The Lancia Thema was an executive car produced by the Italian automaker Lancia between 1984 and 1994, and was one of four cars to share the "Type Four" chassis alongside the Alfa Romeo 164, Fiat Croma and Saab 9000. The Thema was first shown in Turin Motor Show in 1984.

Overview

The Thema was available as a sedan and as a station wagon designed by Pininfarina, and was considered one of the most spacious and comfortable European cars of its time. In addition to the sedans, 21,074 Thema station wagons were built by Pininfarina between 1986-1994 in their Borgo San Paolo plant.

The Thema re-established Lancia as a high-quality luxury manufacturer with a galvanized steel chassis and rust protection that equaled or bettered that of its competitors. Build quality was higher than the Fiat Croma's and on par with the Saab 9000's. The sales organisation, however, was poor in many markets and secondhand values for the car suffered.

Production of the Thema ceased in 1994 when Lancia withdrew from right-hand drive markets (including the United Kingdom) in response to dwindling popularity and sales. (The station wagon version was never offered in right-hand drive.) Lancia continued, however, to be one of the most popular manufacturers in the Italian market and the Thema's replacement, the Lancia Kappa, sold well.

Thema 8.32

The ultimate Thema, the '8.32' ("8" standing for the number of cylinders and "32" for the number of valves) was assembled at Lancia's S. Paolo plant in Turin. It used a 2927 cc Ferrari V8. This engine was based on the unit used in the Ferrari 308 qv and some of the componentry was assembled by Ducati from castings made at Maranello. The engine differed from other Ferrari V8s of the time in that it was equipped with a cross-plane type crankshaft rather than the usual flat-plane crankshaft, smaller valves and different firing order. All this to make the engine characteristics more suitable in a four door luxury saloon. Both Series 1 and 2 cars in non catalysed form produced and were capable of 0–100 km/h in 6.8 seconds and whilst catalysed versions were slightly detuned to which gave 0–100 km/h in 7.2 seconds and .

The car offered good performance (though the Turbo version was quicker than the catalytic version from 0 to 100 km/h) and excellent refinement, including a luxurious hand made wood-and-leather interior by Poltrona Frau complete with the same luxury equipment as LX versions of the Thema. Unfortunately, a price tag of £40,000 (or more) in Britain, and the fact that only left hand drive versions were produced, limited its appeal, with only 9 being officially sold there. It was even a rare sight on Italian roads, with just 2370 Series 1 built between 1986 and 1988 and 1601 Series 2 built between 1989 and 1992. Even 64 numbered editions where made,32 series 1 and 32 series 2. These were only delivered in Ferrari-red and should be sought after examples in the future.

Five non catalyst Thema 8.32s were exported to Taiwan and 2 of them still survive today.

Engines

Thema powerplants originated from the Fiat engine series designed by Aurelio Lampredi, the famed engine designer formerly of Ferrari and Alfa Romeo. The straight-4 2.0 L petrol engine, available in both naturally-aspirated and turbocharged versions, was refined and offered good performance. Earlier Themas were also offered with a 2.8 L PRV V6 engine, developed in cooperation with Peugeot, Renault, and Volvo. This unit was replaced in 1992 with a 3.0 L Alfa Romeo V6 engine (Fiat had bought Alfa Romeo in 1986 and got access to this engine).

Model	Displacement	Power	Torque	Note	Top Speed/0–100 km/h/s
2.0 8V	1995 cc	@5250 rpm	@3300 rpm	1985-1989	/9.7
2.0 8V	1995 cc	@5600 rpm	@4000 rpm	1987-1989	/10.4
2.0 8V	1995 cc	@5600 rpm	@4000 rpm	1989-1995	/11.4
2.0 16V	1995 cc	@6000 rpm	@4000 rpm	1989-1992	/10.4
2.0 16V	1995 cc	@6500 rpm	@3500 rpm	1992-1995	/10.1
2.0 Turbo 8V	1995 cc	@5500 rpm	@2750 rpm	1985-1988	/7.2
2.0 Turbo 8V	1995 cc	@5500 rpm	@2700 rpm	1988-1989	/7.9
2.0 Turbo 16V	1995 cc	@5500 rpm	@2500 rpm	1989-1992	/8.0
2.0 Turbo 16V	1995 cc	@5750 rpm	@3750 rpm	1992-1995	/7.2
2.9 V6 12V	2849 cc	@5250 rpm	@2700 rpm	1985-1989	/8.2
2.9 V6 12V	2849 cc	@5000 rpm	@3500 rpm	1989-1992	/8.4
3.0 V6 12V	2959 cc	@5500 rpm	@4500 rpm	1992-1995	/8.1
3.0 V8 32V	2927 cc	@6750 rpm	@4500 rpm	1987-1989	/6.8
3.0 V8 32V	2927 cc	@6750 rpm	@5000 rpm	1989-1992	/7.2
2.5 TD	2445 cc	@4100 rpm	@2300 rpm	1985-1989	/11.9
2.5 TD	2499 cc	@3900 rpm	@2200 rpm	1989-1992	/11.0
2.5 TD	2499 cc	@4100 rpm	@2400 rpm	1992-1995	/11.5

References

External links

• Lancisti.net - An Information Exchange and Support Community for Lancia Owners and Enthusiasts
• Part of a Dutch Lancia Thema community on the Web. Check out all the sites but see here all the models en types of the Lancia Thema!