38 auto italia
Exquisite ‘Aquaverde’ B24
Spider is ex-1956 Mille
Miglia. Short wheelbase
makes it a feisty handlerfor one with this racing provenance, that’s anybody’s
guess. Why did Anthony choose an Aurelia? He recalls:
“In 1966 I was looking for a sports car. An XK120 or an
AC-Bristol were top of the list. A friend, Michael Scott,
of 96 Club fame, told me that I should have a Lancia
Aurelia Spider. I looked at one, checked its boy racer
credentials and wasn’t impressed: 0-60 in 11 seconds,
top speed of 115mph. Sounded a bit of a yawn to me.
It did look good, though. My sister was secretary to
Maurice Smith, editor of Autocar, and I asked his chief
road tester, Ronald ‘Steady’ Barker (who was very
analytical), about the B24, saying it seemed a bit slow.
‘What a car does is important but so is howit does it,’
he replied. ‘The B24 is much more sophisticated with
its gearbox in the back, sliding pillar front suspension
and de Dion rear. If you and two friends went for a
cross-country blast, you would get there first. They
will run away from you on the straights but on the
twisty bits, especially fast sweepers, you will lose
them.’ I followed his advice and I have proved him right
on many a rally.”
Will bought his 1954 B20 Coupe in 2011, since
when it has been meticulously restored. “It had had
a number of previous repairs due to accident
damage and corrosion,” explains Will. “Some of these
repairs consisted of glassfibre, chicken wire and
paper! The front end wasn’t straight, at least two
inches shorter on one side. I took the boot, doors
and bonnet to be media-blasted and hoped there
would be something left.”We’re lucky enough to be driving two Aurelias today.
The Coupe belongs to Will How and the Spider (not to
be confused with the 1956 Aurelia convertible) is
Anthony Hussey’s. The latter is one of just 59 right-
hand drive examples, while Will’s Coupe, also right-hand
drive, is one of 745 built.
Both were imported to the UK by a car dealer in
London’s Warren Street, which Anthony remembers as
the ‘Street of Rogues’. The dealers had their own slang:
“’Eat, light an’ sound, four good boots, steel in the
boots, money in the window, don’t nail me to the floor.”
You what? That means heater, spotlights and a radio;
four good tyres (radial ones) and the price is in the
windscreen but I’ll let you argue a bit!
The two cars arrived at the dealer at the same time
in 1959, hence the closeness of their registration
numbers, XYR 314 and XYR 317. Two other Coupes
came in, XYR 312 (later written off) and XYR 313
(happily still in existence and awaiting restoration). As
for XYR 315 and 316, does anybody know about these?
Anthony’s car has some mouthwatering early history,
having been campaigned in the 1956 Mille Miglia and
Coppa d’Oro delle Dolomiti. The owner/driver was a
well-known racer called Pietro Ferraro, who competed
under the pseudonym ‘Ermete’ (the Hermit). While he
didn’t finish, he got as far as Rome, where, Anthony
suggests, either he saw a pretty girl or felt hungry!
In 1966, Anthony paid Chequered Flag £375 for the
Spider, perhaps £20,000 in today’s money. Spiders
today are worth three-quarters of a million pounds; as