Lancia is Getting Ready for a Rallying Renaissance
Lancia is bringing back its high-flying HF sub-brand in preparation for a return to the world’s rally stages.
The Italian firm previously dominated the World Rally Championship, winning 15 WRC titles, with stage stars including the Fulvia, Stratos, 037, Delta S4 and Delta HF Integrale.
Now CEO Luca Napolitano has confirmed that the famous High Fidelity badge will soon be back, updated for the electric era.
“This reinterpretation has aimed at purity of form, respecting the geometries of the marque,” said Lancia. “The colours recall the logo of the Fulvia Coupé of ’66, while the slant of the letters recalls the logo of the Lancia Delta of the 1990s, ‘evoking speed and radicality’.” The modernized HF logo is a “Progressive Classic”, that balances past and future.
The first vehicle to badged HF will be a hot version of the recently-launched Ypsilon electric hatchback. Power will be hiked to 240 hp so that the Ypsilon HF can sprint to 62 mph in 5.8 seconds. That sounds fun for Italians and a small selection of European neighbors who will be able to buy it, but Lancia lovers the world over will be far more excited about Napolitano’s other major announcement.
“The new HF logo will make its debut on the Lancia Ypsilon HF and then also grace the high-performance versions of the brand’s future models,” he said. “In this way, we take another step forward in the Lancia Renaissance, underlining the brand’s more brutal and radical soul and its commitment to focusing on performance models.
“Will we return to rallying? We are working on it.”
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Lancia is a shadow of what it once was in the glory days. It basically just another FIAT in current guise. Given how many brands Stellantis has (use only as directed) I do wonder what they are going to do with making 10 versions of the same car all over the world, especially in EV Toaster guise.
More destruction of Lancia. Ferrari’s low budget racing cars. Except when raced in the proper class.
EV’s will never work as a successful form of reliable transition. Never. In racing, perhaps. Except for races like the Pari-Dakar Rally, the EV could work due to limited miles and time given. Point being, the EV is in a class of its own not to be compared to the internal combustion engine or diesel engine. You must allow a section of the racing community to exist that is only EV powered vehicles. EV’s are a novelty and always will be. If my great grandmother said, when she test drove a “1924 Electric”, the electric vehicle will never work as a form of reliable and steady source of transportation do to limited mileage, then its most likely never going to work unless perpetual motion is fully conquered.