Remember Lancia? How about Lancia's final convertible? Two years before Fiat and Chrysler tied the knot to create Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the Chrysler 200 Convertible spawned the poor-selling Lancia Flavia.
Lancia presented convertible and sedan concepts at the 2011 edition of the Geneva Motor Show, but only the rag-topped variant saw production. The Flavia wasn't offered in the United Kingdom or Ireland, for it had been produced in left-hand-drive exclusively at the Sterling Heights assembly plant in Michigan, USA.
Discontinued in 2014, the Flavia sold a little over 1,100 units in the Old Continent. Now controlled by Stellantis, the once-proud Lancia brand is fully focused on rolling out electrified vehicles to the detriment of exciting automobiles. To this effect, you shouldn't keep your hopes up for the return of the Flavia on a modern platform from Stellantis, Groupe PSA, or FCA.
Be that as it may, the pixel artist known as Ascariss Design on social media has imagined an exciting Lancia with a soft top and rear-wheel drive. The rendering is based on the Abarth 124 Spider, which is the performance-oriented version of the Fiat 124 Spider. Or – better said – used to be. Fiat Chrysler pulled the plug on the 124 series in 2019 due to dwindling sales. Internally referred to as Tipo 348, the 124 pulled out of the UK market in January 2019. Then followed the rest of Europe in December 2019. Over in the US, the 124 was discontinued after model year 2020.
From 2016 through 2021, the Fiat 124 Spider and punchier Abarth 124 Spider totaled 23,978 sales in Europe, a meager 1,565 in Canada, plus 15,778 in the United States of America. Very poor in comparison to the Mazda MX-5 Miata, on which the 124 Spider is actually based.
Photo: Abarth via Ascariss Design
Major differences between the Italian and Japanese roadsters include exterior styling and the manual transmission. More specifically, the 124 uses the NC's six-speed manual. If the Flavia were to come back in 2024 with styling from the all-new Ypsilon, chances are that Lancia would have a hard time selling the rear-drive roadster.
Not only is the front end of the rendered vehicle a bit on the busy side, but Lancia has a bad reputation pretty much everywhere in Europe. The only exception is the Italian Republic, where the previous-gen Ypsilon ended 2023 right behind the Dacia Sandero and Fiat Panda.
Look even closer at the rendering, and you'll notice a red-painted Abarth 124 Spider with Alfa Romeo Junior taillights and the fender vents of the Alfa Romeo 8C Spider. Speaking of which, the Junior is best described as the Alfa Romeo-branded take on the Fiat 600 and Jeep Avenger. The 8C Spider and fixed-head 8C Competizione, on the other hand, are based on the first-generation Maserati GranCabrio and Maserati GranTurismo.
Rather than a fun little roadster, the Nuova Ypsilon will be joined by an electric fastback and the Nuova Delta. The Gamma will be underpinned by the STLA Medium platform, which employs a 400-volt electric architecture to deliver around 700 kilometers (435 miles) of WLTP driving range. STLA Medium supports wheelbases up to 2,900 millimeters and overall lengths up to 4.9 meters, which means that the Gamma could very well compete with the BMW i4.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News