well at least in my head.
taken at the recent Monte Carlo Historique.
(click to enlarge)
src: renault classic
Tag Archives: lancia
Lancia is finally dead.
After years of punishing, brutal and inhumane torture against the legacy of Lancia; easily one of the finest marques of automobiles ever to exist. Sergio Marchionne has finally unleashed the final blow and has announced that he is killing off the Lancia marque. Finally, the marque will not be insulted by minivans and over-the-top rebadged 300C sedans. I am quite frankly relieved after seeing the marque decay over the past decade especially. There was hope with the 2003 Fulvia Concept, but after that project was killed off—-it all went to regurgitated scum.
Read about it at Truth About Cars.
(photo by D-negative)
the return of IEDEI.
IEDEI is returning.
However, there are some changes.
The automotive archive for the past 4 years will remain, however this site is evolving into a site about much more than just automobiles. My thoughts are evolving, and so IEDEI will also evolve. From the beginning, the site was never meant to turn into a site only about the automobile—however unfortunately that is what happened to the site. There will occasionally be articles about automobiles, however if one is expecting to find petrol being pumped through your monitor on every visit; this will not be the case. There is much to see, much to appreciate, and much to investigate. Onwards and onwards!
I hope you enjoy the new IEDEI. If you ever want to contribute or if you have something fascinating (remember, not just automobile related)—please email me at IEDEIblog@gmail.com
I also want to thank the many of you who took the time to e-mail you all the kind words and wishes in regards to the blog ending a couple of months ago. It was very nice to read your mails, and i’m still catching up on writing you all back. I felt it was time to ‘start a new idea’….however i felt this site was already so developed and had such a lovely title and image, that it would just be more interesting to start a ‘2nd phase’ of this.
(the photo above was published in a 1931 copy of The Country Gentleman was a prediction of how a farmer will control his crops in the year 2030. Nice flat screen TV design, huh?)
art of the day. Stratos.
A lovely sketch by the talented Rob Ijbema, which i’ve enthused about many times here…
Rally Heaven.
Chris Harris back in form, riding in a Lancia Delta S4, Stratos and 037!
IEDEI: The Greatest Hits megapost.
To celebrate crossing the 1 million visit mark this week, this is a monster post of some of my favourite photos and automobiles posted on IEDEI from the past couple of years. I originally started this blog to catalogue my favourite automobiles and photographs, and it is still what I do—-however along the way I have met lots of great people, shared lots of interesting stories, and have learned even more than I already knew about the world of motoring.
srcs: too many to list! each source is listed in the original IEDEI post where these pics are taken from.
lost concept: Ghia Lancia 1600 HF Competizione
Although it looks like a Bertone concept, it is not! In fact this is the 1969 Ghia Lancia HF Competizione concept. I don’t have a ton of information about the actual car; however I do know that it was based on the standard Fulvia HF platform and was FWD with the famous 1600 V4 engine from the Fulvia HF. However, a major difference was that the Ghia concept was even lighter than the standard Fulvia—-which made it even faster and (supposedly) with better handling. The idea was to possibly use this as a basis for a racing car that would have possibly be entered into Le Mans-type race events; alas this was not meant to be.
It was shown at the 1969 Geneva Auto Show; and obviously never produced.
src (colour photos): mauiboy
Juha Kankkunen’s rally car collection.
Rally car legend Juha Kankkunen likes to collect rally cars. Here is his fantastic collection! Beautiful.
Thanks to Cacti (QW) for the tip!
src: InsideLine
slow week.
I started a new job towards the end of last week—-and my time has been quite consumed over the past week. Apologies for little to no IEDEI updates. To make it up to you, here is a megapost with plenty of things which have been consuming my daydreams all week.
cheers—Syed
Italy; observations about motoring & their cars.
IEDEI is back after a week away in Italy. The purpose of this trip was not car-related, but as a vacation for my wife and I to get away from the busy NYC days and to check out Italy for the first time. Firstly, we loved Italy for its superb food, beautiful historical city and landscapes, lovely people, and it’s good vibes. I had originally planned to drive for a few days within Italy, however due to our short itinerary, we decided that using the superb Eurostar train system there seemed optimal and most efficient. The trains are of course very comfortable, and very easy to use—and I highly recommend them to anyone traveling through Italy or the rest of western Europe.
Here are a list of some basic observations I made about motoring and cars in Italy from a passenger point of view.
1. People have very eccentric parking habits in Rome—-pretty much makes NYC parking look like a regulated, organized affair.
2. The freeways are very tame, boring affairs—-similar to freeways anywhere else, including the US.
3. I would say 95% of the cars seen parked and driving consist of small, slow, functional economy hatchbacks.
4. In 7 days in Italy, through 4 cities (Roma, Firenze, Napoli, and Capri)—- i did not see a SINGLE Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini, pre-1990 Alfa Romeo, pre-1990 Lancia, or pre-1990 Fiat. I was shocked at the lack of interesting Italian cars present there. I can honestly say that the most interesting cars I saw in Italy were a couple Alfa Romeo Breras, a bunch of fanastic Audis not readily seen in US markets(A1, S3, A3 Roadster, B8 S4 Avant, A4 Allroad), many Alfa Romeo 159s (which are much more beautiful in person than even the photos show), and ONE Alfa Romeo 147 GTA and ONE Alfa Romeo GTV (mid 90s version).
5. I spoke with a guy who was working at a Lancia repair centre, and asked him what he thought of the ‘new’ Lancias (like the Ypsilon) and he said “Lancia has not been Lancia for many years”—to which i completely agreed with him. When i asked him why Italians don’t drive ‘older’ Alfas and Lancias he told me “because it is not easy to drive an older Alfa or Lancia everyday in our cities, and many of the cars have broken and are gone”. I think this summed up the situation pretty well. Sad for classic cars in Italy then…..
6. I started wanting to buy a small hatchback. Even the absolutely terrible Lancia Ypsilon started to look alright to me after a week there—-but then i stopped drinking and remembered how rubbish it is. The ‘newer’ Alfa Romeo Mito and Alfa Romeo Giuliettas are very cool little cars…..the Giuletta is very beautiful in person, and would love to see it make it over to the US market. It has a lot more presence on the road than most hatchbacks its size. The Mito is the perfect Alfa answer to the small hatchback italian solution—-however I was shocked to see that the pricing on the Mito starts at 16k Euros and goes all the way into the low 20k range. The Audi A1 is a simply stunning example of a hatchback, beautifully proportioned, very stylish, and very well put together.
7. My wife commented that Audis parked there looked more Italian than Italian cars there…and I have to say that probably rings true for the modern cars being sold in Italy. Plenty of Audis there, as the Italians have picked up on the styling as well, and have bought into it. I would say that 1 out of every 3 ‘nice’ cars seems to be an Audi. This pleased my Audiphile tendencies, of course!
8. Word is, that the Alfa Romeo Museum has been shut for good——at least that’s what somebody told me there. I was not planning on visiting it on this trip anyways, however it seems that it was closed a couple of months ago for renovation, and there are no plans to re-open it—-which would be an absolute shame of course.
9. Fiats are definitely the most popular cars in Italy—–i’d say 6 to 1 over everything else.
10. Traffic is slow, pedestrians are plenty, traffic rules are not obeyed all the time, however I found it actually less chaotic than NYC driving—-at least from a passenger seat. The problem here in NYC is the amount of speed people carry on the roads; whereas in Italy, I didn’t seen people bustling in speed—at least not in the 4 cities I went to.
A couple random photos:
I did happen to stumble upon a ‘motoring’ channel on the Italian cable TV during our last night stay in Rome, where they showed 24 hour coverage of weird obscure motoring events around Italy—pretty cool I have to say! GTV InterMotori
oh Lancia you crack me up!
There’s no point in posting the ‘exterior’ of the new Lancia Ypsilon—because it is about as attractive as a pimple on a toad. After seeing the photo of the interior, however—i was reminded of something. But i couldn’t quite figure it out! I have never seen such an awkward pattern on the seats of a car….and then i remembered what it reminded me of! Surely the target audience has now been figured out.
BTW, this horrendous little car will be coming to the US as a Chrysler soon; not much of a surprise, i suppose. What an embarassing end stage to a great marque..
foto of the day. B20.
One of the coolest cars ever made…..and the car Nuvolari used as his daily driver….the glorious Lancia Aurelia B20 Coupe
is VW trying to buy Alfa Romeo (!?)
Well this is a hell of a rumour, that has been getting louder and louder over the past few months. Fiat has been whining about Alfa Romeo not making any money for the company for a LONG time now….and according to several articles I have been reading as of late, it seems that Walter De Silva (ex-Alfa Romeo design chief, now VW/Audi design chief) has been urging Martin Winterkorn to really go after buying Alfa Romeo should Fiat decide to sell the brand. Walter De Silva is so excited about this all, that according to one article i found, it states: “Given what is assumingly the passion for Alfa design, de Silva has in thoughts already about 8 models for Alfa, along with designs as well as drawings.” Easy boy!
To be honest, as someone who is REALLY into Audis and their philosophy, I have been seeing Audi as the new Alfa Romeo for the past few years…..they’re making the cars that Alfa should be making….and the Volkswagen group buying Alfa Romeo could REALLY rejuvenate the brand.
Is there any truth to this? we’ll have to see! It could just be substance-less, gossip…..or it could be the real thing. Knowing the way Volkswagen works, i wouldn’t doubt they are after the brand.
here are some articles about it:
fw: an open letter to Lancia
Came across this interesting “letter to lancia” on a site called Petrolblog.
http://petrolblog.com/2010/06/24/an-open-letter-to-lancia/
I gotta agree with you MajorGav, Lancia has lost the plot and really needs to get back to their identity. The stuff they have been releasing for several years is GHASTLY……and in my opinion; Lancia might be THE biggest waste of a marque i’ve witnessed….amazing how Fiat just turned that company into slop.
But i gotta remind my friends over at Petrolblog, that Lancia is now going to be shacked up very closely to Chrysler; and it seems that for the time being, the identity of Lancia will continue to be lost. A friend of mine who works in the auto industry had told me a couple years ago that there was a good chance that Lancia was going to be shut down; but now it seems they’ve found a new use for the marque Lancia. It’s going to serve as a channel to pass Chrysler products into Europe. What a shame.
It’s been said that the next generation Chrysler 300C is going to become Lancia’s flagship car in Europe….but the worst part is: there are supposedly only minimal changes done to the badges and the grille before it will be sold as a Lancia…….if that’s true, Lancia will be all but dead in my opinion…if it isn’t already. I wish VW would buy Lancia and bring it back properly……imagine a Delta Integrale based on a modified R32/R20 platform? That’d be pretty sweet.
Alfa Romeo return to the USA confirmed for 2012?
(above: Alfa Romeo Dress)
Motor Trend is reporting some info on the return of Alfa Romeo to the US market in 2012. Fiat supposedly released a 5-year plan today, with information on the US market, Chrysler, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, and how these products will be integrated into this market.
So 2012 is supposedly the debut of the Alfa Romeo Giulia (159 replacement) and MT is saying these will be RWD and based (loosely, hopefully) on the 300c and Challenger platforms. This should be in Sedan and Wagon formats. In 2013, will be the addition of a (new) Spider which will be based also on a RWD Chrysler format (wait a minute…the Challenger and 300c are HUGE….so what platform!?).
Either way, FIAT have been giving us this crap for many years now…so whether it happens is unknown….whether it happens on TIME is even more unknown…..but i DO hope it happens.
another fulvia zagato hf competizione.
so aside from the severe obsession i’m starting to have for the standard Lancia Fulvia Coupe, another car which is EVEN rarer than the not-so-rare Fulvia Coupe is the Lancia Fulvia Zagato HF Competizione.
What i wouldn’t give to have this in my garage……the epitome of italian cool!! DO WANT…..really badly. *fantasizes*
(CLICK TO ENLARGE FULL HI-RES WALLPAPER) (it’s definitely my wallpaper today)
art of the day. beta monte carlo.
one of my favourite automobile artists, Rob Ijbema…..painting a very cool car. Lancia Beta Monte Carlo.
http://car-a-day.blogspot.com/2010/02/lancia-beta-monte-carlo.html
More Lancia….
I guess at IEDEI, lately there is a big rush of Lancia going on…..can’t think of a better brand to get obsessed with though…..
big thanks to the fantastic Colla Verglas Blog for these pics!
(click to enlarge the photos, and click the original Colla Verglas link above to see lots more pics!)
focus: Lancia Fulvia Sport Zagato.
the original Lancia Fulvia is a total legend……and adding to the legend is this rare, but fascinating rebodied Fulvia redone by Zagato and sold in Limited Edition. A couple of years ago, i had a chance to by an unrestored one of these, but passed it up just due to the huge amount of cash it would have costed to get it back to shape. One day though, when i have enough loot to swing around, i want a Fulvia HF and a Fulvia Sport Zagato in my garage…….together!
taken from the Ultimate Car Page:
“In April 1965 the first prototype was ready and it was Elio Zagato himself who conducted the road tests. Before the end of the year the production of the Fulvia Sport 1.3 Zagato was started. As can be seen in the second picture, the rear hatch could be opened slightly electrically to improve ventilation while driving. The first production were powered by a 1.2 litre V4 engines, pumping out a decent 80 bhp. In 1967 the displacement was increased to 1.3 litres. This larger engine was available in two states of tune, 87 bhp for the Sport 1.3 and 93 bhp for the Sport 1.3S. In 1970 the Fulvia Sport was slightly restyled and a 115 bhp 1.6 litre engine was added to the line-up.”
Here are some of my favourite Fulvia Sport Zagato photographs:
(CLICK TO ENLARGE THE FOTOS)
Top Gear & Lancia.
This past sunday night, the latest episode of TOP GEAR featured Lancia as the company who has made the most number of ‘great’ cars. It was a fantastic episode, and a MUST watch for any italian car fan and especially for anyone into Lancias.
Here are the videos from that show, in 2 parts:
PART 1
PART 2
foto of the day. 11292009.
Lancias!
click to enlarge.
IEDEI 
