How the mighty have fallen - Lancia

"Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa" (bularmy) 04/05/2015 at 16:39 • Filed to: Lancia

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Ah, Lancia the least known of the Italian brands by the mainstream car guys, or other people. If somebody ask you to name an Italian brands you will most probably go - Ferrari, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, maybe Maserati, but Lancia doesn't get love, except if you are a car guy and not only A car guy, but THE car guy, like you my Jalop friend, the ones that like all sorts of cars. Lancia has troubled history and now in 2015 is more or less dead, which is very sad, because it gave us numerous great cars. You want a Ferrari powered FWD car - get the Lancia Thema with the 308 2.9 V8. You want a rally champion - get the Fulvia with its not common for cars V4, or again the Ferrari powered Stratos, the supercar for the dirt. Or the supercharged specially built 037, the last RWD car to win the World Rally Championship. The S4 with its twincharged engine, that was the precursor of the later Integrale. And at the end came with the HF Delta Integrale. The turbo hot hatch to rule them all. Forget VW GTi, the Fords, the Renaults or even their rally nemesis Peugeot - the Integralle is the pinnacle of the homologation era hot hatch. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

MultiplaOrgasms > Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa 04/05/2015 at 17:28

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Small mistake here. The Delta Integrale never was twincharged. That would be the Delta S4, which was the tube frame, mid-engined Group B homologation special, as opposed to the turbocharged Group A Delta HF 4WD and Integrale. Also why not one mention of the pre-fiat era? Like the D24 and D50 for instance? Or the countless innovations and design classics that came before 1970 and made Lancias famous in the first place? As a Lancia fanboy, I am disappointed.

Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa > MultiplaOrgasms 04/05/2015 at 17:48

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Yeah a mistake, but too much beer. I wanted to include the S4 and the mix-up was made. Lancia is a very special brand, which history can't be summarized easily, sadly most of the popular things that people remember the brand is the Fiat era, which made the brand popular and also ran it into the ground in the mid 90s. They just can't get out of the shadow of Alfa I think, this is why there is not a lot of respect for the brand and of course the Italian unreliable stigma.

MultiplaOrgasms > Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa 04/05/2015 at 18:35

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The 1970s and 80s were what killed Lancia. The 1970s brought stereotypically italian cars with horrible quality and reliability, the 80s weren't quite as terrible, but the cars were bland and forgettable (remember the Dedra? No? You are not alone...). The only fondly remembered cars from the period were the aforementioned homologation specials, most of which were actually built by Abarth and not Lancia themselves. IMO, the mid 90s and early 00s were a time when Lancia was just beginning to get on it's feet and find its own identity again, with unique concepts like the Y as a luxury supermini, which I think fits the old Lancia character traits of elegant, understated design and quality paired with lots of outside the box thinking very well. And Fiat actually did try to improve quality drastically during the period, resulting in cars like the Kappa, which according to people posing as owners on the internet is much more reliable than the common knowledge suggests, and spawned cars with classic potential like the very rare Kappa SW and Coupé. But unfortunately the reputation established by the Beta and Gamma was too deeply rooted inside most peoples heads and so sales plummeted on, forcing Fiat to give up on Lancia altogether. And of course, there is the struggle against Alfa.

turbojames > Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa 04/05/2015 at 21:34

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So glorious

Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa > MultiplaOrgasms 04/06/2015 at 01:20

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I disagree a little, Lancia don't have anything that is remotely interesting after the end of the Integrale. Boring after boring cars, that had only interesting design(post 2000), but whose were love it or hate it type.

The funny thing is actually the Deadra was rather popular after the fall of the comunism here in Bulgaria. A shit ton of different Italian cars were the first wave of new cars, because they were cheap. One Deadra is still chugging at the hands of a mechanic near me.

MultiplaOrgasms > Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa 04/06/2015 at 07:35

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Again, I disagree. The Integrale and 8.32 were their only interesting cars during the 1980s, but they were halo cars rather than volume sellers, and the volume models happened to be boring and forgettable as well. One could argue that Lancias were always somewhat conservative in their design, especially with the sedans, but when they jumped on the retro train we ended up with design classics like the Lybra and Thesis. Interestingly enough the dull cars from the 1980s and 90s sold extremely well, which only proves that people like bland cars.

And coincidentally, a mechanic from my town DDs a Kappa.