Stellantis, for all its starry name and automotive might, has a lot of dead weight around its neck – brands like Lancia, for example, which is merely a shadow of a shadow of its former self, if you want our two cents on the matter.
There are other shadows – like Fiat and Abarth and formerly Alfa Romeo – but those already show great signs of coming back to life or perhaps even returning to their former glory (Alfa). Meanwhile, Lancia only has a bombastic marketing campaign to talk about, which is merely vaporware at the moment, plus a Pu+Ra HPE concept of a two-door electric coupe tucked on the STLA EV platform.
It's too futuristic to take for granted, does not have anything to do with the former glory of rally models like the Stratos or Delta Integrale, and probably will never make it into mass-market series production. Instead, Lancia wants to restart its career with the same old city car, the Ypsilon.
However, its fourth iteration is not off to a good start even before its official introduction as a prototype revealed the exterior design in the most shameful position – while it was fished out of water due to a driving mishap that probably took place while filming a promotional video.
Anyway, that doesn't mean people have forgotten about or don't love Lancia anymore. In fact, there are fans even across the imaginative realm of digital car content creators. For example, Tommaso D'Amico is present both on YouTube and other social media venues under the alias tda_automotive and loves everything Italian and related to cars – which is probably no surprise that he also worked on a few Lancias for his reels.
More precisely, he once dropped a 'Nuova' Lancia Delta Integrale sporting a 350-hp turbo powertrain for good measure, and now he continues to build his Lancia family in the virtual world with a reborn 'Nuova' Lancia Thema GTS premium sporty sedan. Fashioned after the original Thema executive car produced between 1984 and 1994 rather than Thema II, which was a rebadged Chrysler 300C, this four-door could easily act as a more luxurious alternative to Alfa Romeo's Giulia in many places – including North America.
There, offered as a GTS version, it could easily share the underpinnings of the Giulia and its powerful 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four GME MultiAir engine with an AT8 gearbox and Q4 all-wheel drive but sporting even more oomph – around 300 horsepower, to warrant the higher pricing. So, what do you think – could Lancia revert to its former glory easier with stuff like these, a 350-hp Delta Integrale hot hatchback and a 300-hp Thema GTS premium sporty sedan, instead of a city car like the fourth-gen Ypsilon?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News