1951 Lancia Aurelia B50 Cabriolet
Coachwork by Pinin Farina
Registration no. 922 EER
Chassis no. B50 1443
Engine no. B12 3026 (see text)

Alongside the unitary construction Aurelia B10 saloon, Lancia produced a platform chassis for bodying by independent coachbuilders, designated B50 or B51 (with different gearing/tyres) and powered by the standard 1,754cc 56bhp V6 engine. With the announcement of the B20 Coupé, a 2,000cc engine was introduced, which was also made available for the platform chassis, designated B52 or B53 (depending on gearing/tyres). Of the 265 B50 Pinin Farina Cabriolets produced, only four were upgraded to 2,000cc specification, retaining their B50 chassis numbers. This is one such car.

Construction of 'B50 1443' commenced on 17th March 1951 and the finished chassis was tested on 18th July 1951. The car was sent to Pinin Farina on 28th July 1951 to be fitted with a cabriolet body in Bleu Sera (Evening Blue) with matching leather interior and similar mohair hood. On 29th June 1952, the original B10 engine, transaxle and instruments were replaced with B21 equivalents at the factory.

The Aurelia was sold through the concessionaire Pozzo of Novara on 15th May 1953 to Edorado Attilio Di Beltrani of Omegna and first registered with the Novara registration 'NO 29848'. On 25th June 1955 the car was registered to Amleto Sala in Milan and given the registration 'MI 276425'. On 11th July 1955 it was transferred to Adriana Maiocchi, also in Milan, and then on 20th July 1955 to Adele Zorlone. (The use of the word 'transferred' in the Italian records would suggest that these were motor dealers rather than owners).

On the 10th December 1955 the Aurelia was sold to Giovanni Di Filippo Cagiati in Rome and given the registration '241036 Roma', passing to an American, Janet Samuelian Aidala, on 12th December 1962. She sold the car on 17th April 1963 to fellow American, Richard M Goodwin, the celebrated mathematician and economist, who lectured at Cambridge and Siena Universities. On 26th June 1963, Goodwin imported the car into the UK where it was given the Cambridge registration '922 EER' that it carries to this day. At this time, Goodwin had the car painted grey, a new hood fitted and numerous other works carried out, bills for which are in the history file.

By 1972 the car needed restoration and was sold through an advertisement in the Lancia Motor Club magazine to Brian Fenton in Northamptonshire. By 1983 he had decided he would never finish the project, so the car was sold to Anthony Smallhorn who ran the Lancia Motor Club Aurelia Consortium. In 1984, Anthony sold the car to Aurelia aficionado Ron Francis, who started the restoration. On 15th February 2008, the partly completed project was sold to the current vendor, who had the restoration finished, returning the car to the road in April 2010.

During restoration, particular attention was paid to retaining as many of the original features as possible. It is painted in the original metallic Bleu Sera (the ashtray surround on the back of the front seats still has the original paint on it!) with blue mohair hood and retaining the original blue leather interior. There is also a rare Condor radio, which as been modernised with an MP3 player connecting cable, concealed in the glove box.

The original B21 2,000cc engine (number 'B21 3591') comes with the car but it is currently fitted with an identical looking B12 2,200cc engine that has been bored out to approximately 2,400cc and fitted with modern high compression pistons and a Weber DCL40 carburettor. This produces around 100bhp, significantly more that the standard B50's 56bhp!

Since restoration the Aurelia has been used successfully on numerous touring rallies both in the UK and across mainland Europe. It has also been the subject of several articles in the classic car press (copies on file) and has been displayed at the National Classic Car Show twice. Only one other example is known in the UK.

A rare, elegant, refined, touring Aurelia Cabriolet with the power and performance of a B20 Coupé, the car comes with large history file containing photographs, magazine articles, historical documents, a V5C document and numerous bills for restoration and maintenance.