Mystery Solved: As Found Classic Number 13

Lancia Astura is the car, but what was the location? Italy? Maybe.

Thanks to Dale Lafollette of VintageMotorphoto for these photos of a Lancia. Clearly it is an Astura, and thanks to Paolo Giusti and Geoffrey Goldberg, we even know some of the history of this particular car. But what we didn’t know was where these photos were taken, by whom, or exactly when or who owned it at the time.

In the mid-1950s, when these photos were taken, the Lancia was apparently in Indiana or at least licensed in that state. Thanks to our astute readers, we now know where this rare Lancia was photographed and thanks to Jim Sitz, the probable owners at the time.

Reader Don Toms wrote:
The photo of the Lancia Astura near the Romanesque columns was taken at the Thomas Taggart Memorial in Riverside Park in Indianapolis.
Here’s a link to the memorial site.
http://www.hiddengemsindiana.org/2013/03/thomas-taggart-memorial.html
This location was often used by Duesenberg for factory photos as will be seen in Elbert’s “The Mightiest American Motor Car”

Thanks for your great articles !
Don Toms, Florida

The tag reads: Top, 198891 IND55, middle, AD 43, bottom, INDIANA. Look at the Roman columns behind the Lancia; are they in Indiana? Or are they even in the U.S.? Or Could these be in Trieste where the car was presumably found?

From the same time, or so we think, is another photo of the Astura at an airfield. Is this a SAC event in the U.S.? Or an Army base, as the owner at the time was reported to be an Army Officer? The tag on the Allard reads 4T 4326. The car behind the Astura is left hand drive and there appears to be an American sedan in the background, so odds favor it being in the U.S.

More comments…

Jim Sitz wrote:

Pete–

Love car the Lancia, Sure Mr Goldberg has knowledge of it, having had pleasure
meet him last September at Elkhart Lake,
Best I can offer is owners of this model in 1950s:

1) Mr J. Harper of Virginia May 1953 Road & Track(adv)
2) Mr W.D. Hill of Indiana Oct 1954 Motor Trend (adv)

As to the SAC base for racing,there would be number of candidates
in 1954 including Offett in Ohama, Lockbourne in Ohio, Stout Base
in St. Louis and Chanute in Rantoul, Illinois.

Hoping this may bed of some small help.
But think mon ami Michael Lynch would
have superior knowledge of thew scene in
the Mid west in the period he was living there.

Jim Sitz
G.P. Oregon

Geoff July 21, 2015 at 1:24 pm [edit]
This information came from Paolo Giusti:

“This Astura is the 41-3222, a cabriolet gran lusso by Pininfarina introduced to the 1939 Turin and Sanremo elegance concourses by Carlo Bocca, Lancia dealer in Vercelli. He sold it to a textile entrepreneur, Bozzalla, who sold it to Adolfo Fila. After the WWII it was in the free territory of Trieste, where an US Army officer found it, bought it and shipped to the USA. Later the car was in the ownership of the Prior family (in the US) for decades, before a Swiss collector bought in 1987. He sold it to Nino Balestra (president of the Cisitalia register) in 1995. Balestra restored the car and he is still the owner today.
Fortunately all the 4 gran lusso cabriolets survived. This one is unique with the
trafficator stick behind the door. You can see the others at the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands, another in yellow/black was in the Laganland Veterans Bildmuseum (Sweden) and today is in private hands. The last (41-3246) belonged to the Reichspropagandaleiter Goebbels, who bought it at the 1939 Berlin motor show, now in a US collection since
2013.”

Likely the photo was in the states, sometime in 1950s-60s, under either the soldier’s ownership or that of the Prior family.