The Lancia Thema 8.32, perhaps better known as the Thema Ferrari, is a stylish, luxurious, sedan clothed outside by Giugiaro, inside in leather and burl wood by Poltrone Frau, and with the power that only a Ferrari V8 engine can provide.

No Ferrari has ever been offered with four doors, no Lancia has ever been so fast. The Thema 8.32 is a veritable wolf in sheep's clothing.

Between 1988 and 1990, only 2.370 of the super-Lancias were produced, the majority of which in Series I dress, the rest in the only slightly changed Series II.

The low numbers should not confuse, however, with a lack of commercial success. The Thema 8.32, with 8 standing for the number of cylinders and 32 for the number of valves, was never intended to be a best-seller.

The limited production capacity of Ferrari's Maranello factory, as well as the high list price, rather, it was a pinnacle.

The normal production Lancia Thema was an enormously successful automobile, selling strongly until the introduction of the Lancia Kappa in 1992, with a wide array of gasoline and turbodiesel engines, and the Thema 8.32 was it's highest refinement.

The Thema Ferrari, was to offer further prestige to the Thema line, in forever contrast with the automakers in Stuttgart and Munich.

It's genesis may be compared to that of the legendary Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3, when the head engineer of Mercedes Erich Waxenberger shoe-horned the V8 engine of the monstrous 600 under the hood of the relatively lithe 280 SE.

When offered to the top brass for approval, at the first stoplight, boss Herr Uhlenhaut opened the hood to find out what the hell was going on.

When the board said that the car was too fast to be safe and wouldn't sell, Waxenberger offered to purchase 50 of them himself. In the end there was no need: Mercedes sold 8.000 of the 6.3 liter.

Getting back to the subject, appealing to those in the 7-series and S-class income category, the Thema 8.32 offered the same performance with Italian style and the legendary Ferrari wail which no German straight-6 or V8 could match.

Sumptious luxury and power-everything sufficiently completed the picture, if necessary, at 240 km/h.

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