The French capital plays also a part in the history of Lancia. For it was on the 6^th of October 1932 that the Lancia Augusta was introduced at the Salon de l’Automobile in Paris, where this wonderfully engineered compact and light 4-seater proved to be a great success.

A magnificent period photo of the Lancia factory at Bonneuil-sur-Marne, near Paris.   

This led to a remarkeable feat in Lancia history : it started series production of its famous Augusta in… France, to avoid the massive import duties in this country. The car was renamed "Belna" for this occasion, to distinguish them from the Italian-built Augustas.

Lancia Belnas and Augustas gathering in commemoration in front of the old factory, which remained completely unscathed through the decades and is still working, producing injection moulded plastics!

A period shot of the delivery hall at Bonneuil...  

It built a factory near Paris, at Bonneuil-sur-Marne, on a site measuring an impressive 50,000 square meters. Actually, the factory was financed by the French state, as it was keen to create jobs in the region. This is the main reason why it levied the import duties on foreign cars, forcing the manufacturers to look for assembly in the Gallic « Pentagone ». Remember, this was still in the early thirties, when the global economic climate wes very difficult indeed.

History re-enacted: the Belna's stand proudly again in the same delivery hall...  

Lancia had played its cards very well with the Augusta, being exactly the right car for its time, combining very fine road manners with good performance and excellent quality and economy.

A separate French company was founded to supervise the assembly of the cars, but its management remained Italian. The Augustas were built in France from 1934 to 1936, and about 2500 « Berlines » were built. One immediately realises that productivity in those days was not the same as today. There were about 550 men working in the fairly large factory. One can question what amount of energy it took to assemble this car, what the environmental impact was producing it. Certainly todays factories are a lot more automated...

The French-built Augusta was renamed « Belna ». It was strikingly similar to its Italian cousin, except for the French Cibié headlamps, the Jaeger instrumentation, and as Wim Oude Weernink described it in his exellent book ‘La Lancia’ on page 106, a « massive pressing surrounding the crank hole in the radiator and different bumpers and colour schemes ». Indeed, the bumpers were elegantly curved instead of the straight chocks seen on the Italian Augustas.

An original brochure of the Belna, showing the curved front bumper and the specific radiator grille treatment...  

We can see this clearly on the reprint of a Belna brochure, showing a roadster version of the Lancia Belna. The strong casting around the crank hole was necessary of course, as the deeply curved bumper now left the lower side of the radiator unprotected. This was indeed a sensible thing to do as Paris city trafic was already quite dense in those days.

The later Belnas, as also the example on the brochure shows, had also the more elegant V-shaped radiator.

To mark the anniversary of the show success on the Paris Salon, The Amici dell’Augusta & della Belna recently made a journey to the former Lancia factory outside Paris, exactly on the same day as the introduction of the car on the Paris show in 1932.

Due to a torn muscle I could not attend the event, but Lancia Club Belgio President Jan van Hoorick passed me the photos of this venue, courtesy of the Registro Lancia Augusta.

Back to the birthplace: the Belnas and Augustas gathering in front of the factory gates, with Jan van Hoorick in the foreground.  

As You can see, some 12 Augustas and Belnas drove from five countries to the grounds of the factory. The buildings of the factory, Lancia’s first outside Italy, still stand proudly, having survived the war and the following decades virtually unscathed. What’s more, it is still working, and now produces injection moulded plastics for… the motor industry !

Period factory photos…

Lancia recently published a book with magnificent and detailed period photos of the factory, and of course I cannot resist showing some of them here.

The chassis assembly of the Belna, which was of unitary construction, state-of-the art technology in those days! Today this would be done by a street of robots, with the bodyworks on rigs...

Further bodywork buildup and assembly in the French Lancia factory 

The period photo in the beginning of this article showing the line up of Belnas ready for delivery inside the factory is famous, and this was of course the occasion to let history happen again, albeit with a smaller number of cars… but the picture is just as dramatic nonetheless !

Even the transmission gears were made and rectified in the Franch factory...  

The day proved also to be a good occasion to stage a present day « re-edition » of the famous photograph of Tazio Nuvolari, standing beside his Augusta which he used for his personal transport.

Jan van Hoorick and and Umberto Del Corona of the Registro Augusta Italiano rose to the occasion and posed beside an Augusta…

Here You see Jan van Hoorick driving his  Kevill-Davies and March supercharged Augusta to the commemoration at Bonneuil-sur-Marne...  

Talking about Augustas, I drove Jan’s Belna shown here some time ago, and I will tell You on this site about my driving impressions soon… followed by road impressions of a magnificent Aurelia!

Hans Knol ten Bensel