With rust proofing?
What decade are you living in? When did you last see a rusty Italian car? Not since the mid eighties! On the other hand I often see rust on Fords andsome "prestige" makes. Get real!
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It was a comment I am sure about Lancias and not Italian cars in general. Lancias were renowned for corroding away in front of your very eyes.
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they're Beta now!!!!!!!!!
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Crickey! I was only joshing. I am sure Lancia's are great!!
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"Beta" Ged it? Guess not
VBR............MD.
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We will wait to see the offering CnC. If it's an under-engineered Fiat variant it won't really take. But perhaps it will be a true and proper Lancia!
Don't hold your breath though.
Edited by Lud on 07/02/2008 at 22:02
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"But perhaps it will be a true and proper Lancia!
Don't hold your breath though."
I think you might be spot on Lud - there seem to be quite a few Lancias in France - very "disappointing looking" - well, very ugly actually and reminded me of Daewoos.
I'm old enough to remember those Lancias with side tanks which Ferrari took over at some time in the '50s (D50????) and those fantastic rally cars - Stratos? , not to mention Aprilias, Fulvia, Flaminia etc. Think those days are long gone.
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there seem to be quite a few Lancias in France - very "disappointing looking" - well very ugly actually and reminded me of Daewoos.
My thoughts exactly Phil, that Lancia Thesis gives the odious Rhodius a run for its money in the ugly stakes!:
robson.m3rlin.org/cars/lancia-thesis-bicolore/
They ought to be making things like this reinvented Fulvia: snipurl.com/1z8vt
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Hmmm,
I am fairly sure this is the model I saw. In the flesh it's much better looking. One mans meat etc etc, I mean come on some people like the BMW Mini........................
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I always wondered what happened to the Scorpios Ford couldn't sell..
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Lud,
Yes I read they will really be Fiats in drag, but are all the make and models genetically linked these days ?
On the subject of looks, yepagreed some of them look wierd, but check out the new Delta which will launch them back over here.
Don't know what the model was, but a few years ago I saw a modern Lancia and it was gorgeous, but not on the scale of a B24 !!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Surely they are not going to bother.I thought Lancia were only built LHD these days. Fiat struggles in the UK,Alfa may as well pack up the numbers are so low,what makes anyone think that Lancia can make a go of it?
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Well actually sales of both Fiat and Alfa have never been better in the UK.
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"Beta".
Martin, I appreciated it!
Edited by Round The Bend on 08/02/2008 at 08:23
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Love the:
robson.m3rlin.org/cars/lancia-thesis-bicolore/
Thesis is equipped with 6-speed manual or 5-speed automatic ?Comfortronic? (not for 2.0). The interior is disguised with leather or Alcantara. In Geneva Motor Show 2004 was shown extended version (5,49 m) protoype.
Perhaps that is why they aren't selling, nobody can find them!
Edited by AlastairM on 08/02/2008 at 15:26
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Last Lancia I saw was a sort of joke Asian city-car looking thing. No doubt the next one will be too. The marque has vanished really. People here probably think the Stratos or the four wheel drive turbo HF thingy are real Lancias, but they stopped making them in the sixties really with the V4 engined coupes, the good one being the HF 1600. In the fifties they made a small saloon, the Aprilia, with the same jewel-like engine, and the Aurelia saloon as well as the B20 and its variants with an even better V6 and the gearbox at the back. I seem to remember the Aprilia had that too. Those were what you could call Lancias. Basically they were motors for well-heeled Italian gents with good taste. Had a drive in a B20 once and it is the only car I have driven with absolutely no backlash, play or lost motion in the steering, extraordinary.
Later, after a few years of rustprone, downmarket Betas (good driver's cars it was said though) there was an attempted revival with the Gamma saloon and coupe powered by a big flat four engine (flat fours had appeared in other Lancias too), but they were a bit underdeveloped and didn't do well, although both models were handsome and went well too. They rusted and were expensive to work on (lots of complicated cambelt threading).
Edited by Lud on 08/02/2008 at 16:04
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Up until about one year ago the bloke who delivers our office stationary used to drive a 2 litre Lancia Thema of about 1993 vintage, in decidedly average condition. I wondered how he kept it on the road that long.
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Well written Lud. Are you trying to follow on from George Bishop?
JH
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"Beta". Martin I appreciated it!
Mid Devon Eh! We're only just up the road from you then.
Very best regards and welcome to Gods county.
MD
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Can a departed manufacturer ever make it back again? Lancias were immediately off the menu when accounts of rusting engine mountings hit the press; Moskvitch died when a brand new model was put in for the MoT and it failed. Rootes became Chrysler became Talbot - 'nuff said. Leyland was never going to survive with over a dozen marques all vying for space... NATO bombing of the ex-Yugoslavia put paid to the Yugo factory and that was definitely that.
Quick straw poll of marques we'd all like to see back on the road? Can I start the ball rolling with Lonsdale? (Joking.)
Edited by PoloGirl on 10/02/2008 at 00:44
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Forgot this post-Lancia Lancia that I really couldn't help fancying in a helpless, giggling sort of way: the Thema (I think) 8/32, a boxy largish saloon with a Ferrari-derived four-valve V8 set transversely and driving the front wheels only... Fun in the wet one supposes and often at the tyrefitter, but what you might call a man's car.
I don't think they sold all that many.
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Trip down memory lane.My first motor trade job was with Lancia UK just after they had been taken over by Fiat and they were still making the V4 and Flat four models(proper Lancias).The Fulvia coupes particulaly the 1600HF were fantastic cars in their day and in fact won the world rally championship in I think 1973.Post Fiat/Beta introduction things weren't helped by the fact that the factory would go on strike every time there was a football match in Turin and it didn't help that they(and Alfa's) were held in a Folkstone car compound often up to their doorhandles in seawater for 6 months at a time.Those V4 and flat 4 engines were truly engineering masterpieces a shame that Fiat had to get involved really.If the company could be resurected in the same way as Arbarth(see today's telegraph) there could be some wonderfull cars in the future.
Circa 1974 Edgware to Lincoln just over an hour in a Fulvia 1.3 coupe, happy days.
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Lancia go on sale here again they'll probably take sales mostly from their Fiat and Alfa Romeo stablemates!!
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How mad would you have to be to buy a Lancia from the current line up in the UK?I speak as one that has owned Lancias in the past.Certifiable,at least.
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Today I saw a black LHD Thesis on the A3 at Surbiton / Tolworth.
UK registration Y 111 LAN.
A demo model ?
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A car-literate friend wordlessly pointed to the car in front the other night as we drove across town. It was a silvery-blue Lancia Thema, in fairly good nick but only a 2000, not, I commented, one of the super-rare 8/32s. I suppose super-super-rare now as I haven't set eyes on a Thema at all recently until that one.
Edited by Lud on 11/03/2008 at 16:51
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I once did a road test of a Thema Turbo and it was very, very impressive.
Still see the occasional one over here.
IIRC the Thema 8.32 engine was taken by Fiat from a Ferrari design, had 'Lancia by Ferrari' on the cam covers and was actually assembled by Ducati. Impressed the punters though.
You're right Lud - my Beta HPE was a real driver's car, even though it had a Fiat twin-cam under the bonnet.
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I'm sure the 8/32 must have been terrific fun on wet roundabouts and so on, and may well have used front tyres at a fair rate... Sounded a bit emotionally exhausting even to an enthusiast, although the thought of one makes me feel a bit wistful even now.
Never went in a Beta let alone a svelte HPE, mh. But although not a Lancia V unit there wasn't much wrong with the Fiat twin cam engine. Used a rather rough 125 in Dar-es-Salaam for a couple of weeks in 1980. Unfortunately its brake servo was defective for most of the time I had it, making extreme caution mandatory. The engine was all right though. Hearty is the word I would use.
Edited by Lud on 12/03/2008 at 15:15
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