Tag Archives: 037

Twincharged – Lancia Delta S4

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By 1985 it had become apparent that with the successes being racked up by the latest four wheel drive Audi Sport Quattro and Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 Lancia would have to abandon it’s supercharged 2 wheel drive Lancia 037 and join the four wheel drive rallying band wagon if it wanted to remain competitive in World Championship Rallying.

Lancia Delta S4, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Over the course of 1985/86 Lancia built 200 Lancia Delta S4 Stradales with CroMo tube frame chassis, covered with epoxy and fiberglass 2 door body panels, vaguely reminiscent of the Lancia Delta 4 door hatch back but hinged in the roof for easy access to the rear.

Lancia Delta S4, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Like the Peugeot Turbo 16 the engine was mounted transversely behind the passenger seat but it was not only supercharged as per Lancia 037 but also turbocharged to improve overall power, while the S4’s four wheel drive system was developed with Hewland.

Lancia Delta S4, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

Power out put for the motor at 5 bar boost was said to be 1000hp but in Staradale, road spec, 250 hp was deemed sufficient while in Corsa, competition spec between 500hp and 600hp was more likely.

Lancia Delta S4, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The competition version of the S4 made it’s debut on the RAC Rally in November 1985 and Henri Toivonen with Neil Wilson navigating came home first ahead of team mates Markku Alén and Ilkka Kivimäki.

Lancia Delta S4, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

The following season the S4 scored four victories; Monte Carlo for Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto, Acropolis for Miki Biasion and Tiziano Siviero with Markku Alén and Ilkka Kivimäki winning the Sanreno and Olympus Rallys.

Lancia Delta S4, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Markku and Lancia might have been crowned World Rally Champions, but that was before the governing body the FIA found that the organisers of the San Remo Rally had been wrong to disqualify the Peugeot team from a commanding lead of the rally for using skirts to aid the handling of their cars and so the FIA had little option but to annul the San Remo results which handed the world titles to Juha Kankkunen and Peugeot.

Lancia Delta S4, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

However the season was clouded and the course of rallying was changed after first three spectators were killed and another 30 were injured when a Group B Ford RS200 plunged into a crowd in Portugal and later Henri and Sergio lost their lives after their S4 plunged into a ravine and burst into flames in Corsica.

Lancia Delta S4, Race Retro, Stoneleigh

In the aftermath of these events Group B was cancelled from the end of 1986 and Audi withdrew from the Ford curtailed it’s Rally RS200 programme while Audi immediately withdrew from international rallying completely.

Lancia Delta S4, Alén, Kivimäki, RAC Rally, Wollaton Park, Nottingham

The photo above show’s Markku and Ilkka on the opening Wollaton Park stage of the 1985 RAC Rally while the remaining photographs show S4 Replica’s at Race Retro and Goodwood Festival of Speed built I believe by Rally Legend Replica’s in Blackburn.

Thanks for joining me on this “Twincharging” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me for Mercedes Monday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Kenyan National Champion – Lancia Rally 037

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In 1982 the FIA mandated new rules for sports car racing and rallying called Group B which allowed manufacturers to compete with any vehicle they had built 200 examples of, further more evolutions of these models were permitted each year so long as 20 examples had been built.

Lancia Rally 037, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

The category never really took off in racing with only Porsche and Ferrari building legible cars and only Porsche racing a works example on a limited schedule, but in for rallying Group B proved popular amongst manufacturers including Lancia, Audi, Austin Rover, Ford, Peugeot and Porsche, who all built models to compete in the Group B category.

Lancia Rally 037, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

With the career of the successful FIAT 131 Abarth at an end the FIAT Group turned to Abarth to develop a vehicle loosely based on the Lancia Beta Montecarlo / Scorpion mid engined coupé.

Lancia Rally 037, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

Abarth working with Pininfarina and Dallara under project manager Sergio Limone used the central floor pan of the Beta Montecarlo with subframes fitted front and rear as the basis of their new Group B contender.

Lancia Rally 037, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

The 2 litre / 122 cui twin cam motor from the three time World Rally Championship winning FIAT 131 Abarth was upgraded by fitting a Volumex supercharger which brought the power up to 285 hp, but more importantly significantly improved the throttle response over turbocharged motors. The engine was fitted longitudinally, on the original Montecarlo’s the motor was transversely mounted, and drove only the rear wheels.

Lancia Rally 037, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

The Olio Fiat backed Lancia Rally 037 made it debut in 1982 but recorded only two finishes from 9 starts. However in 1983 the now Martini sponsored team recorded 5 wins from the 6 events it started, four to Walter Rörhl and one to Makku Alén, enough to secure the 1983 World Rally Championship for Lancia, the last such win for a rear wheel drive car, but not enough to secure the drivers championship for Walter who left the team at the end of the season to join Audi.

Lancia Rally 037, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

The #17 seen in these photographs was built in 1983 and is believed to have been used by Attilio Bettega during that season in Europe before being shipped to Kenya in 1984 in preparation for the Safari Rally.

Lancia Rally 037, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,


Vic Preston Jnr, returned to the Martini fold to drive the car to a win in a Kenyan national championship round in preparation for the Safari on which he finished 6th in the same car with John Lyall.

Lancia Rally 037, Race Retro, Stoneleigh,

Subsequently Vic and John won the 1984 Kenyan National Rally Championship with the car after recording 10 wins from 12 events.

The car remained in Kenya and for the 1986 Safari Rally the Martini Lancia team prepared it with the latest 325hp 2,111 cc 128.8 cui motor with water injection to cool the supercharged air for John Hillier and David Williamson who recorded a 10th place finish.

Current owner David Kedward bought the car in Kenya and imported it to the UK.

Thanks for joining me on this “Kenyan National Champion” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a BRM. Don’t forget to come back now !

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