Re: alfa-digest V7 #281

[Joel Hailey <alfadoc@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>

> Having just spent a few hours slogging through a box full of old
> Lancia magazines (anyone interested, by the way?), I'm more than ready
> to tell anyone who cares that the first FWD Lancia was not the Beta
> (1972), but the Flavia (1961), a flat-four powered car designed by a
> Dr. Fessia, previously distnguished by having designed the prewar Fiat
> Topolino. This was followed by the Fulvia (1964). The last real Lancia
> was the Gamma, another flat-four, but by then Fiat had taken over,
> which was when we got the Beta, which used the Fiat DOHC 4...and I
> guess that gives us some Alfa content, at least by marriage.
>
> Will Owen

Uh, well yes Will, I am quite familiar with the history of the Lancia automobile. But
I did say the "modern" front wheel drive Lancias. By that, I meant the clear design
lineage from the current cars back to their root, which is the Beta. I generally
refer to the pre Fiat cars as the "classic" Lancias. I prefer to convey respect to
them and their designers, rather than to use the phrase "real" Lancias, thereby
demeaning the accomplishments of those that followed. It's hard to deny the
brilliance of the Stratos or the Delta Integrale. And if some of the "modern" fwd
Lancias fail to shine so brilliantly, what of some of their troubled Alfa
contemporaries such as the Alfasud and the Alfetta? The '70's were a tough time to
produce automobiles, and particularly toward the end of that decade there was
precious little for an automotive enthusiast to celebrate in the offerings from any
corner of the globe. Lancia surely would have folded had it not been for Fiat's
intervention. Would the automotive world be a better place had the Beta and those
that followed not been created? Of course not!

Soapbox now neatly stowed in the corner...
Joel

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