On the whole, there are fewer desperately broken or unkempt cars in Japan, but there are always exceptions. I’ve featured a few in previous posts, but this time we are talking about high-performance European exotics, which the Lancia Delta Integrale certainly qualifies. Yet that more-equal-than-others status has not prevented at least some of these precious rally machines from being left out to rot.
The first Delta I caught, a couple months ago, was this impressively augmented Evo 2. At least, I think that’s what it is, given what’s left of it. Rally cars are supposed to live fast and die young, but obviously the grim repairman forgot to finish this one.
However, it’s lost its license plates, to odds are it will not be around for too much longer. We’re probably looking at a parts car. Externally, it’s only missing its Lancia shields and a few badges, but who knows what lurks within?
The second one I found is a slightly older 16v. That one was impossible to photograph from the rear, which it turns out meshed pretty well with the first one being hard to catch from the front. But the two cars do have notable differences.
The 16v looks like it only took half the steroids that its younger sibling did. The body kit and hood augmentation, though similar, is less massive. And the Evo’s famous roof spoiler, complete with the obligatory “Martini Racing” decal (though no Evo 2 was raced with that sponsor, it seems), is absent from the 16v.
Let’s do a little historical recap. The Lancia Delta was originally launched back in 1979 as a five-door hatchback with a peaceful 1.3 or a competent 1.5 litre engine driving the front wheels. The unassuming Lancia was transformed into a world-class rally car by the introduction of an AWD drivetrain mated to a turbocharged 2-litre in the 1986 Delta HF 4WD.
The rallying bones were evident, as the HF 4WD came just one year after the mid-engined Delta S4 Group B. The S4, along with its Stradale “production” variant, was a completely different car underneath, merely decorated with a Delta-like body made for the Group B rallies, until those were banned in 1986. The HF 4WD and its subsequent descendants were front-engined, and thus much closer to a standard Delta.
In 1988, the Delta HF Integrale made it to the showrooms, as well as the proving grounds of the WRC. This initial version had the same 8-valve engine as its 4WD predecessor, albeit boosted to 185hp. The next year, a 16-valve 2-litre good for 200hp was installed. This added power required bigger wheels and from that point the fenders started to grow outwards. The hood also started to develop a bulge, as well as cooling vents.
Although the Delta was now a decade old, the HF Integrale was just getting going. The WRC victories piled on, seemingly without end. Lancia took the manufacturers crown in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992 – a feat that has yet to be bested.
The ultimate HF Integrale, also known as the Evo, was launched in 1991, powered by a 205hp version of the Fiat DOHC 2-litre. A lot of body-building had taken place between the Integrales 16v and the Evo, resulting in a very chunky-looking car, complete with a set of new 16-inch wheels, larger hips, that peculiar air-brake-like rear spoiler and new headlights.
It’s hard for me to tell how original these cars are inside, but the 16v looks pretty stock, as far as these things go. Just very, very dusty…
The Evo seems to have the proper high-back Recaros and the correct Momo steering wheel, but it’s had its fair share of ameliorations along the way. That silver radio really looks out of place. Interesting that the older car has a console, but the younger one did away with it, though that may well be only specific to this particular one. But then that Evo 2 looks like a proper rally car and makes the 16v seem almost tame by comparison.
I’m not 100% sure that this is an Evo 2 (1992-94), as I really don’t know all the minutiae of the Delta Integrale’s multiple versions. However, they do say that the Evo 2 has an aluminium gas cap, which seems to be the case here. The “unleaded fuel” sticker also implies this is a catalytic car, so more probably an Evo2 (though there were catalytic-equipped Integrales since 1989 for certain markets) with the 215hp engine. I did check with CC’s own 6’1” and 32-inch inseam WRC encyclopedia, known to us mortals as Mr Jim Klein, and he feels this might well be, indeed, the genuine article.
Like most of you I’m sure, I’ve never had the pleasure of going sideways down a gravel road in the middle of nowhere with parting walls of spectators on either side of my speeding conveyance egging me on to go even faster despite my better judgment. Rallying is a strange and scary land to many of us. It makes for spectacular viewing, that’s for sure.
A little Youtube clip is worth a thousand words, so in the interest of brevity, have a look at the above. There are many to choose from, so I picked a short montage of the Tour de Corse 1993 – the Delta Integrale’s final WRC season. Take it away, Carlos!
After ’93, they did take it away. The HF Integrale Evo 2 was retired from the WRC, having lost to Toyota, though the halo of six consecutive WRC wins meant that road car sales continued. The rest of the Delta range, on the other hand, was replaced by a completely new (and thoroughly uninspiring) “Nuova Delta” based on the Fiat Tipo platform. The very last batch of the 1st generation HF Integrales were painted a deep shade of crimson and sold exclusively to Lancia dealers, as a sort of souvenir, in 1995.
I had a friend who, years ago, had a Delta GT i.e. – a great little car with a reasonably quick 108hp 1.6 litre DOHC engine. So these Lancias do tug at my heartstrings a bit. I was never much of a rallying fan, so they don’t excite me the way they do some of you, but they’re still rare Italian exotics in peril. Finding one of these sleeping rough half a world away from Italy cold be regarded as a stroke of luck, but finding two has given me pause to wonder about taking up unicorn breeding professionally.
Related post:
CC For Sale: Lancia Delta Intregrale 16V – Want To Go Rallying?, by Hannes69117
I’m under the impression that the HF Integrale needs frequent and very specialised TLC. It is presumably very hard to find anyone in Japan with the knowledge. Sad to see them looking so un-loved nevertheless.
There is an European and exotic car dealership that also does servicing here in Jacksonville, unfortunately I don’t remember the name of it off the top of my head. Anyway, a few years ago I noticed they had 2 or 3 Deltas for sale but at least one was a ” regular ” Delta (8 valve engine, no turbo). I was tempted to go have a look at the car, but the dealership is open by appointment only and I figured that was to discourage ” tire kickers ” like me.
At one time Jacksonville was the largest port of entry for cars in the country so if you look hard and long enough you will find many unusual cars in the area.
The car with the spoiler is almost assuredly an EVO II due to the body colored roof gutters that extend into the D-pillar, which while they can be painted, rarely are and here we can see the paint fading to white, uniformly with the body itself. The spoilers are adjustable with brackets that shipped with the car, the spoiler was flat at delivery, almost every owner puts it in the full upright like this one, and there’s a third option of having it in the middle. Downforce, sure at speed, and a great big whack at the fuel economy too but if you can afford an EVO, well…. The body is wider due to the track of the car being widened significantly and the rules stating that the bodywork must fully enclose the tires.
While there were around 44,000 Integrales (4WD Deltas) produced in total (8V,16V, EVO I + II) and over 11,000 of them were EVO models, what’s astounding is just how many seem to have ended up (or started) in Japan. Last week in your Singles collection post, I totally spaced on that EVO there, what it was is one of the 250 Edizione Finales, that were ALL sold in Japan (that one is pretty much like the Dealer Edition, same color, but with a stripe over the top). Who would think that a legendary Italian car would have an entire 250-count final edition, all identical, sent to Japan for sale there upon request of the local importer. You have to have confidence in your market to do that.
Nowadays when a really good Integrale (and especially an EVO) comes up for sale or auction it most likely emanated from Japan. No small feat for a car that was never built in RHD from the factory. Some of the rarer special editions are going for very big money nowadays, they seem to have taken over from the Audi Quattro as the hot car du jour, no doubt helped by a whole passel of people that were into rallying in the ’80s and ’90s having the means to indulge their past passions.
Thanks for the shoutout, you clearly recall me trying to figure out a way to get past the ropes at the Toyota rally exhibit at the AutoWeb museum, if it was a Lancia exhibit there may have been some cash bribes attempted…
That ’93 footage was from the Delta’s last year of competition, but no longer with the Lancia team, it was run by Jolly with (some) factory support but that was dwindling by that time as well – Hence no overall Martini sponsorship, but Sainz’ Repsol colors instead. Some of the sport’s best drivers successfully raced the Delta both in Group B and then Group A, and Lancia’s record speaks for itself.
It’s quite surprising to see these two in this condition, it would seem they have been languishing for quite some time and when looking at these for purchase, condition is everything (that and color, some of the special editions (like the Yellow or Dark Green or Martini-striped ones) have been known to command factors of x2 vs an identical car in a common color such as these red ones. The best bet to sell them would probably be to take them up to Hokkaido, find a Japanese barn with a lot of foliage around it, then prop open a barn door and start taking a series of photographs with just the front ends peeking out with the sun angling across them and another couple hundred pictures of every little detail. Fresh Barn Finds From Japan! – pop them on BringaTrailer and watch the bidding frenzy, nobody will care they seemingly haven’t run in years.
In the realm of car badges, those “HF” emblems with the elephants must be right at the top of the heap. In cultures where personal property is not as well respected as perhaps it is in Japan, I would guess that those “HF” badges would not last long at all on the sides of a semi-abandoned car.
Thank you for the video link. The guttural sound of those engines, both at idle and at speed, is awesome. The way the drivers induce oversteer through the fast-into-the corners driving technique. The way the spectators crowd the road and dare the cars to pass within inches of them at speed, is frankly insane.
I guess somebody ran out of money or commitment but thought they were to special to scrap.
Back in the late 80s I worked around the corner from an exotic car dealer and they had several grey imports including an early Integrale which I once saw in traffic being either test driven or exercised. They also had a Renault R5 Turbo 2 around the same time. This was pre 1990 and thus the anything goes era of grey imports in the US.
Not a car I’m ever likely to find in Eugene. I suspect that these cars will be resurrected. The Evo is too rare and valuable to end up as a parts car.
I see that Hot Wheels has fairly recently introduced a miniature version of this car, so it must have been fairly… something back in the day.