Lancia Aprilia “1500 II serie”, 1942.
With its revolutionary style, innovative technics and high performance, the Aprilia, represented the highlight of the period technics.
It was a compact car, but it was also able to guarantee maximum comfort even for five passengers.
Low, with the headlights placed on the still separate wheel arches, the windshield that joins the roof with a single unbroken line and receding tail, the Aprilia gave that visual impression of speed that it really had.
Vincenzo Lancia was particularly impressed by the results, but unfortunately he could not enjoy his latest success as he died a few months after the presentation of the car in 1936.
The car was also built in France in 1937 and 1938 with the name Ardennes.
Monocoque, like the Lambda in 1922, the Aprilia body has the typical folding doors without B pillar, and its refined mechanics have independent suspensions at the rear too.
A very original feature of the car shown in the museum is represented by the two separated sunroofs, for which it was called “the gangsters’ car”. Actually, this was a technical solution due to the body structure itself.
Curiosity
- It is said that Henry Ford was caught by the guardians at the 1936 Paris Automobile Show while looking underneath the car to see the frame.
- A black Aprilia nera with the license plate number MI777 was the most wanted car of Milan in the 1940s (777 was also the Police Flying Squad phone number). The car was used for many robberies by the unstoppable gentleman bandit Ezio Barbieri, famous for robberies, thefts, jailbreaks, especially the one that took place in San Vittore in 1946, called the “Red Easter”. Read the article here Collectors may love the scale model made by BRUMM.
