The Lancia Gamma (Tipo 830) is an

executive car Executive car is a British term for a large car which is equivalent to the European E-segment and American full-size classifications. Executive cars are larger than compact executive cars (and the non-luxury equivalent mid-size cars), and smal ...

(

E-segment The E-segment is the 5th category of the European segments for passenger cars, synonymous with the term executive car. E-Segment is a niche in Europe (2-3% penetration in 2010s). As of 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, E-segment sales account for 2.7 ...

in Europe) manufactured and marketed by the Lancia subdivision of Fiat. Following its debut at the 1976 Geneva Motor Show as Lancia's new flagship, the Gamma was marketed as 4-door fastback saloon as the Berlina (1976-1984) and as 2-door coupé (1977-1984), both designed by

Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (short for Carrozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 December 2015, the Indian ...

— with 15,272 and 6,790 manufactured, respectively. The Gamma superseded the

Lancia Flavia The Lancia Flavia (Tipo 815/819/820) is an executive car produced by Lancia in Italy from 1961 to 1971. Production continued as the Lancia 2000 from 1971 to 1975. The Flavia was launched with a 1,500 cc engine at the 1960 Turin Motor Sho ...

. The fastback style of the Berlina featured a conventional boot at the rear, rather than a hatchback. At the car's press launch Pininfarina said a hatchback was avoided to save the inconvenience to back seat passengers when luggage is loaded, ostensibly draughts.

The name

Gamma is the third letter of the

Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as w ...

. Lancia had used Greek letters to denote its models before 1945, and the nomenclature was revived with the

Lancia Beta The Lancia Beta (Type 828) was an entry-level luxury car produced by Italian car manufacturer Lancia from 1972 to 1984. It was the first new model introduced by Lancia after it had been taken over by Fiat in 1969. The Beta was made in severa ...

in 1971, the first Lancia developed under Fiat supervision. The Gamma is also shared

front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitu ...

and suspension elements from the Beta. The Gamma carries the γ (lower case gamma) emblem both inside and out.

Engines

The Lancia Gamma was a front-wheel drive car with longitudinally-mounted

boxer engine A flat engine is a piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct from the less common opposed-piston engine design, wh ...

and with either a 5-speed manual transmission and later a 4-speed

automatic transmission An automatic transmission (sometimes abbreviated to auto or AT) is a multi-speed transmission used in internal combustion engine-based motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving ...

. The Gamma received a midcycle face-lift, receiving Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection as well as a new corporate grille, 15-inch "sunburst" alloy wheels, and a revised interior with new instrumentation, interior lighting, badging, handbrake and

gear lever A gear stick (rarely spelled ''gearstick''), gear lever (both UK English), gearshift or shifter (both U.S. English), more formally known as a transmission lever, is a metal lever attached to the transmission of an automobile. The term ''gear sti ...

gaiter. Though Fiat had planned to use one of their

V6 engine A V6 engine is a six-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, Deutz Gasmotoren Fabr ...

s, Lancia developed unique

flat-4 A flat-four engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-four engine, is a four-cylinder piston engine with two banks of cylinders lying on opposite sides of a common crankshaft. The most common type of flat-four engine is the boxer-four engine, ...

engines for the Gamma. The

and Flavia Coupe had used 1.8 and 2.0 litre flat four engines and the Lancia 2000 used the 2.0 litre engine. Engine designer De Virgilio also drew up an engine for the Gamma which was a V6 4-cam with either 3- or 4-litre displacement, but this never came to fruition. The flat engine, though large for a modern 4-cylinder petrol engine, lacked the cachet associated with six and eight cylinder engines but enabled Pininfarina chief stylist

Aldo Brovarone Aldo Brovarone (24 June 1926 – 12 October 2020) was an Italian automobile designer and the chief stylist with Carrozzeria Pininfarina (1974-1988) – widely known for a prominent range of work including the Dino 206 GT, Lancia Gamma Coupé ...

to lower the coupé's bonnet line and to steeply rake its windscreen. Pressure cast in alloy with wet cylinder liners, the engine was light and though it only produced , ( in 2.0-litre form) its torque was available at just 2000 rpm. Initially available with a displacement of 2.5 L (Gamma 2500), it was later joined by a 2.0 L version (Gamma 2000), which resulted from the Italian tax system (cars with engines larger than 2.0 L are subject to heavier tax burden). The displacement was lowered by decreasing the bore rather than the stroke of the engine. Both displacements were using Weber carburetors, and the 2.5 L also came in a version fitted with fuel injection (Gamma 2500 I.E.) * 2.0 L carburetor 8v SOHC

- 1999 cc, 120 PS (1st series) 115 PS (2nd series) (85 kW) * 2.5 L carburetor 8v SOHC

- 2484 cc, 140 PS (103 kW) * 2.5 L I.E. 8v SOHC

- 2484 cc, 140 PS (103 kW) ''*stated by Pininfarina production records''

Concepts

Several concepts were developed from the Gamma Platform over the years: * 1977

Gamma Spider — a

targa top Targa top, or targa for short, is a semi-convertible car body style with a removable roof section and a full width roll bar behind the seats. The term was first used on the 1966 Porsche 911 Targa, and it remains a registered trademark of Porsc ...

version of coupé. * 1977

Giugiaro Giorgetto Giugiaro (; born 7 August 1938) is an Italian automotive designer. He has worked on supercars and popular everyday vehicles. He was born in Garessio, Cuneo, Piedmont. Giugiaro was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted ...

Megagamma — a short-nosed MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) hatchback-bodied variant. * 1980 Pininfarina Gamma Scala — a saloon, based on the coupé but with a regular notchback boot. * 1981 Saloon — a Berlina-based six-window

three-box The configuration of a car body is typically determined by the layout of the engine, passenger and luggage compartments, which can be shared or separately articulated. A key design feature is the car's roof-supporting pillars, designated from fron ...

, notchback saloon variant. * 1982 Pininfarina Gamma Olgiata — a three-door

shooting brake Shooting brake (sometimes mis-identified as "shooting break") is a car body style which originated in the 1890s as a horse-drawn wagon used to transport shooting parties with their equipment and game. The first automotive shooting brakes were ...

, based on the coupé; similar in concept to the Lancia Beta HPE.

Gallery

File:Lancia Gamma Coupé at Schaffen-Diest 2015.JPG, Lancia Gamma Coupé 1st series File:Lancia Gamma Coupé rear three quarters.JPG, Lancia Gamma Coupé 1st series rear side File:Lancia Gamma coupé FL front.jpg, Lancia Gamma Coupé FL 2500 (1982) front side File:Lancia Gamma Coupé 2500 IE side.JPG, Lancia Gamma Coupé FL 2500 (1982) File:Werkplaats achterzij.JPG, Lancia Gamma Coupé FL 2500 (1982)

References

External links

Italian website on Lancia Gamma

Lancisti.net - An Information Exchange and Support Community for Lancia Owners and Enthusiasts

Gamma Consortium

Lancia Motor Club (UK)
{{Lancia modern timeline 1980s cars Cars introduced in 1976 Coupés Front-wheel-drive vehicles Executive cars Gamma Sedans Cars powered by boxer engines Lancia Gamma Flagship vehicles