Tom Tjaarda
looks back at Lancia’s brighter days with rose-tinted enthusiasm
The buzz here in Torino for years has been that Fiat would eventually drop the middlerange Lancia brand from its company and concentrate on Alfa Romeo and Maserati for its upgrade brands, maintaining the status quo for Fiat itself.
But Lancia is still very much in the mix and it’s doing rather well. The Lancia Ypsilon is just a tad behind the Fiat Punto as the best-selling car in Italy. It’s not yet known whether Fiat will just let the popular Ypsilon run out and then drop the brand for good – or attempt to prolong Lancia with a new Ypsilon.
Up to now this is how Fiat has managed Lancia. First it was the Flaminia model that was dropped, then the Delta, and now only the Ypsilon is available.
The thought of Lancia not being around any more is sad indeed. It has a glorious and interesting past, full of mechanical and structural innovation and unique design – the elegant styling that was found not only on its large saloons such as the fourdoor Flaminia but also small compact cars like the Delta and today’s Ypsilon. Perhaps the most famous to come from Lancia was the Pinin Farina Florida II that’s now in the Corrado Lopresto collection in Italy, and has won many Concorso d’eleganza trophies these past few years.
The Florida II was the maximum expression of refined Italian car design. The unique roof profile that blended into the mini-fins along the rear of the car was a statement that had great impact. This idea was then used for the production Flaminia that was produced from 1956 to 1978.
It’s interesting that the coupé versions outsold the four-door saloons, considering that the special coupés manufactured by Pininfarina and Zagato were much more expensive than the saloons made by Lancia. But the Flaminia’s fascination was also mechanical, starting with the transaxle/de Dion rear suspension system and all-around disc brakes.
Back in the Seventies I had always admired the Flaminia models and when working for Pininfarina I designed the Flaminia Speciale that became another Lancia personal driver used by Battista Pininfarina after the Florida II. A few years later, while working for the Ghia/de Tomaso company, another chance came around to design a Flaminia.
Ghia had taken the Lancia Fulvia coupé to the Geneva show and this was quickly followed up by my design for a Flaminia coupé at the Torino Auto Show in 1970. De Tomaso had a strategy behind all these prototypes, which was to get Ford interested in buying Lancia. But Fiat got wind of this and snapped up Lancia – similar to what happened when Ford wanted to buy Ferrari.
The Flaminia I designed for Ghia was a rush project for Torino and I had my doubts about it. We had to plan and construct the prototype in three months, with little time to make corrections or refine the lines – I knew I would not be permitted to interfere once the model was ready to be hammered out in metal.
I lived with these doubts right up to the moment when the Flaminia was put on a truck and driven over to the Ghia stand. But I guess that’s show business. Looking back, I must admit it was fun.
Tom’s remarkable career designing cars has included spells with Ghia, Pininfarina, Italdesign, Ford and Fiat, adding up to a 79-car CV.