A look at the photos of the rusty 1953 Lancia Aurelia GT, sold by Bonhams at Olympia, in London, on December 7, 2009, for $26,082, sent a rush of emotions through my head.
The first was admiration for the brave soul who would commit to such an ambitious project. Let’s hope he is well versed in metal repair and the intricacies of early post-war hand-built Italian sports cars. Even a sound example can spring some wicked surprises, as I can attest.
Having owned three Lancia Aurelia B20 GTs I will affirm that there was little attempt by the factory to stop corrosion in the complex unibody, which consists of approximately 100 separate metal panels welded together by hand. Once the tin worm takes hold of an Aurelia, it can do an incredible amount of damage, as evidenced by the alarming photos.
I’ve learned to double the estimate cost of repairs
My second reaction was an inadvertent mental calculation as to what this Sisyphean task is going to cost. My own experience in restoring cars such as Alfa Romeos, Lancias, Cisitalias, Bugattis, etc. has taught me to double the estimated cost on the body and chassis repairs. To date this has been a good metric. I cannot fathom that it will take less than 1,000 hours to repair the complex unibody to a level that the car deserves, and my gut instinct says add at least another 500 hours.
So even assuming a “good guy, friend of the owner” rate of about $50 per hour, we are already at $50k minimum just for body repair. Fortunately, there are some excellent shops in the U.K., such as Omicron owned by Martin and Elizabeth Cliff, which have extensive experience restoring Aurelias. So at least that removes the costly “learning experience” aspect of the job.
And trust me, you really need someone who knows how to restore the body correctly; I was nearly killed in my B20 when a rear suspension bracket tore loose during hard braking, causing the car to leave the road and flip over and finally come to rest upside down in a grove of saplings that miraculously cushioned the crash (July 2008, “Etceterini Profile, Seat Time,” p. 45). The root cause of the accident was determined to be a plug weld that was defective from new. So be thorough.
The Aurelia features the world’s first production V6, which loves to rev like a little turbine and gives wonderful, lively performance. These motors are complex and rather Byzantine in construction, and by comparison, the contemporary Alfa 4-cylinder unit seems downright agricultural. I suspect that Lancia cared more about achieving a desired form and function whereas Alfa wanted to stay in business by making a cost-effective powerplant.
Prepare for unexpected engine expenses
Based on my experience, expect to spend about $10k to rebuild a B20 motor yourself, assuming you are subcontracting the specialized machining operations and buying new parts such as pistons, liners, valves, etc. (and that your own labor is free). If you want someone else to do the dirty work, plan on at least 150 hours of labor, which adds another $12k or so. These figures assume that the engine is not missing any parts or suffering major trauma. Be prepared for unexpected expenses; for example, the aluminum block on my B20 had some corrosion, so it took me about 40 hours to machine and fit custom metal shims to set the piston liners perfectly in order to prevent head gasket leaks.
Of course, for a Third Series B20, as is our subject car, white metal bearings are used in the connecting rods and crankshaft, which will add further expense. At a glance, my guess is that the motor could easily cost $25k, since the auction catalog photos seem to imply it is missing critical parts. Other novel features of the B20 are the transaxle and the sliding pillar front suspension, which will cost thousands of dollars to rebuild properly.
Getting the car upholstered and painted, plus other incidentals such as chrome plating, restoration of gauges, wiring, etc. will naturally add at least another $30k, and this will rapidly escalate for concours-level work. The nasty-looking steering wheel will take real money to repair or replace.
Proper restoration of hand-built, limited-series, high-performance cars of the late 1940s to late 1950s, whether they be Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati, Ferrari, or Cisitalia, is very labor intensive and bloody expensive to do properly. Running the numbers, I see no way the new owner can put this car back on the road for under $150k, and it is optimistic to assume that this figure includes the purchase price. Michael Gue, an advanced collector who recently had a similar-condition Aurelia restored in the U.K., agrees that this estimate is realistic.
An unsalvageable subframe could be the deal breaker
The potential deal breaker would be if the entire subframe of the car is so rusted that it needs to be completely reproduced. In that case, total restoration could exceed $200k, which does not make a lot of sense for a B20 today.
Is there any upside to this deal? Definitely not in the short term, and the missing parts and rust in the chassis are problematic. Up until last year, condition #2 Aurelia GTs were occasionally achieving auction results up to the $125k range.
So if this car could be restored to near condition #1 for something like $150k, that would not be terribly out of line, and it would offer the new owner a completely restored example of what many automotive historians view as one of the very best-handling cars of the entire 1950s.
Having driven a B20 for nearly 20 years, I can attest that they are a highly rewarding car to own, and if the new owner keeps it for a long period then the pain of the restoration will hopefully fade.
A final thought… I note the auction catalog says that the Third Series B20 is the most desirable of the six series of the B20 produced from 1951 to 1958, but that view is not widely shared. Certainly, the Third Series B20 was a potent machine given its relatively high power and low weight, but the trailing-arm rear suspension could get inexperienced drivers into trouble, in a manner similar to the early Porsches, with their sudden oversteer characteristics.
With the introduction of the De Dion rear suspension, the Fourth Series B20 is often cited as having the best balance of handling and power. But from a historical perspective, the majority of racing success was achieved by the first series B20s, making that model desirable for the retro-Mille Miglia.