Classified of the Day – Lancia Delta

Rallying is arguably one of the most thrilling, exciting and unpredictable forms of motorsport out there. There is so much left to chance – the terrain changes, the weather changes, there are no gravel traps or safety barriers. It’s thrilling, edge of your seat racing, and that’s just when you’re watching it on the sofa. Imagine what it must be like to be in a rally car, trees rushing past you at over 100mph with mere inches to spare. It’s what this Lancia was built for. 

It’s not just the given environment that makes rallying exciting though – it’s the cars, too. Purists will say today’s cars are lacking drama, and in some cases, you could be right. Especially when you look at the car we’ve chose here. Yes, this is the Lancia Delta Integrale Evoluzione. This car was the face of rallying in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, often stealing the limelight from the Fords.

It’s remarkable that that Delta ever even made it to the end of a stage. As a road car it was fairly hopeless. It wasn’t particularly well-built. It wasn’t fast. It wasn’t especially easy on the eye. It was just a generic, and somewhat boring, car. That is until Lancia strapped a turbo to it. That’s when things got exciting. Things went absolutely bananas when it was given all-wheel drive.

Full of roll cage and with the boost wound up, the later Delta Integrale Evoluzione, was an absolute weapon. It won a massive 46 rallies. Forty. Six. That’s a ridiculous number. But then, when you strap people like Markku Alén, Didier Auriol and Juha Kankkunen behind the steering wheel, you’re going to get results like that.

So, this car is just a few stickers in homage to those rally cars, right? Wrong. This is a fire-breathing, 540bhp, roll-caged, bucket-seated, MSA Blue Book satisfying racer. Built for hill-climbs, sprints and of course, rallying, this particular Delta can stand tall next to the group A cars of old. Just look at the spec – there hasn’t been a single nut or bolt left unturned in the name extracting performance. Okay, at £65k it’s not cheap, but it costs over £100k to build, so on that basis it’s a bargain.