Lancia, Flaminia, Zagato and covered headlamps:

Post-War Lancias flagship model, the Flaminia, was first introduced in 1957 and quickly become a success. Fitted with Lancia’s free-revving and torquey V-6 engine, it was more sophisticated and more advanced than the Aurelia it was replacing at the top of the model range.

Throughout its lifetime, the Flaminia was available in several variations, including a saloon, coupe and cabriolet. As success grew, so did demand for a sportier, lighter model. The Flaminia Sport was born, with Carrozzeria Zagato designing a fabulously elegant and aerodynamic lightweight aluminium body, with its iconic ‘double-bubble’ styling. This two-seater was built on the sportiest short-wheelbase GT chassis, retaining Lancias revered 2,458 cc V-6 engine which was designed by engineer Francesco De Virigilio.

Today, the first 99 Lancia Flaminia Sports are considered the holy grail of Flaminias. These cars were built by Zagato with covered headlamps, giving the car a distinctive look, whilst also being the rarest and most sought-after of Flaminias.

This Lancia Flaminia Sport Series 1 by Zagato:

The car offered here, chassis 824.02 1007 was produced in early 1959, with its Certificate of Origin being issued on 7^th April. Interestingly, this series 1 Flaminia was first registered to the Milanese coachbuilder from where it was given its effortlessly elegant bodywork, Carrozzeria La Zagato S.R.L, and assigned the Italian license ‘MI 432532’.

Although not initially designed for competition, the Flaminia Sport did offer great sporting potential with its powerful and efficient Lancia V6 engine, and lightweight aerodynamic bodywork. With this in mind, Giovanni Rota purchased this car from Zagato, before competing at the 1960 Trento Bondone Hillclimb on 10^th July. Period pictures included with the car confirm that at this very first event Rota was a serious competitor, having removed his bumpers to save weight, just as the car is presented today.

August 1960 saw this ‘double-bubble’ Flaminia Sport enter the Giro Automobilistico Dei Due Mari – Coppa Citta di Catanzaro, with ‘Conte Scanza’ as the driver, but who was ‘Conte Scanza’? From a letter within this car’s history file from the Automobile Club Catanzaro in early July 1960, we read that the club will accept the eldest son of Zagato founder Ugo Zagato, Elio Zagato, to compete under the alias ‘Conte Scanza’!

Wearing race number 490, Elio Zagato raced this car at the 1960 Giro Automobilistico Dei Due Mari, with the iconic ‘double-bubble’ coachwork from his father’s company, La Zagato! At the end of the event, Elio Zagato won his class, a fitting result when driving such a car!

A month later at Monza was the Coppa Inter-Europa race which saw Elio Zagato partner with Giovanni Rota. Later, the Coppa Inter-Europa would become the 1000 kilometres of Monza endurance race. As with all races this car competed in, the history file contains great period pictures, clearly showing this car being driven hard. In practise, Rota and Zagato event increased the class lap record, completing the lap with an average speed of 157.534 km/h. After gruelling 79 laps of the fast and flowing Autodromo Monza circuit, this Lancia Flaminia Sport Series 1 by Zagato crossed the finish line first in class! For Elio Zagato, racing this Series 1 Flaminia Sport, he achieved a 100% class win record!

Later in 1960 this Flaminia Sport was bought by another Italian, Maria di Lentini in Catania, who registered the car with the license ‘CT 66090’. Maria kept the car for a further six years before selling it to Rome where it was registered with license ‘Roma 990494’. March 1968 saw Massimo Marsiani purchase the car, maintaining ownership until the current owner purchased the car.

During the current owners’ custody, this car was the recipient of a Concours-quality, no-expense-spared restoration by renowned experts, Carrozzeria Quality Cars in Padova, Italy. This exacting restoration is detailed through a bespoke leather-bound folder containing an image of the car before and after works, along with many images of the car at various stages of the restoration.

Today this car is finished in the livery with which it won the 1960 Coppa Inter-Europa with Elio Zagato and Giovanni Rota, whilst being presented in truly exceptional condition. We challenge you to find one of the original 99 covered-headlamp Flaminia Sport’s by Zagato in a better condition, this car truly is remarkable.

There cannot be many cars which were designed by Zagato, built by Zagato, owned by Zagato, and successful raced by Zagato - Make sure you done miss this piece of history.

Price Upon Request