Lancia lashed its ailing life raft to the boats of Saab, Fiat, and Alfa Romeo in the hopes that a rising tide might raise all their ships. The Type Four collaboration that resulted gave four disparate manufacturers four slightly similar FWD sedans, with various level of sportiness: Fiat's effort was the Chroma. Saab created the 9000, which surpassed the cold blade of death until the mid-2000s. James May tied the latter to the Alfa Romeo 164 to create the "Salfa Romeaab," one of the greatest and mildly functioning creations ever to emerge from Top Gear.

And at the 1984 Turin Auto Show, Lancia rolled out the Thema. More luxurious than its competitors, with better build quality—on paper, anyway—than the sibling Fiat, the Thema was a handsome front-drive executive sedan with a sensible choice of V6 and turbo-four engines that never seemed like anything to send a postcard home about.

Until at the 1986 Turin Auto Show, two years later and thirty years ago, Lancia planted a Thema with a Ferrari V8.

The Lancia Thema 8.32 was the first car with an electronically-deployed rear spoiler.

The imaginatively-named Thema 8.32 reminded showgoers that this car had 8 cylinders and 32 valves. It was the Tipo 105L 3.0-liter V8 shared with the Ferrari 308 and Mondial Quattrovalvo, but this time with a cross-plane crankshaft and other modifications more befitting a comfortable car. The engine was cast at Maranello and assembled at nearby Ducati, a stone's throw away in Bologna.

Designed by Ferrari! Built by Ducati! How more red-blooded Italian does it get? Flip through your thesaurus and look up how many more ways to say "passion—" then keep in mind that the blistering 6.8-second sprint to sixty was made possible through a set of squirming, agonizing front wheels.

The Thema 8.32 is basically the mid-2000s Chevrolet Impala SS of its time. It was the Oldsmobile Toronado of the 1980s. It belongs in the pantheon of V8-powered front-drivers in a way that would make most purists squirm. But it's a V8 in a sedate sedan, nonetheless, imbued with ruthless power. Hey, wait a minute. That sounds familiar.

That's right: this is the Thema Hellcat. If you want front-drive burnouts, then line right up.

Crinkle-black finish. "Lancia by Ferrari." There's nothing not to love about this engine—until it bursts into flames.

Rare? You bet it's rare: Lancia built just under 4,000 from 1986 to 1992. They're expensive and rare and imbued with the bulletproof, economical reliability of an 1980s Ferrari engine—what did Eighties q-car buyers expect? In the UK, where it sold for £40,000 in 1988 money—which is approximately, what, $3.8 million USD today?—in LHD-only guise, just nine were sold.

Sergio Marchionne keeps swearing, in that comforting Sesame-Street tone for which he's beloved, that unlike its competitors Ferrari will never build anything as gauche as an SUV, much less a sedan, either, though Lord knows they've tried, twice. Unless you depose a few South Asian sultans, this Thema 8.32 "Hellcat" may be as close as you get.

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