Will Lancia make a comeback? | Thank Frankel it’s Friday

But the truth is there’s a bit of smoke and mirrors going on here. Today Lancia makes just one car, the little Ypsilon, which is already 10 years old and is itself based on even older Fiat 500 architecture. It’s only sold in Italy and the reason it remains so popular has more than a little to do with its ubiquity on the nation’s hire car fleets. It is a far cry indeed from Lancia’s glory days.

So what happens when the Ypsilon has to go? Sooner or later there will some crash or emissions test it will be too costly to re-engineer such an old car to pass and that will be that. Or will it?

All I would say is that it doesn’t have to be. There are certain brands that have such inherent strengths they will survive all manner of indignities and people will still want one. Give them the right product and they may even buy one. We’ve seen it with Lotus, Alfa Romeo, MG and others. And I place Lancia absolutely in that category.

And it is one of few manufacturers for whom the seismic upheaval the industry is undergoing at moment might actually provide an opportunity. That’s because new electric architectures with their ‘skateboard’ designs where all the batteries are laid out along the floor of the car provide far greater scope for interesting design than have conventional cars which must package their entire bulky powertrain under one bonnet. So take an electric Fiat 500 – despite the name it’s a brand new car from end to end and quite excellent with it – plonk a fabulously styled anti-retro body on top, call it a Lancia and I bet the result would be toast of every coffee shop from Milan to Rome.

Then once it is re-established in its home territory, Lancia could branch out, using the global network now available to it as one of 14 brands huddling under the newly opened Stellantis umbrella. I’d push Alfa Romeo upmarket to compete with middle order Mercs and Audis, and have Lancia slot in below as a super-cool, left-field alternative to the Volkswagen hatch. That size of car is also what you need if you want to go rallying again, which would be integral to my plan to spread the news that Lancia was back, and do so all over the world.

For the avoidance of doubt I have not the slightest idea if this, or anything like it is planned. By the time you read this, Stellantis could have announced its closure. But not only do I hope not, I genuinely believe there is a business case involving a small investment in the brand and potentially big returns.

But really I know little about Lancia, apart from those I’ve driven a few over the years, some of which left an indelible impression on me. In the late ‘70s I briefly had the coolest mum of all because she roamed around the place in a light metallic blue Beta coupé. I tried to ignore the ‘1600’ badge on the back – how I wished it had been a 2.0-litre – and the ever expanding bloom of iron oxide spreading across its boot lid.

The very first car I drove as a motoring journalist was a Lancia Prisma – a dreadful nail of small saloon – but soon I was in four-wheel-drive Deltas. Actually I did then and still do regard the Integrale, its HF 4WD predecessor and all versions thereafter as substantially overrated cars, a view which has nothing whatever to do with the fact that thanks entirely to my own stupidity nearly 30 years ago, I wrote off the first Integrale Evolution to come to the UK…

But all the earlier cars I’ve driven have been wonderful. A well set up Fulvia, for instance, is a revelation. I was quite sniffy about these for a long time because I regarded them as having incorrect-wheel-drive, but then quite recently I drove one that no one had messed about with – a nice, standard 1.3 as it happens – and thought it quite excellent.

However the finest Lancia I’ve driven by far is an Aurelia. My brother had one and would always wobble on about how important it was to get the right series and I’m sure he’s right but this is far outside my knowledge zone. I think his was a Series 4 coupe. What I do know was that it was beautiful to drive thanks to its perfectly balanced transaxle layout and that Vittorio Jano’s all-alloy V6 is an absolute gem. How wonderful it would be if, one day, Lancia could scale such heights again.

Main image by Tom Shaxson, Aurelia image courtesy of Bonahams.