The Lancia Lambda is an innovative
automobile
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
produced from 1922 through 1931. It was
the first The First may refer to:
* ''The First'' (album), the first Japanese studio album by South Korean boy group Shinee
* ''The First'' (musical), a musical with a book by critic Joel Siegel
* The First (TV channel), an American conservative opinion ne ...
car to feature a load-bearing
unitary
Unitary may refer to:
Mathematics
* Unitary divisor
* Unitary element
* Unitary group
* Unitary matrix
* Unitary morphism
* Unitary operator
* Unitary transformation
* Unitary representation
* Unitarity (physics)
* ''E''-unitary inverse semigrou ...
body, (but without a stressed roof) and it also pioneered the use of an
independent suspension
Independent suspension is any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically (i.e. reacting to a bump on the road) independently of the others. This is contrasted with a beam axle or deDion axle system in w ...
(the front
sliding pillar
A sliding pillar suspension is a form of independent front suspension for light cars. The stub axle and wheel assembly are attached to a vertical pillar or kingpin which slides up and down through a bush or bushes which are attached to the veh ...
with
coil spring
A selection of conical coil springs
The most common type of spring is the coil spring, which is made out of a long piece of metal that is wound around itself.
Coil springs were in use in Roman times, evidence of this can be found in bronze Fib ...
s).
Vincenzo Lancia even invented a
shock absorber
A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical or hydraulic device designed to absorb and damp shock impulses. It does this by converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typically heat) which is then dissipated. Most sh ...
for the car and it had excellent four wheel brakes. Approximately 11,200 Lambdas were produced.
Nine versions of the Lambda were built:
* 1st series, produced 1923, 400 built.
* 2nd series, produced between 1923 and 1924, 1,100 built. Minor modifications for engine.
* 3rd series, produced 1924, 800 built. Engine modified.
* 4th series, produced between 1924 and 1925, 850 built. Modified windscreen.
* 5th series, produced 1925, 1,050 built. 4-speed gearbox.
* 6th series, produced between 1925 and 1926, 1,300 built. Car is sold now with bare chassis and with two wheelbases.
* 7th series, produced between 1926 and 1928, 3,100 built. New bigger engine.
* 8th series, produced between 1928 and 1930, 3,903 built. Again bigger engine.
* 9th series, produced 1931, 500 built. Last series sold only bare chassis.
Engines
The narrow-angle aluminium
Lancia V4 engine
Italian automobile company Lancia was the first to manufacture cars with V4 and V6 engines in series-production. This started with a number of V4-engine families, that were produced from the 1920s through 1970s.
The Lancia V4 pioneered the narr ...
was also notable. All three displacements shared the same long stroke, and all were
SOHC
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...
designs with a single camshaft serving both banks of cylinders. The first engine had a 13° V angle, the second 14° and the third 13° 40'.
Gallery
File:Lancia Lambda 1923.jpg, Lancia Lambda (1923)
File:1924 Lancia Lambda Serie II at Greenwich 2021, front right.jpg, Lancia Lambda (1924)
File:Lancia Lambda white vr TCE.jpg, Lancia Lambda (1925)
File:Lancia-Lambda.jpg, Lancia Lambda (1926)
File:Lancia Lambda-Mk7 1927 Front-view.JPG, Lancia Lambda VII S (1927)
References
*
*Lancia by Michael Frostick, 1976.
External links
Lancia Motor Club (UK)Lancia Lambda at Simeone Automotive Museum
{{Lancia
Lambda
Lambda (}, ''lám(b)da'') is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant . In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is derived from the Phoenician Lamed . Lambda gave rise ...
Cars introduced in 1922
1930s cars
Rear-wheel-drive vehicles