The Lancia Aprilia is a 4-door saloon, 2-door cabriolet from Lancia, built from 1937 to 1949, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. Under the bonnet: 1,352 . The total made was 27,637.
Where it came from
The Lancia Aprilia (1937–1949) is a family car manufactured by Lancia, one of the first designed using a wind tunnel in collaboration with Battista Farina and Polytechnic University of Turin, achieving a record low drag coefficient of 0.47. The berlinetta aerodinamica was first shown in 1936. Production commenced in February 1937, the month in which the firm's founder died: this was the last of Vincenzo Lancia's designs, featuring four pillarless doors. The first series (mod. 238, 10,354 units, 1937–39) featured a 1,352 cc V4 motor providing 47 PS (35 kW). The second series (mod. 438, 9,728 units, 1939–49) had its engine capacity increased to 1,486 cc which provided 48 PS (35 kW). A Lusso model of this second series was also offered as well as a lungo (lengthened) version (706 made, 1946–49). A total of 20,082 cars and 7,554 additional chassis for coach built bodies were produced in Turin along with about 700 in France. With the Aprilia Lancia followed their tradition of offering cars with the steering wheel on the right even in markets seen by other manufacturers as left hand drive markets. Outside the UK and Sweden customers increasingly picked the optional left hand drive versions, however. Special designs include those by Ugo Zagato (1938), a Carrozzeria Touring convertible, the army's Torpedo militare (World War II), a Luigi Pagani-tuned barchetta bodied by boatbuilders Riva di Merate on a pre-war chassis (1946), a Bertone convertible (1947), one of Michelotti's first, while at Vignale (1949).
The last Aprilia left the factory on October 22, 1949, in its trunk, a fare
Under the skin
Power comes from 1,352 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 900 kg. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 2750 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: its successor was the Lancia Aurelia. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Volkswagen Beetle, the Lincoln Continental, the Bugatti Type 57 — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Lancia catalogue sit the Lancia 037 and the Lancia 2000.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Lancia Aprilia has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.