 Early images of B20 body manufacturing are hard to find - the exact processes used at the time are rarely seen in photographs. Found in the Pirelli archives were these images of B20 production at Pinin Farina, published in their magazine, c. 1952. And the caption clearly recognizes the combination of artisanal craftsmanship and larger scale production, a fascinating aspect of these Lancias: "The bodywork of the Lancia Aurelia b20 is built in the Pininfarina plant with a series of work that brings together the results of various artisanal productions."  
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 Its not easy to understand the role of the B24 back in the 1950s. There are movies, such as Il Sorpasso, where the car is slightly out of sorts, still sporty, but with mismatched body work, as if it were the property of an out-of-sorts playboy. Shown here is the B24 Spider accompanying the 1955 Moto Giro, as a filming car, all done under the Taruffi umbrella. All good fun, but I'd rather have the car than the motorbikes! Been a long period of silence. Part of that is winter, much of it is Covid, and busy with other things. Regarding Lancia activities - a few things to report:
- the book, Lancia and De Virgilio, At the Center, is in the process of being reprinted. It is very close to shipping, with copies to be made available either from Gilena, a bookstore in Brescia (for the European markets) or from myself here in the US. Just to be clear, this is simply a reprinting, with only a few minor errors corrected; it is not a 2nd edition. It is being done as the book was sold out, and there have been repeated requests for copies. - I have also been working on a study of Lancia's V4s, their balancing and their crankshaft designs. Many people have helped over the years, and apologies for the very slow pace of this effort. It is quite detailed but a booklet has now been completed and being put into printing. More on that soon. Took the B20 out for a spin yesterday, the car was quite happy to be out of the garage. Its been joined by a Moto Guzzi V7 motorcycle (the newer type), which tries not to gloat too much about the benefits of fuel injection and modern electrics. The Alfa which was here for a while has gone to a new home in California. Too many little things kept needing attention. Hoping everyone is well in these difficult times. May things improve.  Nothing too exciting, but the odometer just turned 85k kilometers. When the car was restored in 2008 it was around 60k, followed by 5 years of trouble with few miles, so call it 2013 before things got really rolling. So about 3500 kilometers per year or 2000 miles for the past 7 years. Decent enough! This shot was on a wintry day, about 35 degrees F, with an early morning 50 mile drive. Put a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator so the engine gets to stay warm (else it just runs too cold, and there is no heat). B20 in December, no snow!
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