Brief History About Lancia
Lancia built their first car in 1908 calling it the Tipo 51 and also started to build trucks from 1915. Very early on Lancia cars were also very much appreciated for their innovative designs and technical advancements, as well as getting involved in motor racing events, showcasing many of those innovations. One such innovation was the 1922 Lambda, which was the first car in the world to have independent front suspension.
In 1937 Vincenzo dies, leaving his widow Adele Miglietti Lancia and son Gianni Lancia in charge of Lancia.
In 1948 Lancia were the first to have a 5 speed gearbox in a production car (Series 3 Ardea) and first V6 production engine in 1950 (Aurelia) and these were just a few of the innovations that Lancia brought to production car manufacturing.
In 1969 Fiat Group bought the financially struggling Lancia, bringing in new models such as the Stratos, Gamma and Beta. Motorsport was also a big part of this period, especially rally driving and they had great success in World Rally Championships.
In the 1980’s Lancia collaborated with Saab, building the Lancia Delta (Saab 600) and Thema (Saab 9000) and during the 90’s most models were very similar to their parent company Fiat models. The 80’s and 90’s were not good for Lancia, suffering their fair share of quality control issues, that ultimately destroyed their reputation and sales.
In 2014 Lancia stopped all export and sales outside of Italy and later was incorporated into the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Group (FCA).
