Lancia Motor Club

Jack’s editorial in the current issue of Viva Lancia! mentions Ron ‘Steady’ Barker’s recent 92nd birthday and his legendary short-wheel-base special “short-Arstura". This is a good pretext to revive the little used Astura section of the Forum to post two photos of two different Asturas associated with Ron.

One is of the short-Arstura probably taken in the late 1950s in its original ‘special’ guise with a body that included the front section from an Aston DB2. Apparently it was very competitive. It is this car that will reappear with a new period-style body designed by Ron himself.

The other is of the Mille Miglia Astura with Ron driving at an LMC driving test in the 1960s.

Wonderful cars – wonderful man!

Colin  

This photo was taken at Steady's 92nd Birthday party held at Thornley Kelham, where Steady was presented with a book of his Asturas by Michael Scott.

http://thornleykelham.com/about-us/

I remember when I was a young doctor in Bath and met Roland, who subsequently joined us in living at Crosslands Caravan Site.  He had the short Astura in a lockup next to mine and was busy stripping the paint off it with an angle grinder and wire brush (or was that the B24?).  The SA was also known as the Costalotti.  Those were the days when I could work late into the night replacing the cylinder head, drive it home and go on duty in the ward  just a little later in the morning.

Another pic (photo credit autopuzzles)

Mille Miglia in colour(photo credit autopuzzles)

And here’s another picture of the “short-Arstura” in competition. This is a copy of one of the photos on the display stand at AutoLegends.

Colin

Colin is that a pun or a play on words ;D

Brian
8227 8)

A bit confusing - are there three of these competition Asturas:

- Steady's with the vertical grille
- the current Italian one with the horiz. grille (seen above)
- the Mota rebodied one just surfacing from the US

And wasn't there some story about a special Astura head made for one of these? Anyone know anything?

Geoff

I only know of two of these cars both of which were owned by Ron 'Steady' Barker, but I also have read of another one in the US, which I think looked more like the Mille Miglia car photographed above.

The Short-Arstura, as Steady named it, was based on a seven-seater Astura saloon, which Steady modified drastically to produce his short-wheel base (hence the name) race car. According to Motor Sport in 1955 the original saloon weighed 37.5 cwt, which was reduced to 8.25 cwt. The wheelbase was reduced from 11’10’’ to 8’1’’.

The last I heard of the Mille Miglia car is that it was owned and being used in Germany. It was this car that I think had the special head.

Colin 

The ex-Steady Mille Miglia Astura is now in the Nicolis Museum in Italy http://www.museonicolis.com/ and is used regularily.
As for the "Motto" car, see the information here http://www.lancia.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5335.0

That MUST be some sort of record for percentage weight saving.

David

This is some more information on the MM Astura from Paolo Giusti:-
I know this car, as i had a long chat about it with the son of Minetti last June. This car has the 41-3207 chassis, a late 1938 production. Because this chassis was unsold at the factory, Eugenio Minetti, the Lancia dealer in Milan and one of the founders of the Scuderia Ambrosiana, decided to buy it and assigned it to Villoresi. Minetti, with a 1937 Aprilia, and Villoresi joined in the 1940 1000 miglia. Both the cars were coachbuilt by Colli and fitted up by Pagani. Pagani was the chief-mechanic of the Scuderia and he set up 2 special heads for the cars. Particularly the Astura had a special head, 2 Zenith carbs and 2 ignition coils, 30/35 CV more than the standard engine. Unfortunately both the race drivers had engine failures: Villoresi during the step closer to Brescia and Minetti during the race. After WWII Pagani opened his own workshop and fitted up the Astura again. So Cortese won the 1946 circuito di Luino race and Minetti the 1946 circuito di Modena race with this car. Later Gordon bought the car in July 1947. I wrote a short Minetti's story on the viva-lancia forum:http://www.viva-lancia.com/lancia_fora/read.php?337,1042525.

Nicely done, and good to finally get the story on this interesting car!

Having looked back at an old LMC Journal (see post about News-sheets under General Chat) I found the letter (copy attached) which was reprinted in the Summer 1977 issue. This is a copy of letter from 1949 about Astura DXU 557. Such an amazing story I thought it should be posted here together with a more detailed scan of the photo.

Colin

A photo of Benito's is on ebay although the link is not working here ,      http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemld=300806879224

Here is some more information on DXU 577 from the Journal spring 1985. Note how the front was modified, it ended up in the Rosso&bianco collection in Aschauffenburg, Germany. The museum has now closed so its current location is unknown.

This is an article written by the man himself on the history of the Millle Miglia Astura from the summer  1969 Lancia Motor Club Journal. Parts 1 to 3 of 5.

Parts 4 and 5 of 5.

Ade,

Thank you finding and posting these articles. It would be good to know what happened to DXU – hopefully it found a home and will be seen again. Ron Barker’s article about the Mille Miglia car is wonderful and so evocative of a period when ingenuity could overcome limits in originality, and such things could be done with cars that would nowadays be priceless.

Colin

Prompted by the more recent Mille Miglia post, does  anyone have a copy or scan of this?

He won driving tests in that thing????   Photo by John Millham - what do you remember of that day John?

David

There is an article in the latest Octane magazine (May 2014) about the 'Steady Special' and some more details on the Thornley Kelham web site http://www.thornleykelham.com/restoration/lancia/1935-lancia-astura-the-steady-special/#ad-image-0