Dagrada Lancia Formula Junior, 1962…
With the announcement of Formula Junior in 1958 the floodgates opened to chassis builders from around the globe using 1100c BMC, Fiat, Ford, Renault and Lancia engines. The latter provided one of the loudest, potent engines to ten or so front and mid-engined cars built by Milanese mechanic, Angelo Dagrada.
Born in 1912, he initially made his name building cars for the post-war Italian 750 and 1100cc classes. He improved the Fiat 1100-Siata head and achieved some significant wins before road accidents slowed him. By 1955, Dagrada was again tuning cars, this time Alfa Romeos.
The Baghetti’s, owners of a successful Milan foundry were customers. Dagrada aided and abetted teenage would-be-racer Giancarlo Baghetti by modifying the family Alfa 1900, without telling Baghetti senior.
Just as Baghetti started racing Alfas and Abarths, Dagrada concocted a new Formula Junior design for 1959, just as the British mid-engined hordes took over the class.
Always an engine man, Degrada good look at the 1090cc Lancia Appia engine rather than go the Fiat route like most other Italian FJ manufacturers. With a sturdy 10-degree cast-iron V-4, the Appia unit was available and light. The design’s shortcoming was an intricate aluminum head that stymied attempts to make it breathe deeply.
Dagrada’s solution was to substantially redesign the head. By creating new intake and exhaust ports, he achieved a crossflow design which was fed by a Weber 38DCO3 carburettors mounted either side of the block. With carefully calculated tuned-length-exhausts the horsepower gain of the 1090cc (68x75mm bore/stroke) engine was huge, up from 48bhp to circa 95bhp @ 6700-7000rpm.
The gearbox was a modified Lancia Flaminia/Flavia unit. With a simple ladder-frame chassis – the engine was offset to allow the driveshaft to pass alongside the driver – wishbone and coil spring/dampers and adjustable roll bars front and rear, modified Fiat 1100 brakes and an aluminum body reminiscent of a 250F Maserati, the car was ‘the goods’.
Giancarlo Baghetti demonstrated his burgeoning talent with a new Dagrada doing well in the junior-leagues before winning the more professional Prova Addestrativa on March 27, and Vigorelli Trophy races on April 25, 1960 both at Monza. He was equal fourth in the Italian FJ Championship together with Geki Russo – the title was won by Renato Pirocchi, Stanguellini Fiat. Giorgio Bassi was the other driver who did well in his Dagrada that year. By the spring of 1961 Baghetti was on Enzo Ferrari’s radar with an F1 seat his shortly thereafter.
The British rear-engined revolution started by Cooper and refined by Lotus ensured the days of front engined Formula Junior were nearing their end, one of the sweetest of that breed was the Degrada Lancia…
Angelo’s mid-engined design (below) which followed wasn’t a success, Giorgio Bassi took one race win for the chassis in the Coppa Junior Italian Championship round at Monza on May 13 1962, when the top-Brits were elsewhere…
Etcetera…
The donor of the Dagrada engine. 107,000 Lancia Appia’s were built between 1953 and 1963.
Dagrada was not the only marque to use the Appia engine, others included Raf, Raineri and Volpini.
Giorgio Bassi in his mid-engined Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus Degrada Lancia, 22nd during the Preis von Tirol at Innsbruck on October 8, 1961, car #15 is the Andre Rolland Stanguellini Fiat and #7 Bernard’s Foglietti Fiat.
Credits…
‘Emily’-Vladyslav Shapovalenko, velocetoday.com, Leo Schildkamp
Finito…
primotipo... 