The other night I watched
Angels and Demons on DVD. It was quite a pleasant surprise after
The Da Vinci Code. Whereas its predecessor was an overcomplicated, leaden affair only really worth watching for Ian McKellan's excellent villain, the newer film is a simpler, more straightforward, thriller and all the better for it.
Much of the film is spent with the protagonists chasing across Rome in a sleek black Italian car, racing to get to the next plot point on time. The sleek black car in question being Lancia's rather lovely new Delta model:
This car features very heavily in the film (succesful and presumably expensive product placement by Lancia) and was of interest to me because, while I'm less interested in cars than I was when I was younger, I'm still a big fan of the Lancia marque - despite its dismal history in recent decades.
In the first half of the 20th century, Lancia was an ultra-luxury brand that competed with few others to build the best motor cars possible, irrespective of cost. In the 1950s they combined pioneering technology (including the world's first V6 engine) with beautiful, innovative styling in the Aurelia B20 coupe, to create an entirely new class of car - the Grand Tourer:
If I had to pick one car as my all-time favourite, this half-century old coupe would be it. It has everything: A great history, competition succes, innovative mechanicals and one of the most beautiful shapes of any car - with room for four adults inside. The Aurelia B20 was astronomically expensive when new; it was what you bought when you wanted the best and cost was no object. I can't think of any other car I'd like to have more.
Later on, in the 60s and 70s, Lancia (now owned by Fiat) moved downmarket and built cheaper, more mainstream cars. At first, this was a succes - producing compact gems like the Fulvia, the coupe version of which is car number 2 in my dream garage. In the longer term, however, the rot set in. Despite the odd exceptional product like the famous Delta Integrale (one of the most succesful rally cars in history) in the 1980s, Lancia had fallen from making the finest cars on the planet to making badly-built, boxily-styled rebodied Fiats like the Dedra and Thema (though the latter was not entirely without charm). In export markets, Lancia's sales plummeted. Right-hand drive versions for markets like Britain were cancelled entirely. In recent years, Lancia have only sold well in Italy.
The new Delta pictured above is Lancia's attempt at a real comeback. It's being marketed heavily and they're even being reintroduced to international markets long since abandoned, like Britain. Though mechanically related to a model from parent company Fiat, the Delta is a quite different beast - longer, sleeker, roomier, better finished and equipped. All petrol models are turbo-charged and even the most basic version sprints to 100km/h in less than 10 seconds. The initial road tests of the car are positive and it bristles with interesting details like the elegant LED lighting. Far more importantly however, having seen examples of this car driving around several times now, I can confirm:
It looks like a Lancia.
