1985 Lancia LC2 Group C

Certified by Lancia Classiche, confirming it retains its original engine

Entrant in the 1985 World Sportscar Championship and the 1986 World Sports Prototype Championship

Second overall and fastest lap in the 1985 1,000KM of Brands Hatch

Third overall, pole position and fastest lap in the 1986 360KM di Monza

Pole position in the 1986 1,000KM of Silverstone

Raced by the decorated Lancia factory racing drivers Mauro Baldi, Bob Wollek, Andrea de Cesaris and Alessandro Nannini

The final LC2 built and raced by the factory Lancia Martini Racing Team

Presented in the LC2’s ultimate 1986 specification

Highly eligible for the popular and competitive historic Group C grids around the world

Accompanied by an enormous inventory of spare parts, including body panels and wheels and tyres

Driven at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed by the five-time Le Mans winner Emanuele Pirro

Lancia’s answer to the Porsche 956

When Lancia’s dirigente sportivo Cesare Fiorio and Martini Racing’s top brass first clapped eyes on Porsche’s spaceship-like 956 Group C prototype at the Silverstone 6 Hours in May of 1982, we’d bet it soon dawned that they were going to have to throw the kitchen sink at its own challenger for the FIA’s newly formed Group C category. But if anybody could rise to the challenge and build a worthy competitor, it was Lancia and all its Italian industrial might. National pride was at stake, after all.

Once the Group C project was greenlit in the summer of 1982, Ingegnere Gianni Tonti was appointed to oversee the design and development. And let’s just say budgetary constraints weren’t an issue. The illustrious firm Dallara was entrusted with the lion’s share of the chassis design – a state-of-the-art aluminium monocoque. Ferrari supplied a bespoke twin-turbocharged 2.6-litre V8 engine that, in full qualifying specification, pumped out a dizzying 800HP. And the sleek carbon-Kevlar bodywork’s aerodynamic trickery and newfangled ground effects were honed at the Fiat Research Centre in Orbassano.

“Time after time, the Lancia Martini Racing Team’s LC2s would leave the paddock bewildered with their turn of pace.” 

The resulting prototype, finished in the evocative Martini colours, was christened the LC2. And it was fast right out of the box. Really fast. Time after time, the Lancia Martini Racing Team’s cars would leave the paddock bewildered with their turn of pace. In qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1984, Bob Wollek vanquished the Works Porsches in qualifying. And despite a lack of reliability and an abundance of bad luck, the Works LC2s scored 13 pole positions between 1983 and 1986, converting three into outright victories. By no means did Fiorio and Tonti stop persevering with the LC2, in order to maintain its competitiveness against Porsche’s ever-evolving 956s – much to the dismay of the bean counters in Turin.

The most dramatic – and effective – upgrade to the LC2 came in advance of the 1985 FIA World Sportscar Championship. Firstly, the electronic fuel injection and ignition systems (supplied predominantly by Magnetti Marelli in Turin) were optimised and honed to reduce fuel consumption by some 15 percent. The bodywork was widened in order to enlarge the track and make full use of the regulatory dimensions. And the tyres were switched from cross-ply Dunlops to radial Michelins. Specification-wise, the LC2 had reached its zenith.

Chassis number 0007

Only seven LC2s left Lancia’s Squadra Corse and were raced by the factory Martini Racing Team outfit. This 1985-specification example – chassis number 0007 – was the last of those seven Works cars. Its first recorded competitive outing came in the 1985 Shell Gemini Brands Hatch 1,000KMs, round eight of the FIA World Sportscar Championship. Assigned the race number five, 0007 was earmarked to be driven by the 1990 World Sportscar Champion Mauro Baldi, the four-time Le Mans winner Bob Wollek and the Italian Formula 1 veteran Andrea de Cesaris.

The qualifying-spec 800HP engine fitted, chassis 0007 recorded a lap time of 1min15.1sec in practice – good for second on the grid, behind only the sister Martini Racing LC2. For England, the weather on race day turned out to be unusually warm, causing the Michelin tyres fitted to the Lancias to wear quicker than expected. This allowed the Porsches to pass, much to the dismay of the 26,000-strong crowd. Baldi, Wollek and De Cesaris crossed the line in third overall, the latter also clinching the fastest lap of the race.

The World Sportscar Championship became the World Sports Prototype Championship for 1986 thanks to the infinite wisdom of the FIA. And with it came the introduction of three additional sprint races, similar in distance to a conventional Formula 1 Grand Prix and with a mandatory driver change. The first of these new sprint races was the season-opening Kouros Cup at Monza in April.

As Lancia invested more energy and expense into its successful World Rally Championship campaign, so the endurance racing outfit’s programme was reduced to one car for 1986. Not that this deterred Tonti and the ingegneri in Turin from developing one final evolution of the LC2. The 1986-specification car differed in a number of ways, not least the wider Venturi tunnels in the floor, the 20kg reduction in weight to the chassis, the addition of the Thorsen differential and the 40bhp boost in power.

Chassis 0007 was Lancia Martini Racing’s designated weapon of choice for the 1986 season. And for the opening sprint race at Monza, Andrea de Cesaris and Alessandro Nannini were assigned to drive. The new and updated LC2 instantly showed its hand, clinching pole position by a massive two seconds from the Joest Racing Porsche. A Ferrari-powered Lancia on the pole at Monza – to say this one was teed up nicely is an understatement.

“Set on the harder (read slower) tyre compound and in the first practice session, the pole lap was astonishing and a whisker off an average speed of 150mph.”

The race saw a breathless battle between the Lancia and the Porsche, each assuming the lead on several occasions. Alas, in a turn of events indicative of Lancia’s road-racing luck in general, fuel issues struck with 10 laps remaining. Chassis 0007 was forced to settle for second place, though snatched the fastest lap as a small consolation prize for the team.

Next up was the first endurance event of 1986: the Kouros 1,000KM of Silverstone. Once again, chassis 0007 represented Lancia and, once again, secured pole position in the hands of De Cesaris and Nannini. Set on the harder (read slower) tyre compound and in the first practice session, the pole laps was astonishing and a whisker off an average speed of 150mph. After a killer start this LC2 built a lead of 12 seconds. But the team was once again thwarted by fuel issues, which cost 0007 over an hour in the pits. De Cesaris was sent out for one final flourish, setting a new Group C course record of 1min13.9sec – and with a full tank of fuel! By the time the car was parked, Fiorio was already en route to the airport with his entourage.

Sheer speed would be the attribute for which the LC2 was remembered when Lancia took the difficult decision to pull out of endurance racing after Silverstone and focus solely on its rallying efforts. And fair enough in hindsight. The Torinese marque would go on to become the most successful manufacturer in the history of the World Rally Championship – a position it retains to this day.

As Lancia withdrew, so this LC2 was sold to Vern Schuppan, who’d won the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a Works Porsche 956. Schuppan sold the car to Dr. Shigeo Imai in Japan, who in turn sold it to the European father-and-son collectors and historic racing drivers Richard and Benton Bryan. In the enviable position of having owned two LC2s at the same time, they raced chassis 0007 on a number of occasions in the then-burgeoning historic Group C championship, including in the support race for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2004.

The following owner, a French enthusiast and veteran historic racing driver with an extraordinary collection of historically-significant competition cars, continued to campaign this LC2 in events across Europe. That was until 2018, when we at Girardo & Co. had the pleasure of selling the car to its current owner, a West Coast-based collector who counts a number of predominantly Ferrari competition cars in his stable.

Since then, chassis 0007 was subjected to a no-expense-spared mechanical restoration, during which the engine was thoroughly inspected, the gearbox was rebuilt and the crown wheel and pinion replaced. The entire car was disassembled and all the relevant parts were crack-tested and re-anodised. The bodywork was also repainted and the Works Martini Racing Team livery reapplied. For all intents and purposes, this Lancia LC2 is in rude health and ready to be enjoyed, either on a private track-day or in the increasingly popular world of historic Group C racing, both in Europe and across the pond in the United States of America.

Most recently, in the custody of its current private owner, chassis number 0007 made an appearance at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it was driven by Emanuele Pirro.

The Italian five-time Le Mans winner never raced the Lancia LC2 in period. But he came close… “I was asked by Lancia’s sporting director Cesare Fiorio to join his team with the Beta Montecarlo Turbo in 1981,” he recalls during a break in his jam-packed @fosgoodwood schedule. “It was an absolute dream for me – the drivers in the team were a generation ahead and those I really admired: Michele Alboreto, Riccardo Patrese, Eddie Cheever and the like.”

Alas, a move to Alfa Romeo in Formula 3 presented a contractual conflict of interest and Pirro was forced to leave Lancia just before their world-beating prototype endurance-racing programme really got going with the LC1. “That was really hard,” he remembers. “Contesting the world championship with an Italian brand and the iconic Martini sponsorship – what could have been!”

Driving this LC2, chassis number 0007, took an a particular sense of significance for Pirro since the two Italian drivers who raced it in period, Alessandro Nannini and Michele Alboreto, were both teammates of his during his career.

“Chassis 0007 boasts a short but sweet competition record studded with success: two podium finishes, two pole positions and three fastest laps – from only three races!”

Hailing from one of motorsport history’s most evocative and fondly remembered epochs, the Lancia LC2 will always be considered one of the greatest Group C prototypes – a car which, in spite of its ultimately thwarted luck, captured the collective imagination with its fierce speed and desperate beauty. Chassis 0007 boasts a short but sweet competition record studded with success: two podium finishes, two pole positions and three fastest laps – from only three races! Furthermore, its ultimate (read fastest) specification and the fact it is the final chassis campaigned by the Works Lancia Martini Racing outfit make this a truly unique proposition. Lancia and Ferrari – a match made in motorsport heaven.