Before you start reading bear in mind that this is not an official history and therefore may contain a few mistakes. If you spot any please let me know. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Phil Day whose help was invaluable!

By 1984 the Gamma range was coming to the end of its development and a replacement needed to be found. Lancia planned to replace it with a joint development project between Lancia and Saab, who had previously done minor development work on the Delta. With the project well advanced, Fiat, and even later, Alfa Romeo, decided to join in as they were both working on cars of a similar size. As with all car development, the more people involved the cheaper it should be! This liaison led to the birth of the Lancia Thema, Saab 9000, Fiat Croma and the Alfa Romeo 164 ranges.

Series 1 (1984-88)
The Series 1 Thema had a conventional four-door berlina body designed by Giorgio Giugiaro of Ital Design. It had a transverse engine, front wheel drive and all round independent suspension by McPherson struts. The original engine options were 1995cc 4cyl, 1995cc 4cyl turbo, 2849cc V6 and 2445cc 4cyl turbo diesel. The normally aspirated 2 litre engine was the Lampredi designed Fiat twin-cam breathed on by Lancia engineers and produced 120bhp. Two contra-rotating balancer shafts were added to the turbo-charged unit. These ran at twice engine speed and made it much smoother. It produced 165bhp. The balancer shafts were later added to the normally aspirated unit in early1986. The V6 motor was the PRV unit used by Renault, Peugeot and Volvo. It was revamped by Lancia and its capacity increased to 2849cc’s delivering 150bhp. Supposed to be the fastest production diesel saloon on its release and mainly aimed at the Italian market, the turbo diesel variant produced 100bhp.

In 1986 Lancia introduced 2 further versions of the Thema. These were the 8.32 and the SW (estate to you and me). The 8.32 had a de-tuned Ferrari 308 and Mondial V8 QV engine shoe-horned into the front. It really does fill all available space and is an engineering marvel! The motor had a capacity of 2927cc’s, 32 valves (hence the name, V8, 32 valves) and produced 215bhp. The main difference between the Lancia and the Ferrari V8 unit was the adoption of 90deg crankshaft journals instead of 180deg to produce a much smoother, higher torque engine as required by an executive saloon. The 8.32 had full leather and briar trim and a neat spoiler, recessed into the boot lid that came up at the flick of a switch. The suspension was uprated and the wheels were a unique (Ferrari-originated) design and increased to 15” diameter, fitted with special Goodyear ‘V’ rated 205/55 tyres. Electrically adjustable rear seats were offered as an optional extra on the 8.32. The few external distinguishing features of the 8.32 were the removal of the door rub strips (which was replaced by twin hand painted coach lines down the side of the car and boot lid), bronze external trim, a Ferrari style aluminium grill, side skirts and yellow badges on the rear, side skirts and grill. The owner could follow the final stages of production and immediately test-drive his car.

The SW was designed by Pininfarina, who built it, and was offered with either the 2 litre turbo-charged engine or the 2.5 litre turbo-diesel. It retained the same opulent trim as the rest of the Thema range and the same option extras. One interesting feature was an aluminium rear spoiler built into the roof to direct the air flow over the tailgate window to keep it clean. A rear wiper was also standard.

When the Thema SW was being planned three firms tendered in designs: Pininfarina (the winners), Bertone and Zagato. Gianni Agnelli was a fan of the Zagato offering and had two built for his personal use. If it had won it was rumoured that the Zagato model would feature a plastic tailgate. The Agnelli family also had a Pininfarina estate built with the 8.32 engine and the wood and leather trim by Poltrona Frau (who did the saloon 8.32). The car was silver with blue leather and classed as the 8.34.

In 1987 another version was added to the Thema range, the limited production Limousine. This car had the bodywork extended by about a foot and a small fixed window between the front and rear doors. The modifications gave a longer and more luxurious rear passenger compartment. The Limousine had up-rated suspension and brakes and was only offered with the PRV V6 engine. Bullet-proof glass and armour plating were an optional extra. Boneschi coachworks built a one off Thema coupe based on the series 1 in 1988. It had a PRV V6 engine and leather trim, but never made production.

Series 2 (1988-92)
By 1988 the Series 1 was showing its age and went through a revamp to produce the Series 2 (surprise, surprise!). The most obvious change was a redesigned front end with the indicators re-located between the new thinner headlamps and the top of the bumper. A new grill was fitted along with full length side skirts and the door mirror covers were colour coded (both adaptations from the Series 1 8.32). The turbo got larger 15” wheels as standard and a catalytic converter became an option and was made standard by 1992. Under the bonnet was the major improvement. The 8V motor had its cylinder head developed to take 4 valves per cylinder. This increased the power and torque of the engine which now gave 150bhp in normally aspirated form and 185bhp for the turbo version. Although the 8V normally aspirated engine was still available in some markets to overcome emission requirements that initial 16V engines could not satisfy.

The turbo-diesel had its capacity slightly increased to 2499cc’s and with other minor modifications now produced 118bhp.
Internally the heating and ventilation was improved, with ‘climate control’ automatic heating being standard (in UK), and the sound proofing increased. Rosewood was used for the ash tray cover, radio cover and door cappings, which also gained modified handles, internal locks and window switches. Other modifications included the adoption of  the hydraulic instead of cable operation for the clutch which had always been standard on right hand drive models, suspension set-up was altered slightly to give a better ride and ‘intelligent suspension’ was offered on the SE model. This gave the option of normal or a stiffer sport setting.

The 8.32 was given the new front end and folding ‘Dedra’ style door mirrors, as was the SW, which now had the normally aspirated 2 litre engine as an option. The 8.32 was reduced to 205bhp due to the addition of a catalytic converter and a modified yellow badge (no longer with the tri-colour of the Italian flag colours) was only fitted on the grill.
32 ‘Limited Edition’ 8.32’s were built and finished in Ferrari Red with black leather trim and a small plaque close to the ashtray to indicate its production number.

The Limousine was dropped after production of only about 25 cars.

Series 3 (1992-95)
The final Series 3 Themas appeared in 1992, by which time Lancia had got the build quality nailed down. As with the Series 2 the big difference was the front end treatment – although a total of over 200 modifications were made. The fog lights were thinned down and moved up to just underneath the bumper next to wraparound parking lights.  The rear bumper no longer had an exit for the exhaust and the boot lid was changed, removing the swage line and recessing the badge. Air conditioning became standard, as did ‘Solextra’ heat reflective glass and the ‘Dedra’ style door mirrors. Lights were added to the mirror in the passenger sun visor and the bottoms of the doors, and a light sensitive automatic dimming rear view mirror were also standard. Under the bonnet the normally aspirated engine got a new inlet system called VIS (variable induction system). This basically gave each cylinder two inlet tracts, one long one and one short one. The long one was used a low engine speeds and a pneumatic valve changed flow to the shorter one when revs increased. This system increased low end torque. All Series 3 had a catalytic converter in the exhaust. Both the normally aspirated and turbo-charged units got a new Bosch Motronic ignition unit and the power outputs increased to 155bhp and an awesome 205bhp respectively.

In the UK we were very limited in the Themas available. The 8.32 was only ever built with left hand drive and only offered in Series 1 form (about 25 were imported, but over half of these were sold in Germany). The V6 was only offered with automatic transmission and once again only in Series 1 form. The SW never officially made it to these shores, which is a shame because it was a very versatile car. A handful has been imported privately, but like the 8.32 it was never manufactured with right hand drive. The turbo-diesel engine was another version we missed out on. By the time of the introduction of the Thema, Lancia were already fighting a losing battle for customers after the rust problems with the Beta and only 3645 cars were registered officially, of which (at the time of writing) only 418 were still on the road. In my view a very fine motor car never got a chance to shine.