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Lancia: The Price of Identity

35:49 recording · EN · 1 speaker

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Brief overview

Vincenzo Lancia built a car company on speed and invention, then nearly lost everything to a New York scam.

  1. Lancia's identity was built in a workshop, not a ledgerHired as an accountant in 1898, Vincenzo never kept the books and became a mechanic and racing driver instead.
  2. The Lambda's ship-like body changed car designThe 1922 Lambda's self-supporting structure, independent suspension and front brakes were copied by every other manufacturer.
  3. Business naivety led straight into a mob scamLancia Motors of America was never meant to build cars; the golden prototypes were a mirror for the newspapers and investors.
Executive Summary AI
  • Max Corona opens Story of Brand part I, 'the price of identity', with a January chase outside New York's Hotel Ritz at the end of the 1920s, then rewinds to 1880 in Valsesia, Piedmont, where Vincenzo Lancia, called Censin, refuses to study despite his father Cavaliere Giuseppe Lancia's hopes.2:43
  • In Turin the boy sneaks into Ceirano's workshop, sees the skeleton of one of the first cars built in the city, and in 1898 is hired as an accountant, though he becomes a mechanic and, after Fiat buys the workshop in 1899, one of Italy's fastest drivers, winning the Turin to Superga climb in 1902.9:16
  • With Claudio Fogolin he founds Lancia & Company on October 29, 1906 with 100,000 lire; a fire destroys the office a year later, but the 12-horsepower Type 51 is shown at the 1908 Turin Motor Show and sells about 100 units, and in 1913 Lancia presents the first European car with a complete electric system.12:35
  • After Fogolin leaves by letter in 1918, Vincenzo becomes a maniac of control who tests collaborators with a rope stretched between two cars, names his models after the Greek alphabet on his brother Giovanni's advice, takes the shield-and-spear emblem from Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia, and marries secretary Adele Miglietti in 1922, having three children, Anna Maria, Gianni and Eleonora.15:32
  • The self-supporting Lancia Lambda of 1922, inspired by a ship's hull, makes him world famous, but in 1927 American Anthony Flocker convinces him to found Lancia Motors of America with 3 million dollars of capital; landing in New York on January 3, 1929, Vincenzo learns the company is an empty box used by mob-linked partners to inflate shares, and flees to the port with gunmen in pursuit.32:37
Key Quote
“you will end up being dry once or twice. If we don't get to the limit we can't get over it.”
— Max Corona11:32
Key Quote
“cars without a name are also cars without soul.”
— Max Corona18:51
Key Quote
“I know, engineer, you know how to make cars run, but someone has to make the factory run too.”
— Max Corona22:02