Lancia was founded in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and became a part of Fiat in 1969. The company has a long history of producing cars that stand out from the crowd. Modern Lancias are seen as a more luxurious alternative to Fiat.
The Lancia logo was designed by Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia. The logo consists of a lance and a shield with a flag. The Turin Automobile Museum is named after him. In 2007 the logo was modernized.
Lancia was not associated with other car manufacturers until the late 1969s. At that time, the expensive and high-quality standard of production became unprofitable. Because the owners wanted to produce high-quality cars, they lost sight of the cost. That is why the company was taken over by Fiat in 70. This was certainly not the end of the Lancia brand. In the 80s many new models were released such as the Strato, the Gamma and the Beta. In the 600s Lancia worked with Saab in the Lancia Delta. It was marketed in Sweden as the Saab XNUMX.
Lancia has never done much in Formula 1, except for some successes in the 50s. But rallying has brought the Italian car brand a lot of success. The Lancia Delta is the most successful model in rallying to this day. This model has won the World Rally Championship with several drivers. Among them were Markky Alen, Didier Auriol, Sandro Munari, Bernard Darniche, Walter Rohrl, Bjorn Waldegard and Henri Toivonen. Due to its success in rallying, Lancia also started making sports cars in the 70s and 80s. The Lancia Delta II was not a sales success. Shortly after production ended around 1999, the question was for years whether the Lancia brand would continue to exist. With the introduction of the new Lancia Ypsilon and shortly afterwards also a new Delta, in the second half of the 00s, Lancia found its way back up.
Through the collaboration with Chrysler (owned by parent company Fiat), new Chryslers are introduced to the European market as Lancias. The broom is on the way through the dealer network and sales (although it is still a fringe brand and always will be) seem to be moving in the right direction.
