Overview
1990 Lancia Delta HF Integrale 16V Group A For Price
A Works Lancia Martini Racing Team entry in the 1991 World Rally Championship
Raced by the two-time World Rally Champion Miki Biasion to a podium finish in the 1991 Acropolis Rally
Raced by Jorge Recalde under the Works Lancia Martini Racing banner in his home rally: 1991 Rally Argentina
Built by Lancia to ‘heavy-gravel’ specification
Retained by Fiat Auto S.p.A. until 1994, since when it’s had just two private owners
Certified by Abarth Classiche
Accompanied by its original dated carbon-Kevlar racing seats and seatbelts
Accompanied by a generous history file, including correspondence between Fiat and its first private owner
Road-registered in the United Kingdom
In the first six years of the World Rally Championship’s Group A regulations, the Lancia Delta won every single Manufacturers’ title. Just think about the gravity of that achievement for a moment. In its multitude of successive evolutions and, of course, the legendary Works Lancia Martini Racing Team colours, the Delta racked up 46 victories on rallying’s world stage, in the hands of such motorsport legends as Juha Kankkunen, Miki Biasion and Markku Alén.
The Delta HF Integrale 16V was the third competition variant of the model, introducing a raft of improvements over the outgoing 8V, predominantly focused around power. The FIA had introduced a power cap at 300HP, which left Abarth’s engineers instead chasing mid-range torque increases. The new four-valve-per-cylinder (16V) engine increased overall power from 280HP to 295HP, while a slightly smaller Garrett turbocharger was installed in order to reduce lag and increase throttle response. Further, electronically controlled fuel injection was a production first.
“Twelve victories, two World Rally Manufacturers’ Championships and one World Rally Driver’s Championship were satisfying rewards for a technical team that been chipping away at the Delta for a number of years.”
The tightly packaged engine bay was made tighter still with the addition of a larger intercooler, more air inlets and, of course, that chunkier 16-valve head, which necessitated the characteristic ‘hump’ in the bonnet. Other mechanical enhancements included the fitment of larger-diameter brakes and a more reliable and efficient electronic management system. Twelve victories in 24 top-flight rallies, two World Rally Manufacturers’ Championships and one World Rally Driver’s Championship were satisfying rewards for a technical team that been chipping away at the Delta for a number of years.
TO 55237R
A full Works-specification car born in Lancia’s Reparto Corse skunkworks, this Delta HF Integrale 16V Group A is chassis number 539663, which was built to ‘heavy-gravel’ configuration. Competing in the World Rally Championship under the factory Lancia Martini Racing Team banner, the car’s maiden competitive outing came in the 38th Acropolis Rally in Greece.
This Lancia made its competitive debut in the 1991 Acropolis Rally in Greece, where it was driven by Miki Biasion
Bearing the Turin registration ‘TO 55237R’, the car was earmarked for Miki Biasion, the Italian double World Rally Champion and the man perhaps more closely associated with the Group A Delta than any other. Alongside him was his longtime co-driver Tiziano Siviero.
It’s fair to say that heading into the Acropolis, Biasion was not the star pupil in the Lancia camp. Lancia chief Claudio Lombardi had unexpectedly left to head up Ferrari’s racing efforts but a week earlier, sparking fears among the team that the big wigs in Turin were planning to abandon motorsport altogether. Lombardi’s parting advice to Biasion did nothing to quash the unease. He advised him to join Ford, which had been wooing him for some time. And Biasion from Bassano del Grappa did just that, signing for the following year.
Biasion finished third overall in Greece driving this very Delta
Whether or not this influenced Lancia’s decision to give Biasion a Delta (chassis 539663) fitted with an experimental electronic centre differential for the Acropolis, we’ll never know. But it took a while for the Italian to acclimatise to the newfound handling characteristics of his Lancia on the stiflingly dusty Greek special stages. Though the circumstances took the shine off his weekend, Biasion’s weekend, he still managed to drive a commanding rally, crossing the finishing ramp in third overall.
For Lancia’s new sporting director Giorgio Pianta, who’d been drafted in from the technical team mere days earlier after Lombardi’s abrupt exit, Greece could hardly have gone better. Biasion on the podium and Juha Kankkunen snatching the outright spoils from championship-contender Carlos Sainz in spectacular fashion.
The second and final period event contested by this Lancia was Rally Argentina
This Delta HF Integrale 16V was next employed for Rally Argentina in July, another arduous gravel round. The factory-entered car was assigned to the Argentinian Jorge Recalde, who’d sealed himself in the hearts and mind of his country when he became the only Argentinian to ever win Rally Argentina in 1988 – incidentally, also behind the wheel of a Martini Racing-liveried Lancia Delta HF Integrale. The stage was set.
In a bid to keep the championship fight with Toyota alive, Lancia threw the kitchen sink at Rally Argentina in 1991. Not only did it field four cars in the rally proper, but it drafted in as many extra personnel and recce/practice cars as it could. Ultimately, this was to be the Turin marque’s undoing. The long mountainous special stages of Argentina were notoriously inaccessible and the engineers soon realised they were unable to adequately service all four of the cars it had entered.
Local hero Jorge Recalde poses alongside his decorated Lancia Martini Racing Team teammates in Argentina
With Kankkunen, Auriol and Biasion leading the championship charge and keeping Lancia’s title hopes alive, Recalde was not the team’s number-one priority. Which probably explains why the local hero suffered from persistent power issues throughout the weekend. His fifth overall was, in hindsight, a remarkable result given the circumstances.
Unusually, chassis number 539663 was not entered in any further rallies and instead returned to Lancia in Turin, where it remained until February of 1994. As Fiat Auto S.p.A. Gestione Sportiva correspondence accompanying this Delta illustrates, the factory sold this car, which by this point had been restored by Abarth, to a Greek collector by the name of Aigli Apostolou. In doing so, it also confirmed the brief Works competition history of the car: Greece with Miki Biasion (3rd overall) and Argentina with Jorge Recalde (5th overall).
Apostolou had an impressive collection of competition Lancia Deltas, though he never drove this car competitively. In 2016, chassis number 539663 was submitted for Lancia Classiche certification – certification it duly received. And in 2018, it joined the UK-based collection of its current owner. Fittingly, he also boasts a remarkable assembly of competition Lancias. Since then, this Delta has made two public non-competitive appearances: at the Eifel Rallye Festival in Germany and Rally Revival in the UK.
Serviced and presented in full running condition, chassis number 539663 is accompanied by a generous history file and its original dated carbon-Kevlar racing seats and seatbelts. Finding a highly original podium-finishing Lancia Martini Racing Team Delta HF Integrale that was raced, retired and retained by the factory and not subsequently rallied extensively in private hands is incredibly rare. Encountering such a car that’s had just two owners in the last 31 years is even more extraordinary.
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