Lancias As Dogs: Cold Start

I feel like, generally, we’re not thinking enough about Lancias. You know, as a society. I think we do devote a healthy and well-earned amount of time to thinking about dogs, which I am all for, so I was pleased to discover this unexpected canine-Lancia crossover in a late-’50s brochure for the Lancia Appia. It’s weirdly charming, so let’s start the week the right way, with a healthy injection of weird charm-oin right into our veins.

I’m sorta repeating the top image here, but including all the text this time so you can see the Appia coupé, a tidy Pininfarina design, is being represented by what I think is a poodle holding an umbrella. A poodle made of newsprint, even, which I’m pretty sure is some kind of poodle sub-breed. The brochure suggests this is a “car for the lady and for the business-man,” and I suppose somehow that’s like a poodle. A newsprint, business poodle. Fine by me!

We’re fortunate the Appia was one of those cars that had multiple, wildly different bodies one could buy for it, by different designers. This one is by Zagato, and is by far the sportiest Appia, the Appia GTE, long and low sports car with plexi-domed headlamps and a fishmouth grille and a fantastic overall look. The canine analogue appears to be a dachshund sporting a checkered flag, and while that does capture the long and low qualities of the Zagato body, I’m not sure it says all that much about the speed of the car. These did only make about 53 hp, so maybe they’re just being honest.

Still, who doesn’t love a wiener dog?

The convertible Appia was designed by Vignale (specifically Giovanni Michelotti) , completing the set of legendary Italian designers that Lancia seems to have been determined to get for the Appia family. It’s very similar to the Pininfarina coupé, but not exactly like it. It’s very handsome and appealing car, and for some reason the dog chosen to represent this variant is some kind of little chihuahua-type of dog, wearing an old-style aviator’s cap, much like a noted flying squirrel, and sitting in a handbag or valise. The dog is head is kind of cocked in that dog-confusion way we all love.

I suppose the way the dog sits in the valise is kind of like how it feels to be sitting in a convertible? Is that what’s going on here?

I also wanted to be sure you got a good look at the narrow-angle V4 engine used in the Appias, because it’s a really interesting engine, one of the first V4s produced in quantity and one of the first narrow-angle V4s, with only a 10° vee and a shared camshaft for both banks of cylinders. It’s also just a very cool-looking engine, I think!