Back to back: Lancia or Alfa?

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What was the best era for Italian sports cars? That is, of course, a matter of taste, but we trust you’ll be with us when we say the cars of the late-1920s, early 1930s are very desirable. So let’s have a look at two of these cars that will be offered for sale with Finarte at their Padova sale on the 25th of October.

The Alfa-Romeo they have on offer is a Pinin Farina bodied 6C 1750 Turismo convertible of 1930. That means it’s the tamest version, with the straight-six originally good for 55bhp at 4,400rpm. Still a very spritely car of course. But what’s more: the 1930 vintage makes it a very early Pininfarina car, which is a nice characteristic on its own. We even like the old black number plates more – they have been on the car since 1945. And it does have an Italian history during and before the War. According to the seller, it was converted into a closed truck in or shortly after the days of the War. By the late 1960s, when interest in these cars slowly began to rise, the Alfa was brought over to the Bonfanti museum near Venice where restoration was started. However, this was not finished until 2017, by which time the ‘trasformabile’ had been sold to a new owner. With matching numbers, in its original paint colours (lovely light grey and maroon) and with a stack of documents it certainly is a great car.

Estimated to sell at a slightly lower price, the Lancia that’s on offer is rather interesting as well though. A Lambda of the 8th Series in what looks to be a two-seater configuration. With its 2.6 litre V4 engine it’s slightly more powerful (69bhp at 3,500rpm) than the Alfa and with its short chassis perhaps slightly sportier too? Again, it’s painted in a lovely duotone, now light grey and black. Finarte hasn’t yet disclosed further information about the car in question and we wonder who the coachbuilder could be. Stabilimenta Farina? It looks not totally unlike this Casaro bodied spider either. But digging a little deeper provided us with the answer – we believe. It looks to be a drophead coupe by the Albany Carriage Company of London, which you may know from another rather eccentric ‘Airway’ Lambda. The choice is yours!

Words by Jeroen Booij. Photographs courtesy Finarte.

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