1957 Lancia DaGrada F JR

1957 Lancia DaGrade FJr Additional Info:

In 1957,F.I.A. was the controlling entity for Formula One (F1) and Formula Two (F2). The designation of F2 was changed to Formula Junior (FJr). Headed by Giovani Laurani, former F1 driver,the change was made in an effort to reduce production costs and allowed production based motors to be used.Noted engineer, Vittorio Jano,was the designer of this car. He previously headed up the Alfa Romeo race car design program and then designed cars for Enzo Ferrari. By 1957 he was the head of design and engineering for the Lancia company. He realized the design advantage of his Lancia Appia V4 motor’s double under head cam design and re-engineered the motor for FJruse.

The first twelve motors for the new design were allocated to the Lancia FJr race program. The motor in our 1957 Lancia Dagrada FJr is number 004 of the new design; the chassis is 008. The first race use of this new motor was the Italian Grand Prix of 1957. Our car, driven by L. Bandini. was raced in this event taking first place. The car and the driver so impressed Enzo Ferrari that he hired Bandini to be a Ferrari Formula one team driver.

This car, with motor number 004 was raced in the 1957 European race series at Monaco, Monza and the other Grand Prix events. In 1958 our car was entered in the infamous GP of Cuba where Formula one World Champion, Juan Manual Fangio was kidnapped by Fidel Castro.

Subsequent to the Cuban Grand Prix, and the release of Juan Manual Fangio, our car was brought to the United States and raced in the full series of Grand Prix races.

Following the 1960 Grand Prix season this car was put in storage and remained unused until we purchased in in 1992. We then did a full restoration and rebuild of the motor, transmission and drive line and then stored the car; it remains perfect, but unpainted.

This car is eligible for the FJr race series that is run concurrently with all F1 Grand Prix race events today.

The car comes with many spares, extra transmissions and engine components.While the car is unpainted, it includes all instruments, trim and components.