Description
With its monocoque body, four-wheel brakes, independent front suspension and V4 overhead camshaft engine many enthusiasts view the Lancia Lambda as one of the great automobiles of all time. With a conventional pedal layout and H-pattern gear selection the Lambda also set the automotive template for years to come.
The Lambda was also successful in competition with privately entered cars finishing fourth and fifth behind the works OMs in the first Mille Miglia of 1927.
Lancia continually developed the Lambda through nine series of cars with the 8th and 9th series receiving a larger 2570cc engine and four-speed gearbox.
Chassis no: 20360 is an 8th Series example with a rare and attractive two-seater roadster body and was first registered in the UK in 1938.
The earliest known owner was Bob West of West & Chittenden, the go-to Lancia specialist before WWII. West & Chittenden were based in London and modified Lambda engines with modified rocker arms to enable the fitment of shorter valves.
A Lambda modified by West & Chittenden was driven very successfully by Fotheringham-Parker at a V. S. C. C. meeting just before the war and was reported as having ‘extraordinary stability over the bumps’.
Chassis no: 20360 also has pre-war competition history as evidenced by a period photograph on file of the car taking part in a trials event in the Winter of 1938.
The car was subsequently owned by a Geoffrey Wilde in 1948 and a Stanley Hodgkinson until 1982 when it was acquired by the Baxter family who displayed it in their Liverpool car museum for over thirty years.
The car benefits from an older restoration and is now offered for sale in good condition and in good running order. Crucially it retains its original engine and gearbox which is a real rarity amongst Lambdas.
