Lancia Thema Limousine

Automotive Art   |   Photoshop Chops

When thinking about stately limousines, the Lancia Thema doesn’t immediately spring to mind as the first choice for a base car. The Thema is generally regarded as a fine sample of the middle segment – but a league below a Mercedes-Benz S-Class or BMW 7-Series. There certainly are more prestigious cars available to be used as a starting point for building a long wheelbase variant. However, the Italians didn’t have a lot of any choice in the highest segment, so they used what they had, in this case the Lancia Thema (and later the Lancia Thesis). They nailed the proportions perfectly by adding just the right amount of length, making it look a lot better than the odd-looking French counterparts based on Citroën CX and Renault R25 – both of which are also front wheel drive platforms. The body therefore didn’t need much tinkering. I just colour coded the bumpers, tinted the windows and added USDM-style sidemarkers and red rear lights from the facelift model. Thinking about imaginary sales in the US market, I used white wall tires on a set of wheels sourced from a US-car. Comment below if you know which donor car they came from.

Sebastian Motsch   |   instagram @photoshopchops