ah... the lancia delta. a name as synonymous with rallying. Back
in the 80s, the Lancia Deltas and Audi Quattros were the equivalent
of what EVOs and WRXes are today.
One of Lancia's most successful products was the Delta. It was
produced from 1979 to 1994 for many different road and track
applications. The car debuted at the Frankfurt motor show as a
Giorgio Guigaro design based on Fiat Ritmo components.
Surprisingly, this Delta would lead Lancia into its most successful
rally program.
By 1985, Lancia prepared a prototype Delta for Group B rally
racing. The resulting car, called the Delta S4, was a hot hatch of
extreme specification that hardly resembled the product it shared
its name with. It had a 480 horsepower engine nestled in the center
of a space frame chassis. Unfortunately, the S4 raced very briefly
as a result of FISA canceling the unlimited Group B racing in 1986.
Thus, the S4 was prematurely withdrawn from racing.
Fortunately, Lancia had the foresight to develop a 4WD, road-going
Delta years before Group B was abandoned. For the 1987 rally
season, Abarth prepared a version of this car, the Delta HF 4WD,
for rally racing. It was much more civilized than S4, having
production based aerodynamics and construction materials, but
featured a potent four wheel drive system. With the Delta HF 4WD,
Lancia captured the 1987 manufacturer's title with Juha Kankkunen
taking the driver's championship.
The Delta HF Integrale
Many great road-cars have been created for homologation
requirements and the Lancia Delta Integrale is one such car. After
the Delta HF 4WD's successful debut year, Lancia started the work
on the Integrale. This was a car which integrated the developments
from the 1987 season into both a road and rally car.
Since the Integrale was motivated by motor sport, it was engineered
more as a race car than the sedan which shared its name. Due to
Group A regulations, the race car was allowed very little margins
of modification. As such the road going Integrales had to be packed
with the same cutting-edge technology found in the Group A
cars.
Chassis: Permanent 4WD
When compared to the standard Delta chassis, the Integrale features
larger brakes, and an updated suspension including new front
springs, dampers struts. What remains identical is the proven drive
train which helped the Delta HF 4WD dominate Group A rally.
The secret to the Delta's sporting performance is its permanent
four wheel drive system. It uses a Ferguson layout, having three
differentials. At The rear is Torsen, or torque sensing,
differential which mechanically splits the power in a linear
fashion. The Torsen differential delivers instantaneous lock upon
high loads and not during braking like viscous couplers. Such a
differential is very expensive, any seldom seen on any 4WD
production cars.
At the center of the 4WD system is a viscous coupling differential
which divides the torque to the front or rear wheels. Under normal
conditions, 53 percent of the power is sent to the rear
wheels.
Despite such a complex drive train, the engineers at Lancia still
opted for optional ABS on the Integrale. They revised Bosch's
six-sensor system by adding two additional sensors to measure
longitudinal and transverse acceleration. Only under severe yaw
does the ABS system intervene.
Engine & Body
As Lancia was and still is owned by Fiat, it should be no surprise
the Integrale uses a two liter Fiat engine as designed by Aurelio
Lampredi. Updated in almost every area, the Integrale's engine is
an evolution of one found in the early Delta HF Turbo.
All cars after 1989 have a 16 valve head, larger fuel injectors and
a slightly revised compressor. Specifically, the turbine is smaller
on the turbocharger, but the waste gate is modified to provide a
larger boost. These 16V examples provide 200 bhp, fifteen more hp
than the eight valve design.
Since, no modifications were permitted to the body of the car Group
A car, the Integrale features the same body as used on the rally
car. It combines Giorgio Guigaro's five door layout with purposeful
modifications including extended wheel arches, and modified bumpers
and a 1.2 inch power bulge on the hood.
Special Editions
Club Italia - The rarest of all special editions, the Club Italia
was made with a limited run of just fifteen cars for members of the
Club Italia. These cars are easily identified by the Club Italia
script was written on both the front of the car and the rear
wing.
Martini 5 & 6 - Celebrating the long standing relationship
between Martini Racing and Lancia, 400 Evolution I cars were
painted with Martini Racing stripes down the side of the car. In
addition, 310 more Martini '6' cars were made in celebration of the
sixth consecutive World Rally title achieved with the Delta
Final Edition - The last 250 Evolution II cars were painted Candy
Red with a red blue and yellow strip down the center. The interior
featured Tan Alcantara leather with cloth centers, while the
instruments were surrounded in silver.
Conclusion
The most prepared company for the transition from Group B to Group
A racing was Lancia. Their determination to stay on top of field
can be seen not only in the evolution of the Delta race car, but
the road car as well.
From 1987 to 1992, Lancia consecutively won the Group A
manufacturers championship, a record which holds to this day. With
these results, Lancia have made the Integrale one of the most
successful rally cars ever - a legendary car of our time.
Story by Richard Owen for www.Supercars.net
