The 2006 edition of the Geneva car exhibition celebrated many anniversaries.
One of the most important ones was the 100th birthday of the Italian Lancia, a brand with an important tradition of quality and elegance. Lancia has been a bit disappointing to its faithful customers after the inclusion in the Fiat group, but Lancia is still the most prestigious in the Fiat group of car manufacturers.
The production models have not recently changed and are the Ypsilon, Lybra, Thesis, Musa and Phedra. They have a limited market, far from the successes of the Aurelia of the 50s, the Fulvia of the 60s, and a Lancia Delta rally car. These models together with a Beta of 1909 were presented just to celebrate the Lancia anniversary.
Also at the Geneva exhibition many coach builders diplayed their models. Their activity has been changed in the last years and the construction of new "fuori serie" models has moved to a very integrated work with the main producers. Their stands were really rather empty, and they took the opportunity to celebrate anniversaries: Bertone had the old Lamborghini Miura (40 years old) and Zagato his Ferrari 250GT berlinetta (50 years of age).
The Swiss magazine Revue Automobile was celebrating its 100th anniversary with a collection of outstanding cars, including the Pininfarina Sigma, still a wonderful example of a Formula One car that is also nice to look at, showing the fantastic V12 Ferrari engine with its incredible exhaust-pipes.
We hope so.
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Lancia Aurelia, a reminder of better days.
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1909 Lancia Beta.
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Once upon a time, Lancias rallied. And won. This is the Lancia Delta.
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Probably the prettiest Lancia of all; the Fulvia, a product of the 60s.
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Lamborghini celebrated the forty year anniversary of the Miura.
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Pininfarina dusted off the unique F1 based Sigma...
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with the exhaust pipes so reminiscent of the 1970s F1 scene. Neat stuff.
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Wonder if that engine still runs? Or did it ever?
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Zagato's 250GT Ferrari is one of the Zagato brother's most successful designs.
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