Vincenzo Lancia

Vincenzo " Censin " Lancia ( born August 24, 1881 in Fobello, Piedmont, † February 15, 1937 in Turin ) was an Italian racing driver and car designer.

Vincenzo Lancia was born as the son of the Cavaliere Giuseppe Lancia canners in the small mountain village Fobello far back in the Piedmontese Sesia Valley. He had three other siblings named Giovanni, Arturo and Maria.

By the will of the Father, he should become a lawyer, but after his poor school performance Lancia was an accountant, and worked as such at Fiat to. But as he was interested in the vehicles, he soon left his office items to be worked as a mechanic and later racers. For Fiat, the Italian denied numerous races in the early days of motor racing, this, first set the race Paris -Madrid 1903. Among the best benefits Lancia count of second place in the Vanderbilt Cup in 1906.

In 1906 he founded together with Claudio Fogolin the automobile company Lancia. 1908 Vincenzo Lancia was therefore dismissed by Fiat as a racer, but remained until 1910 as an employee on the payroll. After tentative experiments with its own vehicles to start in the race, he concentrated from 1911 complete in the construction and development of its vehicles that were regarded as fast and elegant sports cars and were technically complex but also very reliable. In the aftermath Lancia made ​​with many innovations in automotive talked about, received numerous patents and was considered the " Brand of the engineers ." Under the leadership of the Italian even trucks, buses, trolley buses and military vehicles of various kinds have been built except passenger cars.

Vincenzo Lancia died in February 1937 at the age of 55 years in Turin. His son Gianni Lancia took over then in March 1937 to lead the company.