The six best Lancia road cars

That same year saw the creation of his eponymous company with friend Claudio Fogolin with the first car to bear the Lancia name, the Tipo 51 – later renamed the Alpha 12 HP – appearing in 1907. The firm quickly established a reputation for innovation; pioneering electrical systems in the Theta, monocoque construction with the Lambda and both production five-speed gearboxes and V6 engines. Vincenzo Lancia passed away of a heart attack in 1937 with the company passing to his wife Adele and son Gianni who persuaded legendary engineer Vittorio Jano to join them. The company continued with its cutting edge engineering but not always profitably, leading to its takeover by first the Pesenti family in 1956 and then Fiat 13 years later.

The company’s various ups and downs since becoming part of the Fiat empire are well documented but whatever the purists might feel it did coincide with Lancia becoming the most successful manufacturer ever in the World Rally Championship. It also added to its roster of commendable machines, a few of which we are counting down here. There were of course far too many to choose from so we have deliberately excluded the various homologation specials, much as it pains us to do so.

1923 Lancia Lambda

The Lambda is truly deserving as its place in the automotive pantheon, setting engineering and refinement benchmarks that helped drive industry development for decades. The Lambda pioneered the load-bearing unitary body – which evolved into the modern monocoque – as opposed to the body-on-frame construction which had come before it, allowing for a lower, sleeker and more agile design.

The Lambda was powered by Lancia’s first V4 engine, at first in 2.1-litre guise but quickly adding an extra half litre of capacity. The car also introduced sliding pillar front suspension at a time when most cars still had live axles at both ends, making it the car to beat in terms of ride and handling for years.

1937 Lancia Aprilia

The Aprilia was the last car created with input from the company’s founder, Vincenzo passing away in February 1937, the same month production began. One of the first cars to be designed with the aid of a wind tunnel in a collaboration between Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina and the Polytechnic University of Turin the Aprilia scored a record for the time drag coefficient of 0.47Cd, allowing its 1.4-litre engine to propel it to nearly 80mph.

A large family car, the Aprilia’s pillarless door construction – the front and back doors were ‘mirror images’ of each other with the rears opening backwards – allowed excellent access and the last iteration of Lancia’s sliding pillar suspension ensured excellent ride and handling. In keeping with Lancia tradition, the Aprilia was offered in right hand drive in all markets, allowing the sporting driver to place the car more accurately on the outside of bends.

1958 Lancia Appia GTE

The Appia was the baby brother to the famed Aurelia and the last in a line which stretched back to the Lambda in that it sported a narrow angle V4, sliding pillar front suspension and rear-wheel-drive. In terms of looks the Appia unashamedly cribbed its older sibling at least in its first generation although wheelbase stretch for the series two lost it some of that elegance.

That was recaptured in spades however in the various carrozzeria-bodied limited edition cars; a Pininfarina coupe, Vignale convertible and Zagato a GT coupe. The latter is one of the rarest and most desirable Appia variants with its low slung bodywork, long nose and covered headlights and kerb weight a full 100kg lighter than the standard car. Later a short wheelbase Appia Sport, also built by Zagato and designed by Ercole Spada was sold alongside the GTE. One example was raced in the 1959 12 Hours of Sebring with Walter Cronkite behind the wheel.

1965 Lancia Fulvia Sport

The Fulvia Berlina continued Lancia’s reputation for innovation and engineering excellence with its narrow-angle V4, front-wheel-drive, wishbone front suspension and all-wheel disc brakes packaged in an eminently sensible and mature berlina body which was by no means glamorous. The beautiful Fulvia coupe added a dash of that, as well as being one of the founders of the Lancia WRC legend but it was the Sport that added the style.

Another Ercole Spada creation, the Fulvia Sport wore its quirkiness with pride as a low-slung fastback coupe with definite elements of the wedge styling which was to come. Intended as the basis for a privateer competition car the first production cars were all alloy bodied and had just two tiny bucket seats designed by Zagato. Among its quirks were a side-hinged bonnet, a rear hatch which could be electrically raised a few centimetres for cabin ventilation and a spare wheel stored in its own compartment hidden behind a rotating panel.

1979 Lancia Delta

We all know that the HF 4WD and Integrale versions of the Delta earned all the plaudits, including six World Rally Championships between 1987 and 1992, but that does mean the standard version is often overlooked. Perhaps it is because it was following – as many others did – in the wheel tracks of the ground-breaking first generation Golf, but the Delta deserved plaudits for bringing Italian brio to the family car market.

Styled, like the Golf, by Giorgetto Giugiaro the Delta brought some upper echelon engineering to the compact family car sector with all-round independent suspension, overhead cam engines, rack and pinion steering and even the option of air conditioning. The Delta was voted European Car of the Year in 1980 and added four-wheel-drive in 1986, after which the prizes really started rolling in…

1995 Lancia Ypsilon

You will have to make allowances for this one but please bear with me. The Ypsilon was introduced in 1995 as the replacement for the long serving Y10 supermini. Based on the then new Fiat Punto the Ypsilon offered greater refinement and luxury in the supermini sector than its rivals along with peppy overhead cam engines and even featured, oddly, in Gran Turismo 2.

A second generation introduced in 2003 took styling inspiration from the Lancia Ardea while the third generation of 2011 onwards – shamefully badge sharing with Chrysler – had Fiat Panda and 500 underpinnings. All, unarguably, antithetical to the Lancia legend but the Ypsilon has sold in the hundreds of thousands – this one model sells more in Italy than Alfa Romeo does globally – and is the reason Lancia still exists as a car manufacturer ready to be resurrected for an innovative electric future.