1990 Lancia Delta HF Integrale 16V Group A – 1991 World Rally Championship (TO 55237R)

Works Lancia Delta Martini Racing Team | 1991 World Rally Championship (TO 55237R)

A rare and exceptionally significant piece of factory rally history, this is an authentic Works Lancia Martini Racing Team entry from the 1991 World Rally Championship, campaigned at the very highest level during the final chapter of Lancia’s legendary WRC dominance.

The car was driven in period by two-time World Rally Champion Miki Biasion, who guided it to a podium finish on the 1991 Acropolis Rally, one of the most demanding events of the season. It was also piloted by Jorge Recalde under the official Works Martini Racing banner on home soil at the 1991 Rally Argentina, further cementing its provenance within Lancia’s factory programme.

Purpose built by Lancia to heavy-gravel specification, the car reflects the uncompromising engineering that defined the marque’s rally success during this era. Following its competitive career, it was retained by Fiat Auto S.p.A. until 1994, a rare distinction that underscores its importance, before passing to just two private owners in the decades since.

Its authenticity and historical significance are formally recognised with Abarth Classiche certification, providing authoritative verification of its factory origins and competition history. Enhancing its originality, the car is accompanied by its original, period dated carbon Kevlar racing seats and seatbelts, along with a substantial and highly compelling history file. This includes original correspondence between Fiat and the car’s first private owner, offering unique insight into its post works history.

Now road registered in the United Kingdom, this exceptional Works Lancia represents a once in a generation opportunity to acquire a genuine factory-backed Martini Racing Team car driven by rallying legends, proven on the world’s toughest stages, and preserved with impeccable provenance.

Conceived and built within Lancia’s Reparto Corse at the height of the marque’s World Rally Championship programme, this is a full Works specification Delta HF Integrale 16V Group A, chassis no. 539663. Constructed to demanding heavy-gravel specification, it was prepared to contest the world’s most punishing rallies under the official Lancia Martini Racing Team banner.

The car made its competitive debut at the 38th Acropolis Rally in Greece in 1991, one of the toughest events on the WRC calendar. Registered in Turin as TO 55237R, it was allocated to Miki Biasion, Lancia’s double World Rally Champion and the driver most synonymous with the Group A Delta, partnered as always by long-time co-driver Tiziano Siviero.

Arriving in Greece, Lancia found itself in a period of internal transition. Long-standing team principal Claudio Lombardi had unexpectedly departed for Ferrari just days earlier, and the future of the factory rally programme was uncertain. Against this backdrop, Biasion drove chassis 539663 fitted with an experimental electronic centre differential, a technical development that required rapid adaptation on the loose, dust choked Greek stages. Despite the challenges, Biasion delivered a measured and authoritative drive, guiding the Delta to a third-place overall finish and securing a valuable podium for the factory team.

For newly appointed sporting director Giorgio Pianta, drafted in at the eleventh hour, the Acropolis could scarcely have unfolded more positively, Biasion on the podium and Juha Kankkunen claiming outright victory in dramatic fashion.

The car’s second and final World Championship appearance came later that season at the 1991 Rally Argentina, another brutal gravel event. On this occasion, the Delta was entrusted to local hero Jorge Recalde, the only Argentinian ever to win his home rally, a feat he had achieved in 1988 driving a Martini-liveried Delta. Expectations were high.

Determined to keep its championship ambitions alive against Toyota, Lancia mounted a full-scale factory assault, entering four cars and deploying extensive personnel and resources. However, the vast and remote Argentinian stages stretched the team thin, and servicing limitations soon emerged. With championship contenders Kankkunen, Auriol and Biasion prioritised, Recalde endured persistent power issues throughout the event. His fifth-place finish was nonetheless a commendable result under the circumstances.

Following Argentina, chassis 539663 was retired from competition and returned to Turin, where it remained in factory custody until February 1994. Correspondence from Fiat Auto S.p.A. Gestione Sportiva confirms that the car by then restored by Abarth, was sold to Greek collector Aigli Apostolou, formally documenting its concise but distinguished Works record. Acropolis Rally 1991 (3rd overall, Biasion) and Rally Argentina 1991 (5th overall, Recalde).

Although Apostolou assembled an exceptional collection of competition Lancia Deltas, this example was never rallied in private hands. In 2016, the car received official Lancia Classiche certification, and in 2018 it entered the UK based collection of its current custodian, himself a noted collector of competition Lancia's. Since then, the Delta has appeared publicly only twice, in non-competitive form, at the Eifel Rallye Festival in Germany and Rally Revival in the United Kingdom.

Today, chassis 539663 is presented in full running order, freshly serviced and accompanied by an extensive history file, along with its original period dated carbon Kevlar racing seats and seatbelts. A genuine podium finishing Works Lancia Martini Racing Team Delta HF Integrale, raced by legends, retained by the factory, and preserved with exceptional originality, this is an extraordinarily rare opportunity made even more remarkable by the fact it has had just two private owners in more than three decades.

An unmistakable centrepiece for any serious international collection, this is not simply a rally car it is a cornerstone of World Rally Championship history.

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