Things were bad. There had been difficulties before for Lancia, but on both occasions the good guys had ridden over the hill to save the damsel in distress in the nick of time.
Back in 1955 Gianni Lancia had had to say goodbye to his eponymous company. Depending upon who you speak to, the reason for this parting of the ways varied from a lack of sales, through financial difficulties, to simple mismanagement arising from indulgence in motorsport and the resultant oh-so-easy haemorrhaging of money. There was a fourth possibility though and that was Gianni’s insistence upon construction of nothing but top-quality cars but at prices that didn’t cover the costs.
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