L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano L ancia turns 120 this year, and one anniversary cele- bration will bring three elegant cars back into the spotlight. At Festival Car, the concours d'elegance taking place in Piedmont on September 26 and 27, the 1931 Artena Cabri- olet, 1951 Aurelia B20 GT and 1955 Aurelia B24 Spider will appear together, revisited by iconic car designer Pininfa- rina, in a tribute to his collab- oration with Lancia. It is a fit- ting way to mark the birthday of a company whose history has always depended on engi- neering, design and the ability to turn both into a recogniz- ably Italian product. The firm was founded in Turin on November 27, 1906, by Vincenzo Lancia and Claudio Fogolin, who had both worked at Fiat. Vincenzo was already well known as a racing driver, yet the company he founded built its reputa- tion on technical experimen- tation, not racing: its first model, the 12 HP of 1908, used a light, low chassis and drove its wheels through a shaft instead of a chain, both unusual choices for the peri- o d . T h e i n n o v a t i o n s s o o n became more ambitious. The Lambda, introduced in 1922, was the first production car b u i l t w i t h a l o a d - b e a r i n g monocoque body, meaning the shell itself carried the stresses instead of resting on a separate frame, making it lighter and more solid. Soon, this became standard across the industry. In 1950 came the Aurelia, fitted with the first production V6 engine in automotive history and then, a decade later, the Flavia, the first Italian production car with front-wheel drive. The mix between engineer- ing and design remained cen- tral to the style and ethos of the brand throughout its long history, with cars such as the Aurelia, the Flaminia and later the Thema offering a particular Italian interpreta- tion of luxury, elegant and understated at the same time. Coach-builders like Pininfa- rina, Zagato and Bertone strengthened Lancia's reputa- t i o n a s a d e s i g n - f o c u s e d name. Then came motorsport, another important element of Lancia's success, especially in the world of rally, with icons like the Stratos, the 037 and, of course, the Delta. Lancia h o l d s a r e c o r d t e n W o r l d Rally Championship con- structors' titles under the championship's official man- ufacturers' classification, six of them won by the Delta in consecutive years between 1987 and 1992! Commercially, however, its history has been less linear, a s L a n c i a e n j o y e d s t r o n g s a l e s a c r o s s E u r o p e f o r decades, but witnessed a sig- nificant range contraction through the 2010s, so far that t h e Y p s i l o n w a s t h e o n l y model left, and Italy effective- ly the only market. Even then, the badge retained unusual strength, since the Ypsilon sold more than three million units over four generations and, in 2023, was Italy's third best-selling car, with 44,743 registrations. Today, Stellantis is trying to rebuild Lancia and make it market-competitive again: the n e w Y p s i l o n , l a u n c h e d i n 2024, marked its return to several European markets, and the brand is again invest- ing in performance models and in rallying. The relaunch leans deliberately on Italian design as well: the first new Ypsilon was developed with Cassina, linking automotive interiors to another sector strongly associated with Made in Italy. Lancia's 120th anniversary therefore arrives at an inter- esting moment: the three Pin- infarina cars appearing at Festival Car represent what the brand once did exception- ally well, evidence of why the name still has such value. The challenge now is whether a modern Lancia can transform that inheritance into some- thing commercially relevant again, rather than relying on the affection created by cars built decades ago. W h e n w e t h i n k o f grand Ita- l i a n i n v e n - tions, our minds naturally drift to Galileo's telescope, the radio, or the battery. Yet, some of Italy's greatest con- t r i b u t i o n s t o c i v i l i z a t i o n weren't forged in a laborato- ry, but rather on the chaotic, salt-stained trading docks of the Adriatic: because long before London or New York dominated global finance, there was only one place to go if you wanted to become a master of trade, Venice. During the Middle Ages a n d t h e R e n a i s s a n c e , t h e Venetian Republic was cer- tainly a place of beauty and wealth but also a ruthless commercial superpower that treated international com- merce like a precise science. Venice operated as the true crucible of modern business education and young appren- tices flocked to the lagoon to attend the famous Scuola d'Abaco (abacus schools). Here, they mastered practical business mathematics, com- mercial geography, and cur- rency conversion. C r u c i a l l y , V e n i c e w a s w h e r e t h e w o r l d a d o p t e d double-entry bookkeep- ing, often called "il metodo v e n e z i a n o " ( t h e V e n e t i a n method): Popularized by the friar Luca Pacioli, this revo- l u t i o n a r y s y s t e m a l l o w e d merchants to track profits, losses and liabilities across vast maritime networks. To survive the dangerous silk and spice routes, Venetians also pioneered early forms of joint-stock ventures and mar- itime insurance, effectively inventing modern risk man- agement. This deep-rooted cultural heritage eventually laid the groundwork for formal acad- emic commerce. In August 1868, this legacy was codi- fied when the Royal Higher S c h o o l o f C o m m e r c e w a s founded in a stunning Gothic palace overlooking the Grand Canal. Today, we know it as Ca' Foscari University of Venice, which holds the his- toric distinction of being the first business school in Italy and the second oldest in the entire world. From its very inception, its founders realized that raw arithmetic wasn't enough to build an international mer- chant class, so they paired economic theory with the i n t e n s i v e s t u d y o f b o t h Western and Eastern lan- guages, ensuring that gradu- a t e s k n e w e x a c t l y h o w t o bridge and negotiate across clashing cultures. Today, the l e g a c y o f V e n i c e ' s r o l e i n c r e a t i n g b u s i n e s s s t u d i e s lives especially through the modern Venice School of Management, which ranks in the top 2% of business schools globally. Venice's centuries-old mercantile tradition helped shape modern business prac- tices, from double-entry bookkeeping to formal commercial education (Image gen- erated using Adobe Illustrator AI) Venice, the floating empire where the world learned to do business L a n c i a a t 1 2 0 : a M a d e i n I t a l y s t o r y o f design, engineering and reinvention A vintage Lancia Flaminia Coupé by Pininfarina, one of the models that helped define the brand's elegant design identity (Photo: Fallostupido/Dreamstime) IMPRESA ITALIA MADE IN ITALY TOP BRANDS BUSINESS & ECONOMY

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