Fulvia concept

[stephen300o]

Whatever happened to the Lancia Fulvia concept, long time ago I know but saw it again while googling, it looked really nice, why did it die?

[isuk]

It was based on the Fiat Barchetta floorpan which is now 12 years old and out of production. It seems that no other suitable floorpan has been found and with Fiat struggling for cash at the time this concept was made it was shelved. Priority was given to turning around Fiat then focus placed on Alfa Romeo as the sporting brand in preference to throwing money at Lancia which has lately become less and less successful across Europe (unsurprising when you look at it's uninspiring product range). With Lancia due to return to the UK with the next generation Delta based upon the Fiat Bravo I can't help thinking that a beautiful and affordable coupe model like this modern interpretation of the Fulvia would have been just the car to sell the brand here. As it is I think the next Delta is merely going to be another anonymous looking hatch that won't tempt many buyers as it will be sold as a luxury type brand as opposed to a sporting one. Lancia tried the upmarket approach in the UK back in the late 80's/early 90's and failed dismally with cars built upon Fiat underpinnings - the Dedra based upon the Tempra, the Thema based upon the Croma etc. The only car that stood out in the range at the time was the Integrale which was a genuine Lancia product. Hopefully if Fiat's newfound financial success continues then Lancia may see more investment and cars like the Fulvia may actually make it to production. An HF version would be an interesting prospect.

The interior of this concept was spot on

Edited by isuk on Sunday 25th November 00:19

[stephen300o]

That's a shame, it looked production ready too.
As Alfa is going RWD how about a modern interpretation one of these


Trouble is we can never get those slender A pillars back.

[isuk]

Alfa has no plans to go to RWD I'm afraid. The 8C Competizione is a one off in this respect and only possible due to it using a modified floorpan from the Maserati Coupe/Spyder. Fiat's top man Sergio Marchionne is quoted in December's issue of Car magazine as saying "I have hope for rear wheel drive Alfas but it doesn't mean I have a plan to get there". So it seems that the 75 will remain the last true RWD Alfa for some years to come unfortunately.

[stephen300o]

Bugger, I thought it was too good to be true, I was thinking it would be a bit expensive for the market there in.

[velocemitch]

I've always thought a recreation of the Bertone Copue would be agreat idea for Alfa. I wouldn't rule it out either, what's his name in charge of Alfa as publicly said we wants to build a Duetto for the centenary and he mentioned RWD too. A Bertone is just one step from that.

[stephen300o]

velocemitch said:

I've always thought a recreation of the Bertone Copue would be agreat idea for Alfa. I wouldn't rule it out either, what's his name in charge of Alfa as publicly said we wants to build a Duetto for the centenary and he mentioned RWD too. A Bertone is just one step from that.

Or X1/9

[andy97]

isuk said:

Alfa has no plans to go to RWD I'm afraid. The 8C Competizione is a one off in this respect and only possible due to it using a modified floorpan from the Maserati Coupe/Spyder. Fiat's top man Sergio Marchionne is quoted in December's issue of Car magazine as saying "I have hope for rear wheel drive Alfas but it doesn't mean I have a plan to get there". So it seems that the 75 will remain the last true RWD Alfa for some years to come unfortunately.

What was all this about then:

http://pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=17...

[isuk]

andy97 said:

What was all this about then:

http://pistonheads.com/news/default.asp?storyId=17...

I think I would trust the quote attributed to the CEO of the Fiat group as he is the guy controlling the purse strings. There have been lots of false rumours about Alfa switching to RWD over the last 10 years but with their very poor sales volumes they simply don't have the cash needed and will require to platform share with a partner. The Fiat group was saddled with the GM collaboration which meant that they were sharing FWD componentry but that has now ended thankfully so they may look for a tie up elsewhere. Marchionne is a very shrewd businessman as his deal with Ford on building the next Ka in Fiat's Polish factory shows. He's now thought to be in discussions with Mercedes on jointly developing a new A class sized FWD car. If this tie up is established he may just pull off a deal to get his hands on something like the next generation C Class platform to give Alfa and Lancia a RWD opportunity at a sensible development cost. This could yield a RWD successor to the 159. The only current option for making the 169 RWD would be using a Maserati platform but I doubt this is plausible as a launch date of 2010 means that the final design has most likely already been signed off and a redesign would simply be too costly based upon likely sales projections.

[V6Alfisti]

I have heard from a number of sources (dealer who had some kind of private view in Italy, people working in Alfa Design), that the 169 will be RWD, and a great new range of Alfa engines are being developed.

High BHP units from both small turbo charged petrol units, large diesel units, and large petrol units.

I look forward with great anticipation. (Would love an up to date interpretation of the Alfa Giulia)

Nothing quite feels like an Alfa imo

[dinkel]

Didn't the Fulvia concept have a diesel engine in?

That Bertone is yum. Want one in lavender . . .