The strange and clever Lancia V4 engine design – Jalopnik

V4 engines are few and far between (except in motorcycles). It’s the opposite situation with eight-cylinder engines, where there are dozens of V8 engines and a number of flat-8 engines in cars that can be counted on one hand. The Saab 96 was made with a V4, the same engine that Ford of Germany used in its Taunus, and that was a good percentage of the V4s ever sold. There was also Ford’s Essex V4 of Britain, the Soviet ZAZ V4 and Ford’s Mustang I concept with a V4 running at 7,500 rpm. When most manufacturers make non-inline fours, they destroy them in flat or boxer configurations. Possibly the most double-take-motivating V4s ever made were those produced by Italian automaker Lancia (pronounced LAHN-cha).

Let’s start with a real winner: the Fulvia V4. It not only sends power to the front wheels, but it also sits in front of them. However, that’s just the beginning of the brow-furrowing, mouth-opening technique. This iron-block, aluminum-everything-other V4 has an astonishingly small “vee” angle of 12.5 degrees, even narrower than Volkswagen’s VR6 of 15 degrees. Unlike VR6s (at least until the 24-valve ones), Fulvia V4s have two camshafts that act as a double overhead arrangement: one controls the exhaust valves and the other controls the intake valves, all in one casting. Strange, clever and glorious.

Another strange thing: the Fulvia V4 is tilted 45 degrees to the left. Unlike the Chrysler Slant-6, which has a 30-degree tilt, the Fulvia V4 only tilts back six degrees, and the intake manifold has a twist to keep the carburetors level. Lancia Fulvias occasionally come up for sale online, but this unique little racer is not all that common in the US

Lancia’s slim V-shaped four-cylinder debuted in the 1922 Lambda, which also featured a monocoque chassis that was ahead of its time (until the company realized people wanted to choose their own coachbuilders). The Lambda’s engine sat upright, unlike the “tall man against a low ceiling” angle of the Fulvia V4. The cylinders were spaced a relatively tight 20 degrees apart.

Also in 1922, Lancia introduced its Trikappa V8 with a V-angle of 14 degrees. Both the Lambda V4 and the Trikappa V8 had a single camshaft operating two valves per cylinder. The company had even considered a V12, but keeping the narrow angle would have made the engine longer than a banquet table, eliminating the compactness that such a layout brings. To make things super weird, the Lambda’s combustion chamber was cut into the engine block, the spark plugs screwed directly into it, and the heads were flat.

If you thought there was anything normal about Lancia’s V4 heritage, I’m sorry to disappoint you. If you were to flatten the engine layout, you would have a Subaru-like boxer engine on your hands, because each piston has its own crankpin. Most V engines use split crankpins for opposing pistons, but it’s better to think of the Lancia V4 as a vertiginous inline-4 rather than a bisected, traditional twin-head V8. By using a single head to operate both cylinder banks, the engine was sufficiently reinforced.

Perhaps the pinnacle of Lancia’s V4 efforts was the Fulvia 1.6 HF. If you can look at a red Fulvia coupe and feel nothing, sorry, but you just found out you have no soul. What gave this car the it factor was a 1.6-liter V4 that delivered 130 horsepower in dual-carb form (certain models had a single Solex aspirated carburetor). The compression ratio was 10.5:1 and it reached peak power at a fairly high 6,200 rpm. Part of the credit for its performance lies in the hemispherical combustion chambers. More pedestrian and older Lancias, such as the Chrysler Airflow-like Aprilia, also had hemi combustion chambers, which could be why these engines seemed to punch above their weight.

Now that Stellantis owns both Chrysler and Lancia, it could bring back the beautiful, jewel-like V4 for a racing model like the Lancia Ypsilon Rally HF. If Stellantis is committed to some form of resurrection, Lancia is a worthy candidate. Sure, there’s speculation about a new Delta, but that’s just one of many cool Lancias that could fuel a second coming.

Lancia was a brilliant, idiosyncratic car manufacturer, and the company’s V4 is the best proof that it deserves better than its current state. Before the Honda Civic R made front-wheel drive (FWD) with unwavering confidence, the Fulvia and its hatchback counterpart, the Zagato Sport, were considered some of the best FWD cars ever made.