“STEADY SPECIAL”
LANCIA ASTURA AT RACE RETRO
The ex-Ronald ‘Steady’ Barker
1934 Lancia Astura is unveiled by
British designer Tony Southgate
on Motor Sport magazine stand at
Race Retro
Finally completed after extensive restoration, and as unique as
it was intended to be, the Lancia
Astura Steady Special was unveiled
on the Motor Sport magazine
stand at Race Retro 2015.
British designer and International Guild of Specialist Engineers
President Tony Southgate took
the covers off the 1934 Lancia, on
68 CarGuyMagazine.com
public display in its final configuration and complete after a four-year
restoration.
Legendary road test driver
and columnist Ronald “Steady”
Barker, who sadly passed away last
month, acquired the Lancia over
sixty years ago, and is rumoured to
have driven it to his interview with
Autocar in 1955; he wrote about it
in Motor Sport magazine and also
raced it after shortening the chassis, giving it a lighter sportscar shell
and a DB2 bonnet.
The Lancia’s current owner,
classic car enthusiast, Guild of International Engineering Specialists
founder and long-term friend of
Steady’s, Michael Scott, embarked
in the complicated process of restoring the car back in 2011.
“It wasn’t easy,” says Michael.
“Here we had a car that was crying out to be restored, but also
the legacy of sketches drawn by
Steady some sixty years ago, illustrating how he imagined the Lancia should look.”
Traditional skills and state-ofthe-art technology were utilised