1991 Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione

POA

The Lancia Delta HF Integrale 16V Group A

In the first six years of the World Rally Championship’s Group A regulations, the Lancia Delta won every single Manufacturers’ title. Just think about the gravity of that achievement for a moment. In its multitude of successive evolutions and, of course, the legendary Works Lancia Martini Racing Team colours, the Delta racked up 46 victories on rallying’s world stage, in the hands of such motorsport legends as Juha Kankkunen, Miki Biasion and Markku Alén.

The Delta HF Integrale 16V was the third competition variant of the model, introducing a raft of improvements over the outgoing 8V, predominantly focused around power. The FIA had introduced a power cap at 300HP, which left Abarth’s engineers instead chasing mid-range torque increases. The new four-valve-per-cylinder (16V) engine increased overall power from 280HP to 295HP, while a slightly smaller Garrett turbocharger was installed in order to reduce lag and increase throttle response. Further, electronically controlled fuel injection was a production first.

The tightly packaged engine bay was made tighter still with the addition of a larger intercooler, more air inlets and, of course, that chunkier 16-valve head, which necessitated the characteristic ‘hump’ in the bonnet. Other mechanical enhancements included the fitment of larger-diameter brakes and a more reliable and efficient electronic management system. Twelve victories in 24 top-flight rallies, two World Rally Manufacturers’ Championships and one World Rally Driver’s Championship were satisfying rewards for a technical team that been chipping away at the Delta for a number of years.

A full Works-specification car born in Lancia’s Reparto Corse skunkworks, this Delta HF Integrale 16V is chassis number 500852, which was built to tarmac specification. Competing in the World Rally Championship under the factory Lancia Martini Racing Team banner, the car’s maiden competitive outing came in the 59th Monte-Carlo Rally – an event the Torinese marque had won for the preceding five years.

The traditional opening round of the season, ‘The Monte’ has always presented manufacturers and drivers with the ultimate challenge: conditions that change from dry to icy to snowy and back to dry, often all in the space of one special stage. As a result, tyres and tyre choice play a hugely significant role on the Côte d'Azur, with the strategists and drivers working closely together to pre-empt the evolving conditions and one-up their competitors.

For Miki Biasion, a poor early tyre choice coupled with a persistent brake issue quickly left him out of contention for the outright lead. However, the Italian demonstrated his deft skill and mature race craft to remain in the hunt with this Delta, scrapping and squabbling with fellow Lancia pupil Bruno Saby for third position. When Lancia’s leading man, Didier Auriol, retired on the closing leg, Biasion was promoted to an unexpected yet very welcome second position overall.

Save for one further outing during a factory test in Savona, this Delta was, unusually, not used again in 1991 and instead returned to the factory in Turin. At some point in 1992, chassis number 500852 was upgraded by Abarth to the ultimate HF Integrale ‘Evo’ specification, which is more commonly referred to as ‘Deltona’. The car which awarded Lancia its record 10th World Rally Championship Manufacturers’ title is distinguished most obviously by its muscular and boxy wheel arches and more pronounced rear wing. Beneath the surface, efforts were focused on freeing even more power from the 16-valve engine.

With the Works Lancia Martini Racing Team having ceased its official competition activities at the end of 1991, it fell to the marque’s de-facto ‘satellite’ team Jolly Club to defend Lacia’s honour on the world stage. Resplendent in its striking new Repsol livery, chassis number 500852 was drafted into competitive action once again, tackling both the New Zealand and Spanish rounds of the World Rally Championship in the hands of the Uruguayan rally veteran Gustavo Trelles.

The curtain-closing event for this Lancia Delta came in Gran Canaria at the very end of 1993. The Race of Champions was in its infancy, but a princely prize fund attracted a raft of great current and former champions from various disciplines. For 1993’s ‘Rally Masters’ edition of the Race of Champions, the double World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz was earmarked to race this Lancia on the technical 2.6km Circuito Islas Canarias.

The beauty of this particular event’s format, however, was that the Spaniard’s decorated opponents – in this case Didier Auriol, Ari Vatanen and François Delecour – were all required to race his car in a heat, too. In the winter Spanish sun, Sainz ousted Markku Alén and Ari Vatanen from the competition in the preliminary heats, before facing off against his WRC nemesis, Toyota’s Didier Auriol, in a spectacular final.

Unusually, chassis number 539663 was not entered in any further rallies and instead returned to Lancia in Turin, where it remained until October of 1996. Crucially, the car was never restored. And that means the small section of damage to the bodywork sustained by Sainz during that Race of Champions final was never fixed, standing as a testament to the sheer, dogged effort of a World Rally Champion on the ragged edge.

As Fiat Auto S.p.A. Gestione Sportiva correspondence accompanying this Delta illustrates, the factory sold this car, untouched since its final Race of Champions outing, to a Greek collector by the name of Gans Volkmar. In doing so, it also confirmed the brief Works competition history of the car: Monte-Carlo with Miki Biasion (2nd overall), New Zealand & Spain with Gustavo Trelles (7th and 6th overall) and the Race of Champions with Sainz (2nd overall).

Serviced and presented in full running condition, chassis number 500852 is accompanied by a generous history file and its original dated carbon-Kevlar racing seats and seatbelts. Finding a completely original podium-finishing ex-Lancia Martini Racing Team Delta HF Integrale that was raced by two World Rally Champions, retired and retained by the factory, and not subsequently rallied extensively in private hands is incredibly rare. Encountering such a car that’s had just two owners in the last 28 years is even more extraordinary.