The Flaminia GT Coupé Touring is one of the variants of the Lancia Flaminia Berlina, produced from 1959 to 1965 with a Touring coupé body; however, it remained in the Lancia catalog until 1968.
After replacing the Aurelia sedan with the Flaminia limousine, Lancia had to consider introducing sportier versions, those that would replace the famous but now “older” Aurelia B20 coupé and B24 spyder. To do this, the Turin-based manufacturer followed the path already explored with the Appia, creating a chassis that could be bodied by the best Italian coachbuilders.
The sporty Flaminias were exhibited to the public for the first time at the 15th Turin Motor Show, which opened on November 5, 1958. There were three versions, all coupé-shaped, very different from each other and built by three of Italy’s most renowned coachbuilders: Pininfarina, Touring, and Zagato. Compared to the sedan, the mechanicals of the three new coupés featured no major revolutions, but only a few necessary changes such as a shortened wheelbase, increased power, and modified gearbox and axle ratios.
Pininfarina presented a luxurious coupé, Zagato a spartan and sporty berlinetta, while the Milanese coachbuilder Touring exhibited, with its classic “Superleggera” structure (a steel tube frame with an aluminum cover), a sleek two-seater coupé, characterized by dual headlights and striking rear lights.
It seems that the choice to build the car at the Milanese coachbuilder, which had not had any ties with Lancia since the Aprilia days, was due to the friendship between Carlo Pesenti and Gaetano Ponzoni, a partner of Touring owner Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni.
Production, albeit a limited series, began in early 1959, and already at the Geneva Motor Show in March, the Touring GT, like its Pininfarina and Zagato siblings, was exhibited with a major innovation: the adoption of Dunlop disc brakes. It is therefore reasonable to believe that an extremely limited number of Touring GTs left the factory with the old, classic drum brakes. It should be noted that disc brakes, which were fitted to all models, required an additional 60,000 lire.
In 1960, the GT, like the sedan and its other sporty siblings, had to adapt its headlights to the new highway code.
At the Geneva Motor Show in March 1960, the GT Cabriolet (then called the “Convertible”) was presented, which exactly mirrored the coupé’s lines, had the same engine, and offered the same performance.
In the summer of that same year, the entire Flaminia range, including the GT Touring coupés, underwent steering modifications: a telescopic hydraulic shock absorber was added to absorb even the slight jolts caused by the vertical movements of the wheel suspension and thus reduce steering wheel shake. Interestingly, Flaminia owners who hadn’t yet received this upgrade could obtain it for a fee of 20,000 lire.
The “first series” ended its life in December 1961, replaced by a new version with an engine equipped with three carburetors.
