vLane Blog

History Lesson #1: A front-wheel drive Ferrari

From Banovsky, Featured Contributor
Posted on February 12, 2009

Filed under Classic, Video, WTF, History, Misc

It's 1984, you're a wealthy Italian businessman, and you've decided to pay a visit to the Turin auto show. There, among the Fiats, Alfa Romeos, and Ferraris stood a four-door concept car like nothing else: A V8-powered Lancia Thema. But not just any engine — one lifted straight from the top exotics of the era: the Ferrari 308 GTB. And did I say concept? Although just a 'study' for the show, it was actually production-ready. The only thing left to do was built it.

And build it they did. The Lancia Thema 8.32 was a genuine 150 mph Italian luxury sedan, with a retractable rear spoiler (built into the trunk lid!), and an interior by Poltrona Frau, an Italian luxury furniture company. The final horsepower rating of 215 sounds meagre today: but in 1984 the Corvette made 205 hp; the North American Porsche 911 3.2 made 207 hp; and its main competition, the Mercedes-Benz 280E, was rated at around 170 hp.

Want to know more about this truly unique car, that foreshadowed today's very fastest performance luxury sedans? Read on.

To understand the 8.32, you must understand two things that lead Lancia to consider such a car: First, Lancia's reputation as a top-tier luxury car company was tarnished (especially in Britain) by apparent build quality problems of the Beta Saloon. Second, Lancia was the only car company in history not under direct Ferrari control to be granted use of their engines. Lancia's previous Ferrari-engined car, the Stratos, became one of the most dominant rally cars of all time and likely endeared the company to Ferrari. So why not make a car that will show the world Lancia is back on top?

It's never simple to just drop a V8 into a front-wheel drive car. But Lancia engineers had things comparatively easy: the Ferrari 308 engine was already mounted transversely (IE left-to-right), just like in most front-wheel drive cars. Still, they modified the crankshaft and had Ducati (yes, that Ducati) assemble the engines. All that was left was to mount a "LANCIA by Ferrari" plaque on the motor.

Subtle badging and exterior changes were just about the only changes outside, apart from the coolest rear spoiler ever fitted to a sedan: a retractable one. At high speeds, a trunklid-mounted wing would pop up to create rear downforce. Or, for the show-offs, could be operated when stationary.

Some trivia? The Thema was built on the Saab 9000 platform, meaning that a suitably crazy mechanic could easily fit a Ferrari engine in a Swedish car…

The 8.32 predated cars like the BMW M5, AMG-tuned Mercedes-Benz sedans, and Audi's V8 Quattro. While it had never been strange to fit a V8 in a four-door car, the genius of the 8.32 was two-fold: it was barely distinguishable from the standard Thema, and it was a car people would buy just for the motor. True, Mercedes-Benz *did* sell about 8,000 300SEL sedans fitted with a huge 6.3-litre motor in the late 60's and early 70's — but they were more a touring car hot rod for the street than a "halo" luxury car.

Think about it: the fastest luxury sedans in the world are all marketed as having the most special engines. And if you couldn't afford an 8.32, the salesperson was more than happy to show you a Thema V6. Same holds true today, with BMW buyers being shown M-Sport packages for their 535i sedans — the "look" of an M5 for thousands less.

The 8.32 ran from 1984 to 1992, Lancia building about 3,500 in total — after which it quickly faded into automotive history. Thankfully, the sound of that howling Ferrari V8 never will.

Read More:

• Dimitri's Lancia Thema 8.32 Website
• 8.32 history from "Club Lancia"
• Extensive Lancia Thema history

Banovsky is a featured contributor for vLane.