Vincenzo Lancia

The amply proportioned Vincenzo Lancia was a double hero, if you will. He was a successful racing driver with over 20 victories to his credit and cars bearing his name won classics like the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio, Carrera Panamericana and, as part of the Fiat group, world rally and endurance racing championships.

The son of a wealthy soup canner, Lancia was born on August 24, 1881 at Fobello, Italy, a few kilometers from the Swiss border. Vincenzo was a lackluster student at Turin Technical School and dropped out when he was 17. For some time, he had had his eye on Giovanni Ceirano, who rented a stable in Turin owned by Lancia’s father Giuseppe, where he made bicycles before moving on to building cars. Vincenzo badgered his father so much that the brow-beaten Lancia senior persuaded Ceirano to employ him—and that is where Vincenzo learned his engineering basics. Fiat was founded in 1899 and bought the Ceirano company as a going concern. They appointed young Lancia their chief test driver, from which he graduated to the factory Fiat racing team, where he joined aces of the day like Felice Nazzaro and Alessandro Cagno.