The answer: Restoring an original 1937 Aprilia Berlina is very, very hard (but worth every wad of $100 bills and gallon of sweat). I visited the legendary Conrad Stevenson's Alfa Romeo shop last weekend and found this work-of-art-in-progress there.
Though Conrad specializes in Alfas, he'll take on the occasional Fiat or Lancia project if he loves the car enough. A solid prewar Aprilia with the pillarless suicide-door sedan design and slippery body shape determined by Pininfarina's wind-tunnel experiments definitely passes the test.
How's this for ahead-of-its-time engine technology?
Only problem with that V4 engine is that, in stock form, it ran about 5.5:1 compression (gasoline in 1930s Europe wasn't so good). To add a few extra horses to this Lancia, Conrad designed a custom higher-compression domed piston and had a set machined and balanced for this project.
Meanwhile, his workbench was full of these gorgeous triple-pad Alfa Romeo drum brake assemblies. Disc brakes are for cowards!
DISCUSSION
Eddin's Moto (epic gearhead happy porn land) has some absolutely fascinating insight into how beautifully made and hellishly complex these cars were here on a dedicated Appia (the Aprilia's succesor) page:
[www.eddinsmoto.com]