The Aprilia Sport, which was commissioned in 1936 by Enrico Minetti, a Lancia dealer based in Milan. Coachbuilder Zagato made three examples, all with different studies of bodywork inspired by aviation. The Lancia Aprilia Sport Zagato was built for racing. Unfortunately, during World War II, the Zagato factory was bombed and the car was destroyed.
To celebrate the centenary of Lancia and the long standing affiliation between the marque and the Milanese coachbuilder for its Sport versions, Andrea Zagato launched the ‘Sanction Lost’ programme.
The Zagato Atelier Classic division brought back to life the Lancia Aprilia Sport Zagato, a car which Andrea’s grandfather Ugo had built in 1938, and that had gone missing after it was destroyed in an Allied bombing. The complicated process did not start from hand drawn sketches, as with today’s cars, but from two faded monochrome photographs, the only remaining source of accurate information.
There were only a few faded black and white pictures of it, but, thanks to the photometric process, to the CAD modeling and to the CNC milling, the Aprilia Sport, shaped like the cross section of a wing, in a single volume undisturbed by external fenders, was reconstructed exactly as it originally was.
The recreation was made by Zagato’s new Zagato Atelier Classic division on a 1937 Aprilia chassis to celebrate Lancia’s centenary. The sheet metal of the bodywork was then skilfully hand crafted by master panel beaters, working on a solid, machined buck.
The final result is a symphony of perfectly taut lines and seamless highlights, impeccably resolving the limitations of prewar construction techniques in putting a concept into reality.
Shaped like the cross section of a wing, in a single volume undisturbed by external fenders, this car is a milestone in the almost 90 years of history of Zagato.
Come into the beautiful world of Zagato’s Atelier Classic division.
Yakymour 