A company lost in the pages of history: Lancia

2 Seasons ago on Top Gear, they asked the question "What's the coolest car company ever?" Most people [as well as myself] answered Ford especially since they were the first company to bring power to the people, but Top Gear being Top Gear disagreed and stated that Lancia was the coolest of all time. Now Top Gear has some interesting logic as to why it's the coolest [of which I disagree] but I must admit that Lancia is the greatest car company that barely anyone will remember.

Lancia is one of the oldest car companies [unfortunately it was too broke to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2006 properly like how Alfa does] They specialized in making quirky, yet advanced cars. The first monocoque, 5 speed manual, V6 and V4 can be attributed to Lancia. In racing, Lancia had 2 victories in the early days of F1 as a full manufacturer but went bust soon after. Lancia attempted to go into sports car racing in later years but just sucked at it. However after making an attempt into rallying its Fulvia and winning the championship in '72, Lancia got addicted and went full force into getting more wins.

The riptide all began with the little car that could, the Stratos......

image from C. Le Tellier

In the late 60's to early 70's car companies were just getting into the groove of building race cars that would could be declared legal [barely] In order to take advantage of this, the company would build a race car then build a small amount for the road. By the time the 1972 racing seasons came around, this practice was prevalent in all forms of racing except for rallying. The reason being that in order to enter a rally, you had to sell at least 500 examples of that car in order to qualify. Lancia, being the brave souls they are [and would continue to be] took up the challenge.

image from C. Le Tellier

The Stratos was a short wheelbase car, a really short wheelbase car.

Note:short wheelbase improves cornering dynamics, which is good for rallying as it encourages powerslides but it does have a tendency to get wobbly at high speeds

Also unusual was a mid-engined layout [something that would aggravate the tail happiness of the little car even more] It was chosen because it needed weight over the rear tyres in order to maximize traction, and boy did it need traction because packed within that tiny wheelbase was a Ferrari V6. 192hp may sound like a little but its light weight gave it performance figures that would put Ferrari's 20 years ahead of it to shame. The little car that could was reluctantly declared legal to go rallying and it achieved what Lancia wanted, domination of the World Rally Championship, which it did 3 times. The car was so far ahead that 9 years after its introduction it still managed to win a race.

image from spiriteddrive

After the Stratos most people think "hmmmm a yes the Delta" and that's it,

but before the Delta there was another snippet of rallying legend, its name was Montecarlo......

The Lancia Montecarlo wasn't really intended to be a replacement for the Stratos but most people saw it as that especially since they both had that quirky mid ship engine. But thats where the similarities ended, instead of the Ferrari V6 it now used a Fiat based 4 cylinder and unlike the Stratos, it was built as a road car first, in fact it didn't choose to race, racing chose it. Because of the Stratos' domination run, the FIA [the ppl in charge of most racing series] decided to make a special group for specail cars like the Stratos, this was dubbed Group B. Now between Group B and the Stratos, Audi entered the ring with their Quattro, the first 4WD Rally Car, it took over the dominating role the Stratos had and pushed Lancia to develop their Group B monster, the 037.

The 037 was based on the Montecarlo [ever so slightly] among the modifications made to upgrade it to a rally car, Lancia slapped on a fat supercharger to get back on the power ball and get ready to kick some Audi arse. The 1982 season was used as practice runs and reliability test, all signs showed it had promise, and by 1983, the 037 dominated the WRC. Being the first Group B car, Lancia was essentially in a class by themselves as no manufacturer dared step foot in the ring off such a new and dangerous class, but after the 037 win, everyone entered. Despite not being able to fulfill another win for the team, the 037 can proudly bearing the badge of being a) the last 2WD car to win the WRC and the only 2WD car to beat the Audi Quattro.

In order to stay competitive, Lancia had to follow the Quattros and go 4WD,

however, that wasn't the only trick Lancia brought with the Delta S4........

The Delta was a small family hatchback built by Lancia, the Delta S4 however, had little in common with that hatchback [apart from the silhouette, nothing really]. Continuing with their mid ship layout, the Delta S4 was Lancia's first attempt into the world of 4WD as well as turbocharging. But one turbocharger was not enough for Lancia, hence why they added a supercharger as well. This ended up being the first car to be supercharged and turbocharged. As before the technology was so far ahead that it took another 20 years later for the world to see a mass produced twin-charged engine.

It took on the entire Group B field, this time flooded with Peugeots, Renaults, Fords and Audis running up top. In the 1985 season in what was intended to be a test, Lancia replaced the aging 037 with the Delta S4 at the last race of the season, the Delta S4 came first and second. The 1986 season seemed even brighter. At the end of the '86 season Lancia had won it bringing their tally up to 5 championship wins, but at the last minute, the FIA decided to cancel the results for the Sanremo rally nullifying all points gained in that race, this brought down Lancia and gave Peugeot the title.

Even darker than their loss was the loss that lead up to the death of a legend.

During the 1986 Tour de Corse rally in France, Lancia driver Henri Toivonnen was blasting through the hills dominating time slots one by one, however when he did not show up for one time slot, everyone got worried. It was later discovered that Henri's car crashed and burned trapping him and his co-driver in a ball of flames, only the car's tube frame survived the ordeal.

As a result of this crash, Group B was declared over as the cars were deemed too fast to race. Ironically, the company that was responsible for the start of Group B was also behind its demise.

But from the ashes shun brighter days for Lancia, the Delta HF

After the end of Group B, Lancia had to halt the S4's replacement and come up quick with a competitor for the next season, the result was a modified version of the road going Delta dubbed the HF Integrale. This was Lancia building an average car up to race-worthiness and long story short the HF Integrale continued in the Lancia tradition of winning right off the bat winning in 1987 straight up until 1992 when Lancia decided to give up on rallying. In total it won 6 straight titles, more than any other car before or after it as well as racking up the total to 10 overall wins for Lancia, more than any other car company before and after it. As a result it became natural for the Delta HF to become an instant classic.

But with all stories there is an end, Lancia today.....

Now sometime in the 80s Lancia lost its reputation after it had problems with cars rusting constantly, this almost lead them bankrupt and forced them to go low key, but after a recent merger of the Fiat and Chrysler nameplates, Lancia is back.... sorta.

The first car brought back was the Delta name, which is nothing like the epic ones mentioned before. Instead of the hardcore hot hatchback the Delta is now a big family sedan [a good looking one] but not as sporty as the original will ever be. To add insult to injury, Lancia's aren't even making cars, most of them are now degraded to rebadged Chrysler's [which is nothing near what Lancia deserves].

But in a hill far away, a rich man is bringing back the first proper Lancia legend in a proper manner, the Stratos is back. Just like the last one, its low, short, wedgey, powered by Ferrari [this time a V8] and unfortunately, produced in tiny numbers. It was decided to be built by an independent investor who pretty much just chopped 8 inches out of a Ferrari F430 and put on a better looking body. The resurrection of the Stratos name is what is needed for the company, as Ford would say, to be a pace car, even it is for a bag of Lancia badged American cars.

So will Lancia be remembered for its past or its bland present [sans the Stratos] only time will tell as the most successful rallying constructor steps into new clothes and a new persona hopefully to make enough profit to stand on its own 4 wheels.

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