Style chief defends Lancia Chrysler ties

The man charged with heading the design teams of the full spectrum of Fiat Chrysler brands has defended the new conglomerate's move to embrace badge engineering.

To traditionalists' chagrin, Chrysler's latest 300C – due Down Under next month -- has been relaunched in Europe as a Lancia Thema (pictured). There's now even a Lancia badged version of the Voyager minivan. Later this year Australia is tipped to get the Dodge Journey rebadged as a Fiat.

Lorenzo Ramaciotti, Fiat Chrysler's equivalent of Volkswagen Audi Group eponymous design chief Walter d'Silva, says the decision to pair Fiat with Dodge products and, most controversially Lancia and Chrysler, is simply good business.

"This is not, how you say, of my choice. It’s more, what could I say, a tactical situation," long-time Pininfarina designer Ramaciotti told motoring.com.au at last week's Auto China 2012 in Beijing.

"You have to be realistic in some cases and you have to ask yourself if it was better to design a specific Lancia that would have never have been produced? Because the last assay [concept] that Lancia made, has been the Thesis. That was really, a leak [loss] of money for the company that was never, never recovered.

"So this [badge-engineering] was the simplest and fastest way to add a vehicle to our [Lancia] product lineup," Ramaciotti explained.

With oversight on a huge spectrum of brands – literally from RAM trucks to Ferrari – Ramaciotti's opinions count. His influence spans all of the Fiat Chrysler group's design studios in Turin, Detroit and Belo Horizonte (Brazil). He asserts, that in the 300C there are design themes that have direct links to Lancia heritage.

"It would have been a choice [to kill off Lancia], but I have to say, ironically, if you look at the Flaminia and you see the rear tail treatment with the vertical lamps -- that are joined by a bumper underneath -- and the front with the huge grill and the very rigid treatment on the side [profile], it is not that far from [today's 300C].

"Everyone has his own Lancia in mind but the Flaminia was a car that was, at the time, a ground-breaking vehicle," Ramaciotti stated.

According to the design boss, his day to day involvement in most of the group's new car designs is limited.

"A person cannot work directly on all of these brands... It’s more a position of co-ordination and direction setting, and I don’t want to, really, to interfere with the day-by-day work that they do."

He says the brands are in good shape – badge-engineering included.

"I think we have a clear portfolio of brands and… we must not mess with these brands. Dodge is an American brand and we don’t have to try to transform it in some, something mid-way between an American and a European car. Most of the brands... have a clear character and direction – Ram, Dodge, Alfa, Fiat – and they have to keep it.

"I don’t want to put too much pressure on the American side because they have the knowledge of their cars... They are much closer to their customer than I am. I can put into the discussion my point of view, of course, but I don’t want to pretend to be right every time," Ramaciotti stated.

But there is an exception to Ramaciotti's hands-off rule -- Maserati. Born in Modena, Ramaciotti has had a life-long love affair with the marque even though he spent most of his adult life working indirectly and directly for the opposition – Ferrari.

"I worked for the other side [Ferrari] up to almost the end of my career and finally when things were looking to be closed, we [at Pininfarina] had the chance to participate to the design activity for the Quattroporte. Then we enter into the competition for the Gran Turismo and we got the Gran Turismo. And so, at the end of my career, I had the chance to work on the two cars that today have rebuilt the fortune of Maserati design."

Ramaciotti was also heavily involved with Maserati's stunning Birdcage 75th anniversary showcar.

"So now that I have the chance to continue to work for Maserati, I oversee the activity of the Kubang [SUV] much closer than I would have done for other cars.

"I think that the work we do is so emotional that if there is a personal involvement you try to do it even better. Even if there is not a project, we will try to be the best. But in this case, it’s something more personal, more than professional," he said.

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