It's probably not a coincidence that the Italian auto industry, having produced the double entendre Fiat TV series, also presented the world with a car named "Hi-Fi". Except that implying that the car was intended for "the world" is probably overstating the case, because when Lancia named its HF series for High Fidelity, they were referring to the loyalty of individual Lancia customers who had each, over the years, purchased several new Lancias. These were the people who got priority on the waiting list for the HF series of cars, which included the rally champion Fulvia HF, the smooth 2000HF road car, and (after the Fiat takeover) the immortal Stratos HF and Delta Integrale HF, also rally champions. The HF story starts in 1965, when Lancia introduced a sporty notchback coupe version of its square-rigged, front-drive Fulvia sedan. The coupe shared the narrow angle V4 with its intake and exhaust valves operated by twin cams in the single head casting. The Fulvia coupe did for the Fulvia's image what the Alfa GTV coupe did for the Giulia…or in the States, what the Mustang did to update (and upstage) the stodgy Falcon. In late 1965 the first HF appeared with an uprated version of the 1.2 liter engine, joining a Zagato-bodied Fulvia coupe in the sports department at Lancia. Soon there would be 1.3 and 1.6 liter versions of the HF, and Lancias were winning road rallies all over the place. The HiFi badge on these cars featured a cheerful red elephant, sometimes a whole row of them.
I often thought that this design could have extended the life of the sound Fulvia mechanicals into the 1980s. Instead, Fiat gave us the rust-bucket Lancia Beta. But there were moments of inspiration too, and in one of them, Fiat adopted Marcello Gandini's wild 1971 prototype, the Bertone-bodied Stratos HF, for limited production. The fluorescent orange prototype featured matte-finish paint, and the production car below it shares the wrap-around cockpit glazing (allegedly inspired by a racing helmet) while it adds boundary layer air control over the hood for the mid-mounted engine.
In 1973, production began on the car after Enzo Ferrari grudgingly granted Lancia access to the 500 Dino Ferrari V6 engines they would need for a World Rally Championship contender. The Lancia Stratos won that Championship in 1974, '75 and '76, and the Monte Carlo Rally in 1975, '76, '77 and '79. Ferrari's attitude has always seemed a little ungrateful, because Lancia, bankrupted by its own racing program in 1955, had given him a whole team's worth of Formula One racing cars and spare parts at the end of that season. Juan Manuel Fangio had, after all, won a World Championship driving for Ferrari with the Lancia D50 in 1956. But that story will be told in another chapter, the creation myth of the racing red elephants...
Photo credits:
Top: Fulvia HF coupe (iedei.files.wordpress.com)
2nd: Zagato 1600HF (car-from-um.com)
3rd & 4th: Lancia Fulvia 1600 Ghia (Ghia Studios, reprinted in carstyling.ru)
5th and 6th: Lancia Stratos HF (wikimedia)
7th: HF insignia (ebay.com)
It's worth mentioning that Lancia never gave up on improving the Fulvia; they even changed the angle between the cylinder banks twice during the car's life span, necessitating expensive tooling changes. This incessant fiddling was one thing which kept Lancia on top in rally competition, winning the Italian Rally Championship in 1965 through '69 and '71 through '73, and the World Rally Championship in 1972. It was maybe also a reason the company kept losing money, and was taken over by Fiat in 1969. The Fulvia coupe stayed in production until 1976, after which it was replaced by the rust-prone, Fiat-engined Beta coupe. Even under Fiat management, Lancia made some memorable cars, including the Zagato 1600 HF from 1971-'72, the fastest and most powerful Fulvia ever…
And the Fulvia 1600 Competizione Coupe, penned by Tom Tjaarda for Ghia in the year of the Fiat takeover, 1969…
This car, which sadly remained only a one-off, avoided surface decoration in favor of emphasis on careful proportions and sharp detailing. The retractable airfoil and the cast rollover hoop, drilled for lightness (also featured in Tjaarda's Serenissima Ghia; see "One of One: A Brief History of Singular Cars" in our 9-7-15 post) are examples.
I often thought that this design could have extended the life of the sound Fulvia mechanicals into the 1980s. Instead, Fiat gave us the rust-bucket Lancia Beta. But there were moments of inspiration too, and in one of them, Fiat adopted Marcello Gandini's wild 1971 prototype, the Bertone-bodied Stratos HF, for limited production. The fluorescent orange prototype featured matte-finish paint, and the production car below it shares the wrap-around cockpit glazing (allegedly inspired by a racing helmet) while it adds boundary layer air control over the hood for the mid-mounted engine.
In 1973, production began on the car after Enzo Ferrari grudgingly granted Lancia access to the 500 Dino Ferrari V6 engines they would need for a World Rally Championship contender. The Lancia Stratos won that Championship in 1974, '75 and '76, and the Monte Carlo Rally in 1975, '76, '77 and '79. Ferrari's attitude has always seemed a little ungrateful, because Lancia, bankrupted by its own racing program in 1955, had given him a whole team's worth of Formula One racing cars and spare parts at the end of that season. Juan Manuel Fangio had, after all, won a World Championship driving for Ferrari with the Lancia D50 in 1956. But that story will be told in another chapter, the creation myth of the racing red elephants...
Top: Fulvia HF coupe (iedei.files.wordpress.com)
2nd: Zagato 1600HF (car-from-um.com)
3rd & 4th: Lancia Fulvia 1600 Ghia (Ghia Studios, reprinted in carstyling.ru)
5th and 6th: Lancia Stratos HF (wikimedia)
7th: HF insignia (ebay.com)
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