The Lancia Gamma is an executive car 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 fastbacksaloon as the Berlina and as 2-door coupé, both designed by Pininfarina— with 15,272 and 6,790 manufactured, respectively. The Gamma superseded the Lancia Flavia. 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
is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. Lancia had used Greek letters to denote its models before 1945, and the nomenclature was revived with the Lancia Beta in 1971, the first Lancia developed under Fiat supervision. The Gamma is also FWD and shared suspension elements from the Beta. The Gamma carries the γ emblem both inside and out.
Engines
The Lancia Gamma was a front-wheel drive car with longitudinally-mountedboxer engine and with either a 5-speed manual transmission and later a 4-speed automatic transmission. 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 gaiter. Though Fiat had planned to use one of their V6 engines, Lancia developed unique flat-4 engines for the Gamma. The Lancia Flavia and Flavia Coupe had used 1.8 and 2.0 litre flat four engines. 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 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, its torque was available at just 2000 rpm. Initially available with a displacement of 2.5 L, it was later joined by a 2.0 L version, which resulted from the Italiantax system. 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
