I NEED!!

"AMC/Renauledge" (n2skylark)
09/13/2014 at 00:17 • Filed to: None

Every now and then, I get the urge to see if the internet comes up with anymore to offer in English on the Lancia Gamma. And when it inevitably does, I feel this sense of lust, the fires of which can never be quenched on this side of The Pond.

Coupe or Berlina, I adore it. 2.5L flat-4, manny tranny, and two distinctly incredible shapes. Superior handling and road manners for the day. Plenty of low-end torque. Probably the most crisp and elegant-looking fastback sedan ever produced. And the coupe has a body that made the contemporary Mercedes SLC look dowdy.

Why didn't they sell these in America? WHY?!?!?!?!?! I NEED!!!!

DISCUSSION (8)

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > AMC/Renauledge
09/13/2014 at 00:19

A short hop across the Atlantic would probably see not a sense of lust, but rather a sense of rust...

AMC/Renauledge > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut
09/13/2014 at 00:26

I am sure it would. And that would be sad. But attainable. And wallet-wrecking. Plus, I've read that the flat-4s in these things were fragile, though the facelifted models worked a lot of the bugs out. It just so happens that I like the refinements of the facelifted cars, as well.

Sigh.

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > AMC/Renauledge
09/13/2014 at 00:29

And the power steering of the Gamma wasn't helping either - since it was powered by the left cam belt, every time one turned the wheel to full lock, that belt would snap with obvious disastrous consequences. TG weren't joking when they said that the Gamma exploded every time you turned the wheel...

AMC/Renauledge > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut
09/13/2014 at 00:31

I've read that somewhere. So parallel parking must have been a scream!

Did that get refined out of the later models?

TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut > AMC/Renauledge
09/13/2014 at 00:33

Luckily it did, but like all Lancias, pretty much worsened their reputation.

AMC/Renauledge > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut
09/13/2014 at 00:36

Yeah, it seems like Lancia rewarded the customers who waited 4 years or so to buy their newest car, with the car it should have been all along.

Luckily, most Lancias had unusually long product cycles.

Not a great business model, though. I read that, when Lancia was bought by Fiat in 1969, they were making 40k cars per year, but their break-even was 100k per year. And their newest model in 1969 was 5 years old by then!

AMC/Renauledge > TwinCharged - Is Now UK Opponaut
09/13/2014 at 00:47

And I sort of wonder at what point the balance tipped against companies like Lancia and Alfa. Their cars have always been deliciously flawed.

Was it the slow rise of the Japanese and German manufacturers from the ashes of WWII that did it? With their attention to obsessive build quality, over-engineering, and reliability? By the '60s, the cars from both countries were competitive at least, and by the '70s, they were becoming superior all-around to what the French, British, Italians, Swedes, and Americans were slapping together at the time.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > AMC/Renauledge
09/14/2014 at 07:01

I really like these :) my dad used to have a coupe before I was born. Really nice car, although you'd be wise to do some relocating of the power steering system. The pulley runs the back of one of the cam banks, so if you jolt the steering violently (driving into a kerb at a bit of speed for instance) you can either cause it to skip a tooth on the timing or break it entirely.

Sort that and they've got sod all problems :)