11/10: Lancia Thema 8.32 by Ferrari. This one goes to 11.
Most readers outside Europe have never seen a Lancia. Once a storied Italian marque famous for improbable engineering, improbable rally wins, and an even more improbable ability to lose money, Lancia’s legend includes the day in 1955 when it was forced to sell its entire Formula One operation, including cars, spares, and blueprints, to Ferrari just to stay afloat. Today, the brand survives mostly as a badge-engineering exercise for Italian government fleets. If you’ve heard of the modern Lancia Thema at all, it’s probably the tragic 2011 model: a Chrysler 300 with Italian lipstick.
But in the 1980s, Lancia was let off the leash. This is where the Index turns the dial to 11, and you’re about to see why. After many rounds of grappa and perhaps some psychedelics, a deal was struck with Saab. Yes, Saab. Lancia’s corporate parent Fiat, its cousin Alfa Romeo, and, for reasons lost to history, Saab of Sweden, partnered to build an all-new executive car, the Type Four platform. Saab insisted on rustproofing and crash safety. Alfa wanted handling. Fiat wanted sales. Lancia, who clearly should not be left unsupervised, decided the platform really needed a Ferrari V8.
A Ferrari V8 in an Italianized Saab. Let’s suspend disbelief and pull this thread. It gets stranger. Lancia’s engineers, in what must be the boldest stroke of automotive bravado since Ferruccio Lamborghini said vaffanculo to Il Commendatore himself, demanded changes. That iconic Ferrari flat-plane crank? Gone, replaced with a relatively ordinary cross-plane crank that neutered the signature Ferrari wail and reduced the redline from 7,700 rpm in the Ferrari 328 to a relatively pedestrian 6,800 rpm in the Thema 8.32.
It does not end there. Lancia didn’t order Ferrari to make those changes at Maranello. Ferrari was too busy building 328s, Mondials, Testarossas, and 288 GTOs. So they sent these marching orders to Ducati, the motorcycle manufacturer.
The result was a 212-horsepower, cross-plane V8, mounted transversely as in the 328 and Mondial, but up front, powering the front wheels. Inside, you got Poltrona Frau leather and lots of real wood. Out back, you have the industry’s first electrical pop-up rear spoiler. Early cars wore a “8.32 by Ferrari” badge on the dash, until someone in Modena realized the punchline might be on them. Enzo Ferrari himself gave 8.32s to Scuderia drivers as company perks: “Here’s a Saab, by way of Lancia, with a Ferrari V8, Ducati’s fingerprints, and a 10% off coupon for your first timing belt service, three months from now.” Maintenance was relentless, depreciation a cliff, and the badge on the trunk so discreet only true spotters could identify the Frankenstein in their street.
Raise the spoiler, dust a Porsche 944S, and try to explain to your neighbor that it’s part Saab, part Ferrari, and part Ducati, but all Lancia. And as for the 2011 Thema, imagine an alternate universe with a nuovo-8.32, this time with a contemporary Ferrari V8 from a California T. Canada builds it, Lancia badges it, Ferrari tunes it. At least it wouldn’t need a belt service, because this particular fever dream’s Ferrari V8 has a timing chain.
-eᴍ