Product lifecycle of modern cars are only seven years, because people get bored cars easily and after seven years people don’t want to buy one. However there are some exceptions for this! Lancia Delta Integrale from 1979 to 1994.
If you were born after 1990s, you have never heard of this car and if you don’t know this car stop thinking about cars :) During the end of 1980s and until the middle of 1990s, Delta Integrale was a phenomenon car of the World Rally Championship! It won Constructors Championship six times from 1987 to 1992 and it turn into an icon for Lancia. It showed what Lancia can do. Its 2lt turbo charged engine was producing 215 horsepower (1993 model) and four-wheel drive was transferring all those power to the road. Not only its engine was magnificent, but also its design! Many people wanted to own one. And still today, we can see that why people love this car. The WRC successes and powerful engine completed with an Italian design, if this car was made by someone else with the same technology but without this design, it won’t be create this impressive.
Those fantastic years did not live for long. Lancia could not manage to carry on this heritage and brand’s reputation started to dissolve. After having financial problems, Lancia disappeared from the automotive business. Then Fiat bought the company launched the brand again. And when I read about new Delta model, I was expecting to see contemporary interpretation of Delta Integrale but the result was catastrophic. This new car was totally destroyed the legend of Delta Integrale. Lancia should have preferred a different name for this car and reserve this brand as an asset to use it later on. However, they didn’t do this and revealed a family car.Pictures are from;
Wikipedia
Lancia
