lancia  Library

So what the best car books? Here are some favorites, on Lancias and other cars.

​Lancia - The best books on the Aurelia 
  1. Lancia Aurelia GT, Ferruccio Bernabo (the complete Aurelia book, in Italian only, but it has all the details) 
  2. Lancia, the Shield and the Flag, Nigel Trow (see below - a favorite...)
  3. La Lancia, Wim Oude Weernink (see below, complete history) 
  4. D24 e le Lancia Sport, Guido Rosani (research on factory racing and how he made the D cars. Specific, yet wonderfully done. Slight problems with color plates.)
  5. Lancia Aurelia in Detail, Neils Jonassen (reasonably complete account) 
  6. Lancia and De Virgilio, At the Center, Geoff Goldberg (my book, a history of Lancia in the 1940s and 1950s)
One might also look to the Italian Lancia Club's very good booklist of published books on Lancia.

The Trow books:
Nigel Trow is a long-term Lancia historian - and his earliest and best  book is Lancia, the Shield and the Flag, for early Lancias up to the Flaminia. He then did five other books on Lancia, including Lancia Delta, Lancia Stratos, and more importantly, Lancia Racing. His last book was The Illustrated Lancia (Palawan Press, pricey) and was more of a visual read. He just completed Maserati, the Family Silver, an extensive two volume detailed history on that other marque. 

The Weernink histories
The other major Lancia historian is Wim Oude Weernink, who wrote La Lancia some thirty years ago. Extremely detailed and complete, it remains the mainstay of Lancia history, and has been made only more complete in last two editions. The earliest is smaller and feels best in the hand, but the later ones have more images. Some images are only shown in one edition... so the true Lancia fan has all three editions! Wim has also done some nice shorter books, including the Fulvia/Flavia, and more recently,  the Appia and the Working Class Lancias on their commercial trucks. 

The Faure Endeavors
Sebastien Faure is one of the best auto historians of our time. While  quite interested in Lancia, his writing has been limited to an article on Fessia. However, he has done several magnificent histories - Fiat en Grand Prix (in French) from 1920-1930, another on Lorraine-Dietrich (also in French), and now co-authored Delage, Records and Grand Prix (English and French).  Well recommended for thoroughness. 
 
Others on Lancia
  1. La Storia della Lancia, 1906-1969, ed. Amatori (complete history with key production data)
  2. Lancia, l’armonia e l’invenzione, by Felicioli  (wonderful show catalog, good text, images)
  3. Capolavoro, The Lancia Lambda, by Bill Jamieson (the most detailed book on a Lancia, about the Lambda)
  4. Le Carte Scoperta (a comprehensive analysis of Lancia, especially financial, in Italian. Only when all other Lancia books have been worn out)
  5. Lancia, A story of technological innovation in the car industry, Morello's very good history of the engineering, impossible to find, but can be downloaded free at FCA Heritage site. Sadly, they made him use low-res image files for the drawings.
  6. Falchetto, Planner & Designer, by Stefano Falchetto (Falchetto's diaries of his many key years at Lancia. Very cool!) 
  7. Lancia: 70 Years of Trailblazing, by Bruce Lindsay (a rather thorough printing of historic Lancia materials, very detailed, but limited commentary. The enclosed DVD has PDFs of all the brochures and is well worth having by itself.) 

Alfa Romeo
  1. Le Vetture Alfa Romeo della 1910, Fusi, 1st Edition  (the early edition has better graphics)
  2. 6C 1750, Fusi  (a wonderful, early single model read)
  3. Alfa Romeo 6C; and another on the 8C, by Angela Cherrett  (definitive books on the early Alfas) 
  4. Alfa Romeo Tradition, Borgeson  (summary book, well written, with good engine data)
  5. Le Alfa Romeo di Vittorio Jano, by Fusi, Ferrari and Borgeson  (sheer intuitive genius, treasured)
  6. Alfa Romeo Veloce, the Racing Guiliettas, Hughes and da Prato  (they were there...)
  7. Alfa Romeo, The Essence of Beauty, Felicioli  (another winner by this author)
  8. Alfa Romeo Ferrari, Murray Rainey  (a very unusual story, totally amusing, hard to find) 

Italian cars
  1. 40 years of Design at Fiat, Dante Giacosa  (fascinating, inside story, lots on 8V’s) Can be downloaded at FCA Heritage site for free. 
  2. Imagini dall’Archivio Fiat, 1900-1940  (first of three volumes from Fiat’s amazing photo archives, quite rare)
  3. Ferrari, Hans Tanner  (the early editions have a nicer feel and are less precious)
  4. Origins of the Ferrari Legend, Columbo (how it really got started...) 
  5. Ferrari by Mailander, Ludvigsen (lovely presentation of a photo archive, part of a series) 

Other great books 
  1. The Grand Prix Car, two volumes, Pomeroy  (THE BOOK TO HAVE on racing, up to 1950’s)
  2. Golden Age of American Racing, Borgeson  (American racing heritage)
  3. Grand Prix Bugatti, Conway (or anything else by Conway on Bugattis)
  4. Automobile Design, 12 Great Designers and Their Work, Barker and Harding (Steady...) 
  5. French Sports Car Evolution, Blight  (most learned understanding of the 1930s, very complete)
  6. Bahnstormer (on BMW Motorcycles), Setright  (passion and knowledge in this small book)  
  7. The Classic Twin-Cam Engine, Borgeson (on the origins of this fundamental engine design)

(revised 11.2021)