Lancia Florida is the name of two studies based on the

Lancia Aurelia The Lancia Aurelia is a car produced by Italian manufacturer Lancia from 1950 to the summer of 1958. It is noted for using one of the first series-production V6 engines. Several body styles were offered: 4-door saloon, 2-door GT coupé (B20), ...

, which were built by

Lancia Lancia () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of FCA Italy S.p.A., which is currently a Stellantis division. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganised its businesses, but it ...

in collaboration with

Pinin Farina Pininfarina S.p.A. (short for Carrozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 December 2015, the Indian mu ...

. Both were made in extremely small numbers. They are both considered to be masterpieces of Italian automotive design and had a lot of influence on automotive design. From them were later derived the sedan and the coupe versions of the

Lancia Flaminia The Lancia Flaminia (Tipo 813/823/824/826) is a luxury car produced by Italian automaker Lancia from 1957 until 1970. It was Lancia's flagship model at that time, replacing the Aurelia. It was available throughout its lifetime as saloon, coupé an ...

Florida I

The Florida I was built in 1955, with the first car, a coupe, being completed in September of that year. It was first shown at that year's

Turin Auto Show The Turin Motor Show ( it, Salone dell'Automobile di Torino) was an auto show held annually in Turin, Italy. The first official show took place between 21 and 24 April 1900, at the Castle of Valentino, becoming a permanent fixture in Turin from ...

. The Florida I is mostly known for the 4-door Berlina model, but a coupe model was also made; It was one of the first cars to carry the Lancia logo. The sedan has rear

suicide doors A suicide door is an automobile door hinged at its rear rather than the front. Such doors were originally used on horse-drawn carriages, but are rarely found on modern vehicles, primarily because they are perceived as being less safe than a fro ...

, according to Lancia tradition, and no

B pillar The pillars on a car with permanent roof body style (such as four-door sedans) are the vertical or nearly vertical supports of its window area or greenhouse—designated respectively as the ''A, B, C'' and (in larger cars such as 4-door s ...

, as well as many interesting design elements such as flat sides with a single crease running right above the wheelwell, headlights mounted in the grille, an inset rear windshield and flying buttresses. A total of 4 cars were built, 3 of which were 4-door Berlinas and one of which was a 2-door coupe. For the production of the first prototype at Pinin Farina 10 of 340 employees of the company were employed (presumably under the direction of Francesco Martinengo). On April 2, 1955, Antonio Fessia became the new technical director of Lancia, initiating further changes to the car. The V6 engine was a development of Francesco de Virgilio. The Florida initially had a conventional rigid DeDion rear axle. . File:Lancia Florida1 b56 x2.jpg, Lancia Florida I Berlina (sedan) rear view File:Lancia Florida1 b12 006.JPG, Cockpit File:LanciaFlorida1 b56 x1.JPG, Lancia Florida I Berlina (sedan) File:Lancia Florida1 b12 005.JPG, Florida I Berlina (sedan) Interior with both doors open File:Lancia Florida1 b56 002x.jpg, Lancia Florida I coupe

Florida II

The Florida II concept, introduced in 1957, is a two-door coupe with pillarless windows on the doors, meaning it does not have a

. Its V6 engine displaces 2,266 cm 3 and makes 87 hp (64 kW) at 4,800 rpm. The Florida II was a personal favorite of

founder,

Battista Farina Battista "Pinin" Farina (later Battista Pininfarina; 2 November 1893 – 3 April 1966) was an Italian automobile designer and the founder of the Carrozzeria Pininfarina coachbuilding company, a name associated with many well known postwar c ...

and he regularly used it until his death in April 1966. He also said about it that it was "the only one to go to heaven". The production version of the

Coupe was similar to the Florida II, sharing many of its key design elements, but had a B-pillar and was significantly shorter. The Flaminia coupe also adopted a steeper windshield rake, framed door glass, door vent windows, and a bigger air scoop at the request of Lancia. The Florida II is regarded as a very important design, with many saying its angular styling helped pave the way for 1960s car design as a whole. Mercedes designer

Bruno Sacco Bruno Sacco (born 12 November 1933) is an Italian automobile designer who served as the head of styling at German car giant Daimler-Benz between 1975 and 1999. Biography According to Sacco himself, he was first inspired towards car design as an ...

once described the Florida II as one of the cars he would have liked to design. The principles of the suicide doors and the lack of a B-pillar were used again in the

Lancia Dialogos The Lancia Diàlogos is an Italian luxury concept car that was presented in saloon form at the 1998 Turin Motor Show. By European standards, the Diàlogos is a significantly large car with a width, height and standard wheelbase of , as a resul ...

study in 1997.

References

{{Lancia

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Pininfarina vehicles