BOOK REVIEW: LANCIA LORAYMO, ONE OF ONE!

This book is as much about Loewy’s logic of industrial design and creative process as it is about his bespoke Lancia.

Raymond Loewy, the Father of Industrial Design, is most familiar to consummate carguys because of Studebaker’s Avanti and Starliner coupes. Loewy was also responsible for designing streamlined locomotives, refrigerators, telephones, and logos for Shell Oil, Exxon, TWA and Lucky Strike to name a few.`

Written by Brandes Elitch, Lancia Loraymo follows the development of Raymond Loewy’s one-off Lancia, designed as a personal project to advertise the Loewy brand. Built for the 1960 Paris Motor Show, where it was the hit of the show, the Loramyo was reminiscent of the fabulous cars that graced the Concours d’Elegance circuit in pre-war France.

Its Flaminia chassis was specially prepared by Lancia to showcase a handcrafted Carrozzeria Moto aluminum body. It garnered enormous publicity for a few short years, and then disappeared. Like the intrigue that surrounds the fabled Chrysler Norseman dream car, the missing Loramyo came back to life when it was found 20 years later in a scrap yard in Sacramento, CA, missing its original drivetrain. It was scheduled to be crushed.

This is the story of the birth, near-death, discovery and restoration of Loewy’s Loraymo. Elitch follows the trail, recalling the history of the car, its illustrious designer, and the Lancia marque, as it pertained to Loewy’s perspective on automobile and industrial design of the time. This historical journey wraps up with the design of the Studebaker Avanti, which utilized many of the design cues from the Loraymo.

This is a fascinating story of one of the most mysterious show cars of the post-war period. It is well documented in 128 pages with 100 photos and illustrations. It’s available only in a limited hardback edition of 500 copies at $59.95 from Fetherston Publishing, PO Box 1742, Sebastopol, CA 95473.

For more information, please visit http://www.loewylancia.com/