilimenti Farina B50s (B50-1253) which Ron Francis here in the UK had bought in London.
I’d be interested to know the whereabouts of both of these cars.
kerrin2006@onetel.com