Wikipedia : List of Automotive Superlatives ....

[sparehead3]

You're probably gonna like these , I just happened to be surfing and came up with this on Wikipedia. Now, before you go onto the link , the page contains what it says : but how many different models of lancia cars do you think are mentioned ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automotive_superlatives

[Neil]

Interesting...  I expected to see three or so different models of Lancia mentioned, but there seems to be more, one surprise was the first 5 speed manual gear box in 1948 for the Ardea, with possible more firsts for Lancia?

It seemed very US biased, were they or are they are forefront of automotive technology? (excluding car styling)

[chugga boom]

yipeeeeee my trucks a land mark in technology

[Neil]

In another form of media, pre-internet, a book, the 1977 copy of the The Guinness Book of Car Facts & Feats, which a kind relative picked up for me in a local charity shop as it had a Stratos on the cover, see attached, from the 1975 Monte Carlo Rally, flipped through it the other evening and found in the back in the everyday motoring section 1919 to 1971 (trivia really): ' Lancia did not market a private car with an in-line engine between 1923 and 1972'  - so Vs only in that period.

[chrislg]

Hi Neil,

You are of course forgetting the Flavia / 2000 range which had flat 4 or 'boxer' engines, so not all production Lancia Cars had 'V' engines during that period.

Chris

[Neil]

Chris, good point I omitted the flat fours!  (This was for cars not commercial vehicles.)

[ColinMarr]

I have heard Flavia Consortium members say that flat horizontally-opposed engines are a special case of the V form with 180 degrees between cylinders. Sounded convincing to me.

Colin 

[fensaddler]

Is it something to do with the firing order or the crankshaft orientation - that Lancia flat fours fire like a vee rather than other flat fours?  Or am I just an engineering ignoramus?

[Neil]

Sounds like the Ferrari flat 12s (Grand Prix cars) of the late 60s & 70s which are meant to be like 180 degree V engines, not up on those facts but appears to be similar argument. 

Perhaps an expert can enlighten us!

[ncundy]

V engines have matching cylinder pairs from each bank mounted to the same pin on the crankshaft.  This means that first one cylinder hits top dead center, then the next. (the Ferrari Testarossa was a 180deg V12)

Boxer engines have the connecting rods connected to separate pins on the crank, so that the pairs of cylinders are always moving in opposite directions (they both move out together, then back in). (a Subaru is a horizontally opposed boxer engine)

Shamelessly paraphrased from
Introduction to Internal Combustion Engines by Richard Stone and Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice: Vol. 2 by Charles Fayette Taylor, that I have on my bookshelf 

Not sure what a Flavia or Gamma is.

[ColinMarr]

Neil,

I think I might be missing something here. None of the V engine Lancias that I have enjoyed over the years, including Aprilia, Aurelia, Flaminia and Fulvia (and Flavia too) have enjoyed “matching cylinder pairs from each bank mounted to the same pin on the crankshaft”. Methinks there is something wrong in your source book. In my experience each pin is uniquely used by one rod, piston and cylinder.

Incidentally, the Flavia firing order was, I think: 1324.

And the beauty of a V form (including 180 degrees) is a short block and short crank.

Colin