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Presents another forgotten racing car, this time the Lancia D23 Spyder Pinin Farina from 1953 a open racing car with a beautiful design and only four build.
The Only Remaining Lancia D23 can be admired at the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands.
The origin of the Lancia D23 goes back to the Lancia B20 GT Aurelia, a very successful car.
Giovanni Bracco (a wealthy privateer with close connections to Gianni Lancia) his Aurelia to the 1951 La Carrera Panamericana and finished second in the 1951 Mille Miglia One.
Amazing fact about the Lancia D20 was the coupe design, while Lancia racing sports cars were open cars.
At the 1953 Targa Florio Lancia started four Lancia D20 cars. A Lancia D20 driven by Umberto Maglioli won the race and another Lancia D20 driven by Gino Valenzano finished 4th. The other two Lancia D20 cars driven by Bracco and Taruffi were classified as DNF due to accidents.
After a very bad showing at Le Mans, where all of the Lancia D20 cars DNFed and the cars were slower than the Gordinis and Jaguars on the straightaways, Lancia decided to make substantial changes to the D20. The supercharger was removed from the engine and the engine capacity was increased to 3.0 litres and open top bodywork was used. These modified Lancia D20 cars were re-named the Lancia D23.
The Lancia D23 (displacement 2962 cc and 164 kW/223 hp) debuted at the Monza Grand Prix in 1953. There were two cars entered – Car #2 driven by Froilan Gonzalez DNF’d due to clutch failure while Car #4 driven by Felice Bonetto finished second behind Luigi Villoresi in a Ferrari 250MM.
In November 1953 Lancia entered a five-car team in the La Carrera Panamericana. Juan Manuel Fangio, Piero Taruffi, and Felice Bonetto were provided with Lancia D24 cars. Eugenio Castellotti and Giovanni Bracco were supplied with Lancia D23 models.
About 250 miles into the fourth leg of the race, Bonetto was entering Silao. While taking a curve at a high rate of speed, his Lancia D24 slid off the road a hit a light post very hard killing Bonetto.
At the end of the 1953 La Carrera Panamericana, Lancia finished 1-2-3 with Fangio in first place, Taruffi about 8 minutes behind in second, both in Lancia D24s. Castelotti in the lone finishing Lancia D23 finished in third position. The other Lancia D23 of Bracco was classified as DNF due to the failure of a wheel. However the death of Bonetto certainly ruined any victory celebration.
The Lancia D23 were decent race cars, with great lines, and they were an important stepping stone for the more successful D24 and D25 models.
HERE IS THE OTHER LANCIA
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