B20 Corsa replicas

[chriswgawne]

I am not sure how many B20 Corsa replicas were made (in the 80's?) but there has been some correspondence on the forum regarding the pale blue one (which now lives in Belgium I think) and which I recall seeing being worked on in Turin in 2006 in a workshop which we used there during the Lancia 100 years event. Does anyone know the name of this establishment?
Anyway, sorting through some photos I came across the attached.
The brown supercharged B20 Corsa replica was at Castle Combe in the 90's. I didn't hear it running as I was on the track for much of the day but it drove there on the road.
As to the red Corsa replica, I really cant recall where I took the photo. It looks to have triple Solex and a Flaminia distributor....but not in the normal position in the centre of the Vee?
So I am lucky enough to have seen 3 of these replicas - how many were made and is the one which was for sale in Uruguay for ages one of the batch from Italy or a South American made one?
Can anyone provide any further info?
Chris

[chriswgawne]

Here are photos of the other 2 Replica which I know about. The pale blue one was sold by Bonhams a couple of years ago and the Mexican one which I think is still for sale.
The Red one in the pervious photo has its distributor (Flaminia I think?) mounted on an extra tall post I believe to clear the triple carbs.
Chris

[Kevin MacBride]

The red/brown one looks great, I'd love it !!

[Niels Jonassen]

If you happen to have my book on the Aurelia you can look at page 71. There is a photo from 1982 from Basso's workshop in Turin with Basso in a blue shirt behind one of the corsas he built. There was another one as well, in a very early stage. I took a note of the chassis numbers. They were B20 1092 and B20 1442.

[Sliding Pillar]

The pale blue car that was sold at Bonhams Goodwood sale in 2013 https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20929/lot/329/
was chassis number B20 1082. It is not the same car as the one (also pale blue) that has been on several Sliding Pillar Rallies in recent years, but I don't have the chassis number it.

[Kevin MacBride]

When these cars were built (or re built I suppose), were they built to order, as in for specific customers, or were they built for general sale.
I suppose what I'm getting at, is are they 'continuation' models, or 'replicas'. Would they have new chassis numbers and designation, or would they simply be classed according to the original car upon which they were constructed.
Or were they built from scratch, using some original parts, similar to the D50 re creations.
I'd imagine if several 'Cobra Daytonas' or some other make were re created in similar fashion, they would be all over the media, and appearing in specialist magazines every now and again, and exchanging hands for vast sums of money.
Yet these cars, and indeed their creator, seem to be a 'best kept secret' known only to the few.

[GG]

In the excellent book D24 e Lancia Sport (1991), Guido Rosani wrote:

"Practically nothing remains of the 2000 series of competition cars, but we are pleased to be able to mention a particularly interesting private initiative that got underway in Turin in the early Eighties.
Working on the basis of the scant material discovered in Lancia's technical archives and equally scarce photographic evidence, a Torinese car restorer called Luciano Basso undertook the construction of three replicas of the aluminum-bodied 1952 version of the B20. The first car was an exact replica of the 1952 two-litre model: built over the floorpan of the Aurelia B20 second series, it had a beefed up 2000 cm3 engine, a lowered shortened, aluminum body and Plexiglas windows.
The second replica, a most interesting car, was fitted with a De Dion axle and an original B20 two-litre supercharged engine, no. 2155, which had miraculously escaped destruction.
The third car, built along the lines of the 1954 Mille Miglia model, had a SOCH B54 special engine with dry sump lubrication.
The three replica B20s, which were extremely well made, and corresponded exactly to the originals, are now in the hands of private collectors in various parts of the world. The third car was originally commissioned by myself, and was only recently sold to a British enthusiast."

He also showed a picture of an alum body for the B20 with the supercharger, with a bonnet bulge, and alum seams welded like the steel panels in the production B20. More interesting, there is a photo from the Coppa Intereuropa at Monza in summer 1953, of two B20 Corsas (alum bodied comp car) noting they were fitted for this race with 2.5 liter engines and De Dion rear suspension.

[Niels Jonassen]

According to the information I have from the Italian forum of Viva Lancia the 1952 corsas had the following chassis numbers: 1505, 1506, 1507, 1508, 1509, 1510, 1511. They are all second series chassis. It would seem logical that the two cars I saw in Basso's workshop in August 1982 were the first two built by Basso and mentioned by Rosani. However, he says that the first was built on a series two chassis, but the ones I saw being bulit were chassis no.s 1092 and 1442 which are series one chassis. The last series one chassis is no. 1500, and the first series two chassis is 1501. (Bernabó: Lancia Aurelia GT)

[Sliding Pillar]

Chris, is your picture img 039 of the car (red) with the B54 engine? perhaps taken at an Aurelia specialist in Hampshire? (I saw it there) It would explain the strange distributor position.

That makes at least five cars!

Another photo of the Bonhams car at Goodwood in 2007

[Zetaman]

An interesting topic, as I think there are rather more than the 3 Basso cars that look like a Series 2 Corsa.  See below for note about there being 5 made by Basso.

2552 CR was the registration of a perfectly normal 2nd Series - photo taken by me in 1978 at the 30-50 Event.  It was then chassis B20-1944.  There are photos of it in its Corsa form at the Goodwood Track Day in 2010.   So I think this could be the 1st Basso car referred to by Rosani.

Mexican Red/White car.  This is a very dubious construction and appears from the photos I have, to be a modified 5th/6th Series.  Despite numerous requests the owner has never told me the chassis number.

I have a note that the car with the B54 engine is "Replica II Serie Corsa", with UK registration OVS 145 and a 4th series chassis B20-3522 and belonged to a well-known collector in the UK in 2010.  I think therefore this may be the 2nd Basso car referred to by Rosani.

I have gathered nothing on B20 1092 or B20 1442.
However B20-1082 is the light blue car, much photographed and sold by Bonhams in 2007 for £80,000.  The auction sale information says: 
Luciano Basso, the official restorer of the Lancia Museum undertook an ambitious project to build five lightweight aluminium Aurelia coupes, correct down to the smallest detail, & built on the Lancia competition department’s original body buck.  The cars were built, like their predecessors on genuine original Aurelia GT chassis.  One such car offered here for sale, was built for Luciano Ammendola, the son of Gianni Lancia’s friend & gentleman driver & painted in the same pale blue as his father’s car.
Bonhams had it for sale again in 2013.

There is a car being campaigned by an Austrian, Dr Knopfl which seems to have a lowered roof, but is not the full Series 2 Da Corsa shape.  I do not know its chassis number but it is a B20S and said to date from 1958.

There are of course lots of 3rd and 4th Series modified for competition and a few B20s with completely false "works" histories.

Would be good to complete this story with chassis numbers and photos.

Paul Mayo