Silent as a Sphinx

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We showed you an early marketing mobile recently, now here’s another one. And it’s not based on a humble saloon with everyday body-on-frame construction but a mighty Lancia Lambda with its unitary body and independent suspension!

The promotional body was made in The Netherlands by coachbuilder W.J. van Trigt and son of Scheveningen in 1931, as it was commissioned by ‘NV Electrolux’ of The Netherlands who were based in Haarlem. The wonderful Lancia was of course meant to promote the Electrolux XII vacuum cleaner – silent as a Spinx!

The connoisseurs among you will no doubt be able to establish the exact kind of Lambda this is – we drool over the gloss paint job, disc wheels (spokes visible behind them) and the great stance of that low bodied Lancia. What a gem!

In the meantime, we learned that Swedish manufacturer Electrolux had several more promotional vehicles made, based on Citroën chassis’ and fully bodied to mimic vacuum cleaners. These vehicles are said to have been used on the streets of Stockholm, Berlin and London. A 1927 international sales conference in Berlin even saw Electrolux salesmen race these cars against each other: four plus a chauffeur in each of them. There’s also a nice photograph of a number of these vehicles under construction at coachbuilder’s Drauz premises in Heilbron, Germany. More information can be found on Electrolux’ own website.

Information on the Lambda, however, appears to be much more scarce, while we’d love to know a bit more about that. Can you help?

Words by Jeroen Booij. Pictures Spaarnestad Photo, Electrolux.

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