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Behind the badge: the Lancia steering wheel, flag and lance

By Luca de Ruiter · · 3 min read

Lancia’s badge tells you what the company was about before you read a word: a steering wheel, a flag and a lance. Lancia is Italian for lance. It has changed more than most, but those three elements have survived almost every version. Here is how it developed.

1906–1907: a name on a dark background

Lancia & C. was founded in Turin on 27 November 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and his partner Claudio Fogolin, both of whom came from Fiat. The first cars carried no real emblem, just the name: Lancia’s own history describes the first logo, from 1907, as the word “Lancia” on a dark background.

1911: Biscaretti di Ruffia’s wheel, flag and lance

In 1911 Vincenzo Lancia asked his friend Count Carlo Biscaretti di Ruffia, an illustrator and later the founder of Turin’s automobile museum, to design a proper symbol. The result was a four-spoke steering wheel with a flag flying from a staff shaped like a lance. In 1922 a small throttle knob was added to the right-hand spoke.

1929: the shield

In 1929 the whole emblem was placed inside a triangular shield: blue for the shield, flag and lance, white for the background and the wheel, gold for the outlines and lettering.

1957: the Flaminia badge

In 1957, with the Flaminia, the badge became cleaner and more geometric: an open, silver and blue shield in which the steering wheel lost its spokes. Lancia itself says this badge was the main inspiration for its 2022 logo, which tells you how highly the company still rates it.

The Fiat years and Massimo Vignelli

Lancia became part of the Fiat group in 1969, and a more modern version of the badge was first used on the Beta in 1972. The best-known redesign of this period is by the designer Massimo Vignelli: a precise, blue-on-white shield drawn almost as a technical drawing, with exact proportions and colours. Sources disagree on the year: Lancia’s own history gives 1981, while Motor1 dates the design to 1974, with its debut on the 1979 Delta.

2000 and 2007: chrome, then a simpler shield

In 2000 Maurizio di Robilant updated Vignelli’s badge with a new size and a chrome frame, first seen on the restyled Lancia Y. In 2007, on the new Ypsilon, the shield was simplified further: a dark blue shield with a stylised two-pointed steering wheel, and no more flag or lance.

2022: back to 1957

At the Lancia Design Day on 28 November 2022 the brand presented a new logo for its revival. Lancia says the 1957 Flaminia badge was its main inspiration: the wheel, flag, shield, lance and name return, simplified and rebalanced, in aluminium, with an asymmetric lance. It is used on the new Ypsilon and is planned for the brand’s next models.

Why it matters when you restore a Lancia

A Fulvia, a Flavia, a Beta and a Delta all wear different badges, and reproduction badges do not always get the details right: the number of spokes, the throttle knob, the colours, the chrome frame. Check period photographs or the parts catalogue (how to use ePER for Lancia part numbers) for your exact model and year, and if originality matters, look for an original (NOS) badge rather than a reproduction.

Sources

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