The Lancia Diàlogos is an Italian luxury

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...

that was presented in saloon form at the 1998 Turin Motor Show. By European standards, the Diàlogos is a significantly large car with a width, height and standard wheelbase of , as a result of its interior designed to combine the concepts of a perfect atmosphere, a living room, and stress-free driving. Under development since August 1996, the Diàlogos was designed by the company's in-house Centro Stile Lancia under chief designer, Mike Robinson, who described the concept as "a futuristic design, a next-generation car, with a flavor of the past". Distinctive body features include front styling dominated by a large grille, and the absence of side central pillars with the rear doors opening backwards, to evoke the design of the

Lancia Aurelia The Lancia Aurelia is a car manufactured and marketed by the Italy, Italian company, Lancia, from 1950 to the summer of 1958 — over a course of six ''series.'' Configurations included a 4-door Saloon (car), saloon/sedan, 2-door GT coupé ...

saloon of the 1950s. Interior del Lancia Dialogos

The interior is sumptuously appointed with body-moulding seats trimmed in "nabuk", said to be similar to chamois leather. In addition, the front seats of the Diàlogos

swivel A swivel is a connection that allows the connected object, such as a swivel gun, gun, swivel chair, chair, Caster, swivel caster, or an anchor rode to rotate horizontally or vertically. Swivel designs A common design for a swivel is a cylindr ...

through 90° to help access into the cabin, and by 180° to form a sofa facing the rear seats. Other interior features includes: a steering wheel and instrument panel located at the centre for ease of access but that can slide on either side depending on the prevailing driving direction; 2 screens fitted in the back of the front seats; a tactile thin film of softwood bonded to a layer of resin and foam for the dashboard and some other areas; a personal electronic key, known as the "Ego Card", which allows the car to adapt to an individual's needs associated with seat position, multi-zone climate control settings, steering-wheel and pedal position; automatically opening driver's door upon approaching the car. Mechanically, although not equipped with an engine, the Diàlogos is said to feature an active differential and adjustable drive-torque distribution to both axles as well as advanced multilink suspensions. For example, the front suspension uses a virtual steering axis, with the said axis passing through the center of the front wheels thus claimed to result in potholes or uneven surfaces not causing the wheel to vibrate or turn. The rear suspension too uses a virtual pitch center such that, when riding over an obstacle, the wheel moves back to reduce interference transmitted to the body. In terms of driving technologies the Diàlogos has: fully adaptive headlights that respond to driving conditions; adaptive cruise control; adaptive semi-automatic transmission; anti-collision and lane departure systems; voice control for many systems; exterior cameras. Lancia later adapted and introduced many of the above technologies for mass production on its

Lancia Thesis The Lancia Thesis (Type 841) is a full-size car produced by Italian automaker Lancia between 2001 and 2009. It was available with naturally aspirated and turbocharged engines ranging between 2.0 and 3.2 litres in both straight-5 or V6 configurati ...

saloon, which was launched in 2001 and whose exterior styling was based on that of the Diàlogos. Although a wagon concept was also designed, it was never produced to full scale.

Lancia Giubileo

In 2000, a one-off version named Giubileo was built and gifted to

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

as part of the Catholic church's

Great Jubilee The Great Jubilee in 2000 was a major event in the Catholic Church, held from Christmas Eve (24 December) 1999 to Epiphany (holiday), Epiphany (6 January) 2001. Like previous Jubilee in the Catholic Church, Jubilee years, it was a celebration of ...

celebrations. It was powered by a 3.0L

Alfa Romeo V6 engine The Alfa Romeo V6 engine (also called the Busso V6) is a 60° V6 engine made by Alfa Romeo from 1979 to 2005. It was developed in the early 1970s by Giuseppe Busso, and first used on the Alfa 6 with a displacement of and a SOHC 12-valve cylin ...

and was valued at 1.5 million.

References

{{Lancia , state=collapsed Diàlogos Retro-style automobiles