{"id":42009,"date":"2025-10-14T10:51:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T08:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.italpassion.fr\/?p=42009"},"modified":"2025-10-14T10:51:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T08:51:18","slug":"the-lancia-thema-8-32-a-ferrari-engine-and-the-first-road-car-with-active-aerodynamics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.italpassion.fr\/en\/lancia\/la-lancia-thema-8-32-un-moteur-ferrari-et-la-premiere-voiture-de-route-dotee-dune-aerodynamique-active\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lancia Thema 8.32: a Ferrari engine and the first road car with active aerodynamics!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At the end of the 1980s, Italian engineering was still in its golden age. Cars signed Lancia<\/a>Alfa Romeo and Ferrari embodied an era when technology flirted with passion. And in the midst of it all, a discreet, elegant yet fearsomely innovative sedan became, without anyone realizing it at the time, the first production-approved car to incorporate active aerodynamics. Its name: Lancia Thema 8.32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Ferrari engine under the hood of a Lancia sedan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Introduced in 1986, the Thema 8.32, for 8 cylinders and 32 valves, is the most prestigious version of Lancia's flagship Thema sedan. Under its front hood, a 2.9-liter V8 derived directly from the Ferrari 308 Quattrovalvole, slightly modified to suit a more flexible and civilized use. The result: 215 hp at 6,750 rpm, a bewitching sound and a typically Italian revving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This exceptional powertrain transformed the Thema into a kind of bourgeois sedan with the heart of a sports car. Its handling, gentler than that of a Ferrari, did nothing to detract from its character: 0-100 km\/h acceleration in 6.8 seconds and a top speed approaching 240 km\/h. Not bad for a front-wheel-drive car from 1986!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The real innovation: an active fin before the others<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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But what few people know is that the Thema 8.32 introduced a technology that other automakers would later perfect: active aerodynamics. On the rear trunk, a small electrically retractable spoiler could be deployed at the driver's request via a button on the steering column.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What does it do? To improve stability at high speeds by increasing the pressure on the rear axle. Once the speed was reduced, or on a simple command, the spoiler retracted into the trunk, regaining its elegant, perfectly integrated lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This simple but innovative device made the Thema 8.32 the world's first road car with a mobile aerodynamic element. A few months later, the Porsche 959 would make history with its pilot-controlled suspension, and a few years later, Mistubishi with two automatic active fins on the 3000GT, but Lancia had already paved the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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