The Lancia Trikappa is an
automobile produced 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 ...
between 1922 and 1925. It was a
luxury car, the flagship of Lancia's production. The Trikappa 4.5-litre
V8 is notable as the first of Lancia's narrow V engines, a distinguishing feature the manufacturer only abandoned in the 1970s. The car was offered as a bare
rolling chassis, as
torpedo or 6-seater
coupé de ville
Coupé de ville — also known as town car or sedanca de ville — is a car body style produced from 1908 to 1939 with an external or open-topped driver's position and an enclosed compartment for passengers. Although the different terms may ha ...
.
In total 847 were manufactured.
Lancia had been experimenting with
V engines since the
First World War, even showcasing a chassis with a narrow V 12-cylinder engine at the 1919
Paris Motor Show. In the end V12 engined cars were estimated to be too expensive to produce and a V8 was used instead.
Specifications
The Trikappa was powered by a 4,594 cc ''Tipo 68'' V8, with a bore and stroke of and . The engine featured a narrow 14° angle between the
cylinder banks, and a single
overhead camshaft and two parallel valves per cylinder. Fed by a
Zenith twin-choke
carburettor
A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meterin ...
,
it produced 98 hp at 2,500 rpm, allowing the Trikappa to reach a top speed of . The
gearbox had four forward speeds and a triple-plate dry
clutch
A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...
.
In addition to the narrow V engine, another first for Lancia were
brake
A brake is a mechanical device that inhibits motion by absorbing energy from a moving system. It is used for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, wheel, axle, or to prevent its motion, most often accomplished by means of friction.
Background ...
s on all four wheels. The first examples produced left the factory with rear wheel brakes only and were upgraded later. The brake pedal acted on the front brakes and
transmission brake, while the rears were actuated via a hand lever.
The rest of the mechanicals were as on other coeval Lancia models:
ladder frame
A vehicle frame, also historically known as its ''chassis'', is the main supporting structure of a motor vehicle to which all other components are attached, comparable to the skeleton of an organism.
Until the 1930s, virtually every car had a ...
,
solid axles front and rear with semi-elliptic
leaf springs and
Hartford dampers.
References
Bibliography
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*
{{Lancia Pre War Timeline
Trikappa
Flagship vehicles
Cars introduced in 1922