Lancia Delta (1st generation)

Here is for JDMike, who enjoys rally cars and just confessed that he also liked hatchbacks.

A little history

When the Delta was retired in 1994, I was incredulous – why replacing a car that still seemed so fresh? Well, a quick glance to the rearview mirror told me the compact Lancia was then fifteen years old. I still believe that it showed no wrinkle by then.

That’s indeed in 1979, during the Frankfurt motor show, that Lancia unveiled its very first hatchback car, a smaller vehicle than anything the Italian company had constructed up to then. Engines were 1.3- to 1.6-litre fours that provided very decent performances for a car of its class. Transmission was to the front wheels. Last but not least, this Dorian Gray of a car found the secret of eternal youth in the form of a splendid body, an elegant Giugiaro design which was simultaneously elegant and racy. To all the aforementioned qualities it has to be added that the Delta was rather well built, something very few Italian cars of the time could boast of. Following the Beta and Gamma models, the new Lancia was logically called the Delta.

The excellence of the Delta was acknowledged by the motoring press in 1980, when the car was awarded the coveted European Car of the Year prize. A 1.9-litre diesel version was soon added, but more important for the car’s future was the introduction of a sporty HF Turbo in 1984. Combining a 130 hp engine and excellent handling, the HF was a joy to drive.

Lancia had then a long tradition of rally racing. By that time, its standard-bearer was the Abarth 037, a rear-wheel-drive coupe that was increasingly powerless when faced to the newer Group B prototypes, most notably the Peugeot 205 and the Audi Quattro. Lancia decided to regain supremacy with a purpose-built machine, the Delta S4. The S4 shared no more than its name and basic shape with the road-going Delta, though. It actually owed much to the 037, adding to the initial design a transmission to all four wheels, a carbon fibre body and a twin-charged (both turbo- and supercharged) 1.8-litre four conservatively rated at 550 hp. A wonderful machine, the S4 was also the synthesis of all the excesses of the Group B era. After Lancia’s pilot Henri Toivonen and his navigator were killed during the 1986 Tour de Corse, the FISA announced that Group Bs would be forbidden for the next season. Rally racing had never been this popular, and many, including myself, grumbled when they heard the news. In retrospect, it was probably a wise though brutal decision. It’s only years later that I learned that during a test the very same Toivonen had lapped the Estoril track with its S4 at a pace that would had given him the 6th place on the grid of that year’s Formula One Grand Prix. I think that says it all about how crazy these cars were.

The Group B’s departure let the production-based Group A cars as the major contenders in the world championship. Peugeot and Audi lost interest, but Lancia was determined to hold fast. The year before the promising HF Turbo had been superseded by an all-wheel-drive evolution, the HF 4WD. This is how the Delta, then in its eighth year, made its debut in rally racing. Thanks to several successive versions (Integrale 8v, 16v, Evoluzione…), the Delta would remain the car to beat in the world championship until its very last days.

This busy racing career would make one easily forget about the production Delta, which indeed didn’t change much along the years. The introduction in 1993 of a second-generation Delta – a tamer car that wasn’t intended for racing – announced its imminent retirement, which took place during the following year.

About the models

Only rally racing Deltas here – I still need a road version.

Model: Lancia Delta S4
Year: 1985
Event: 1985 RAC Rally, driven by Henri Toivonen, navigator Neil Wilson (finished 1st overall)
Maker: Ixo
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Altaya as no.30 of its Voitures de Rallye de Collection press series
Acquired: brand new, in September 2005, in Souillac, France

A pleasant model but, being highly visible, the engine would have looked much better if a tad more detailed. My rating is 12/20.









Model: Lancia Delta HF 4WD
Year: 1987
Event: 1987 Rally della Lana, driven by Dario Cerrato, navigator Giuseppe Cerri (finished 1st overall)
Maker: Ixo
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Altaya as no.61 of its Voitures de Rallye de Collection press series
Acquired: brand new, in June 2006, in Souillac, France

Unlike most Altaya-distributed Ixos this Delta benefitted from twin-colour rear lights. Decoration is very nice - okay, I admit I used to love the Jolly Club's "Totip" cars when I was a kid. My rating is 14/20.





Model: Lancia Delta HF Integrale
Year: 1992
Event: 1992 Rallye de Portugal, driven by Juha Kankkunen, navigator Juha Piironen (finished 1st overall)
Maker: Ixo
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Altaya as no.13 of its Voitures de Rallye de Collection press series
Acquired: brand new, in September 2005, in Souillac, France

Unfortunately this Delta hasn't been as lucky as the previous one and has to content itself with plain red lights at the rear. Beyond this, I can't help finding this model too much simplified: 11/20.

Lancia Aurelia

A little history

After the war, Lancia faced problems rather similar to those encountered by Alfa Romeo, and that we discussed earlier. Unlike their neighbour from Turin though, Lancia also built “popular” cars alongside its pricey pre-war coupes and convertibles, so restarting its production lines after the end of World War Two was somewhat easier.

By 1949 the small Ardea and the larger Aprilia, both powered by the V4s that were customary at Lancia, were starting to look outdated. The latter was replaced by the brand-new Aurelia in 1950.

You have probably noticed the care I took above when associating the word “popular” with Lancia. The products of this company were and still are a sort of rich man’s Fiat. The Aurelia was faithful to this image, offering no less than six cylinders for 1.8 litre of displacement. Being a Lancia, the Aurelia’s engine had to adopt a “V” configuration, thus the Aurelia became the world’s first production car fitted with a V6. This block was made of light alloy, as for any other technical options the modern Aurelia, designed by the famed engineer Vittorio Jano, proved bold and imaginative, despite a rather tame appearance.

As soon as 1951 the Aurelia already evolved, with both its engine (to 2.0 litres) and its range (to which was added a coupe) growing. The coupe was particularly remarkable, and became the best remembered of all Aurelias. Using a slightly more powerful version of the saloon’s engine, it was designated “GT” – the very first automobile to call itself a Gran Turismo. Its body was up to expectations, featuring particularly elegant “pontoon” lines that are often, but wrongly, credited to Pininfarina – though this company built the cars, they had been actually designed by Ghia. In 1953 the engine was enlarged again, to 2.5 litres. Two years later, a beautiful “Spider” roadster was introduced. Nonetheless, the introduction of the Flaminia in 1957 announced the imminent retirement of the Aurelia, which was effective one year later.

About the model

Model: Lancia Aurelia B20 GT
Year: 1951
Maker: Solido
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Solido, “Âge d’Or” series
Acquired: brand new, in July 2003, in Brive, France

Who said Solido only builds poorly-assembled models based on moulds unchanged since decades? This splendid Aurelia is just proof to the contrary. Simple but accurate, it is fair to give it a 14/20 rating.

Lancia D24

A little history

Under the management of its founder Vincenzo Lancia, building quality and technical innovation were the keywords at the Lancia company – this allowed few space for such trivialities as motor sports… despite the fact that Vincenzo was a former racing pilot himself. All of this gradually changed after his death in 1937. His wife Adele took over for their young son Gianni. In 1945, now aged 21, Gianni Lancia formally assumed the direction of the firm with the assistance of Vittorio Jano, his technical director. Young Italians’ dreams were then filled with motor racing glory. Gianni Lancia was not different from other young men of his age, and Jano, made famous by his involvement with Alfa Romeo between the wars, would not be the one to discourage him.

During the early Fifties, Lancia launched an ambitious assault on motor racing. The company became involved in sportscars and Formula One races, with two different Jano-designed machines: the D24 and the D50, respectively.

A D20 model actually preceded the D24, appearing at the Mille Miglia early in 1953. A totally new design, the D24 soon followed its footsteps, being first entered at the Nürburgring 1000 kms in August of the same year. The D24 was indeed fast, but many a time and oft had to retire for mechanical failures. A resounding success finally came in the most trying event of them all: Lancia placed its D24s at the two highest spots in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana’s rankings.

Expectations were high in 1954. At first Lancia could rejoice: for the first time in its history, the company won the Mille Miglia. Then during the rest of the season, the D24 proved again undoubtedly brilliant but too fragile a machine. Jano developed a D25 but, as it turned out, it was only raced once before the expensive sportscar program was cancelled. Though far from dominating with a car that still needed much more development in order to reach its full potential, Gianni Lancia decided to pursue still higher goals, and launched its company in Formula One.

Though Lancia's bankers were alarmed, Vittorio Jano could rejoice at the prospect of his return onto the Grand Prix stage. For this he designed a new car, the D50. This advanced single-seater featured side-mounted fuel tanks, allowing for better handling than most of its rivals, which still had their tanks fitted in the rear tail, totally upsetting the weight distribution as races progressed and their tanks were emptying. The D50 appeared late in 1954. For its first race, the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona, its driver Alberto Ascari took the pole position in practice, drove the fastest lap during the race and retired while in the lead – a promising debut!

Now concentrating exclusively on Formula One, Lancia started its first full season in the most prestigious competition of all in 1955. More money was pumped into the company’s racing program which, in view of the results recorded thus far, was extremely expensive. Then, tragedy struck during the Monaco Grand Prix: Ascari, missing the chicane, plunged into the port’s waters. Rescuers came to the help of the unfortunate pilot, who could be brought to the surface after spending some long, anxious moments stuck in his sinking car. A rest would have done no harm after such a stunt, but Ascari didn’t want anything like this, and headed for Monza. With Lancia out of sportscars racing, he had received permission to race for Ferrari in non-Formula One events and, only four days after his dreadful accident, decided to test a 750 model for Lancia’s archrival. No one will ever know for sure what happened: Ascari left the track at high speed, was thrown out of the car and died moments later – some speculate that he kept sequels from his previous accident and fainted while entering the curve.

Without its star driver and in an increasingly dramatic financial position, Gianni’s dream was rapidly turning into a nightmare. In June 1955, he and his mother sold their shares of the company to businessman Carlo Pesenti. Coffers were empty, making the pursuit of a motor racing campaign out of the question. The whole Formula One outfit was ceded to Enzo Ferrari and his team who, with money, time and expertise, turned the D50 into a championship-winning thoroughbred.

About the model

Model: Lancia D24 Spyder
Year: 1953
Event: 1953 Carrera Panamericana, driven by Juan Manuel Fangio (finished 1st)
Maker: Brumm
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Brumm
Acquired: brand new, in March 2008, in Montpellier, France

Brumm soldiered on much longer than most of its rivals, stubbornly producing its models in Italy rather than the unavoidable China, and maintaining a wide range of original models sold at a fair price. This die-cast is quite representative: though quality, both in terms of design refinement and even more workmanship, is not extremely high, it received a splendid paint job and nice decals, and is very acceptable overall – well enough to award it a 13/20.

Lancia LC2 - Ferrari

A little history

The introduction of Group C regulations condemned the Lancia LC1 spyders, as the new rules, introduced in 1982 and strictly enforced in 1983, pushed aside both open spyders and cars not meeting certain fuel consumption requirements. The LC1 didn’t comply to either of these – enter the LC2.

Teamwork was the keyword in the LC2’s development, which started during the summer of 1982. While the chassis was developed by Dallara, the engine was borrowed from Ferrari (another member of the Fiat group), with Abarth fine-tuning both. The gearbox was a very plain Hewland, which was known not to provide much trouble. The chosen 3.0-litre V8 saw its capacity reduced to 2.6-litre, while twin turbochargers guaranteed 650 hp – Porsche having announced outputs in the vicinity of 580 hp for its 956, the LC2 seemed the car to beat for 1983.

Early in February 1983, Lancia unveiled its prototype in Pessione, near Turin, choosing as its stage the Martini museum – obviously not a coincidence, as Martini, after having been connected for years with Porsche, was now supporting Lancia. Unfortunately, the LC2 didn’t keep up its promises. A fast car, it was able to outpace the Porsches in practice, only to fall out of the races due to mechanical problems. Not only the Ferrari engines were prone to overheating, the Pirelli tyres didn’t last long – quite embarrassing in endurance racing. Pirelli became the source of more problems in the midst of the season when, also having to provide tyres for Formula One and rally racing, the Italian company decided to give up sportscar races. Dunlop saved the day for Lancia, but its crossplies were totally incompatible with the LC2. The new tyres were more durable though, which allowed Lancia to win the Imola 1000 km late in the season, beating all the private Porsches – the works cars were absent.

Using the Dunlop efficiently required a complete redesign of the suspensions, which was carried out during the winter of 1983-84. Many minor modifications were also introduced to the 1984 cars. Expectations were even higher than, but as short-lived as in 1983. Sheer problems caused by brand new wheels forced Lancia to revert to its previous year’s wheels. As pre-season tests had been entirely conducted with the new wheels, the car’s behaviour suffered. Despite better overall performances and the introduction at Le Mans of a larger 3.0-litre engine good for a staggering 830 hp, the LC2-84s still lagged behind the Porsche, or more exactly led their rivals until various problems pushed them down in the rankings. Skipping some races at the end of the season, Lancia succeeded in placing its cars in the first two spots at Kyalami – but most teams had boycotted the event due to the political situation in South Africa at the time.

Much effort was put into developing the LC2 even further for 1985. Now ridding on good Michelin tyres, the LC2-85s proved even faster – but their reliability was still the cause of consternation. Though scoring five pole positions, the indication of a true potential, the LC2-85s were still behind the Porsche at the finishing line – that is, until Spa, where a tragic occurrence, Stefan Bellof’s accidental death, brought an abrupt end to the race and allowed the Lancias, which were then running in first and second places, to score their very first victory over the works Porsches. Euphoria, providing that there was to rejoice considering the circumstances of the win, didn’t last long, as during the next race in Brands Hatch, the two Italian cars made a pitiful demonstration, colliding with each other at Druids when victory was at hand. Once again, the season was shortened for the unfortunate team.

While most people thought Martini would draw the curtain on the LC2, a lone car made a surprise come-back early in 1986. Despite a second place in a sprint race, all last hopes were soon given up. Privateers carried on with the LC2 until as late as 1991, but with more limited resources and an ageing car unsurprisingly didn’t fare better than the Martini Team had.

About the model

Model: Lancia LC2-85 - Ferrari
Year: 1985
Event: 1985 Le Mans 24 Hours, driven by Bob Wollek, Alessandro Nannini and Lucio Cesario (finished 6th)
Maker: Ixo
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Altaya as no.25 of its Les monstres sacrés de l'endurance press series
Acquired: brand new, in October 2007, in Souillac, France

Ixo did a valuable job in reproducing the Lancia LC2, but since European legislators have unfortunately passed anti-everything laws, couldn't place "Martini" decals on its model. Apart from this sad detail, this die-cast is well worth 13/20.

Lancia Astura

A little history

Lancia kept the highly innovative Lambda in production during the whole Twenties, and even if this car could still be considered modern by the early Thirties, decided to remain one step ahead of its competitors by introducing its successor, the Artena, during the 1931 Paris motor show. As for the Dilambda, a “super-Lambda” of sorts, it gave way to the Astura.

Though the Artena was powered by a V4 as the Lambda had been, a 2.6-litre V8 was designed for the Astura. The job was so cleverly done by Lancia’s engineering team that the larger block could fit in the very same chassis as the smaller one, while most cars of the time would require different wheelbases in order to accommodate their diverse engines. Rather squarish and unexciting, fully-bodied cars were available from the factory but, particularly in the case of the top-of-the-line Astura, many new vehicles were sold as bare chassis, then sent to various coachbuilders who finished the construction. Farina designed a huge number of the custom-built Lancias, while a non-negligible quantity was penned by Castagna.

Two series of the larger Lancia were built up to 1933, when a third evolution (Astura 233) was introduced, now offered in two wheelbase lengths (the shorter one being roughly the same size as the second series’ platform, while the new extended chassis provided more freedom to the coachbuilders working on the Astura). The engine was also enlarged to 3.0-litre, now providing 82 bhp, enough to bring the heavy car to 130 kph. The “233” remained available until 1937, when the fourth and final Astura series was introduced. Now undisputedly a luxury car, this “Astura 241” had an even longer wheelbase, well suited for limousines and coupes de ville, though the Stabilimenti Farina skilfully designed superb roadsters and coupes fitting to its huge chassis.

Despite the fact that the 1.9-litre Artena had been retired in 1936, its bigger sister the Astura lingered until 1939. The story of these two fine automobiles wasn’t totally over, though. The needs of the fascist regime drove Lancia into resuming the Artena’s production in 1940. During the next two years, more than five hundred additional cars were constructed to cater for officials and to serve as ambulances. In 1942, two Asturas were also built. The worthy heirs of the Lambda then left for good.

About the models

Model: Lancia Astura, body by Farina
Year: 1934
Maker: Ixo
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Altaya as no.16 of its Voitures Classiques press series
Acquired: brand new, in August 2006, in Souillac, France

First comes a model produced by Ixo for Altaya. Of all the many custom bodies drawn for the Astura, Ixo opted for a Farina convertible, probably because it was one of the most popular among the non-standard designs. Despite a brilliant two-tone paint, this version nonetheless seems somehow bashful when compared to the astonishing creations Farina later produced for the fourth series. Details are many, but not necessarily reproduced with the highest degree of subtlety. In particular, doors look particularly unrealistic. Overall this model can be considered a slightly below-par offer among the large Voitures Classiques collection, worth 11/20.







Model: Lancia Astura Gran Lusso, body by Farina
Year: 1935
Maker: Solido
Scale: 1/43
Distributed by: Solido, “Âge d'Or” series ref. 4169
Acquired: brand new, in July 2003, in Brive, France

Once a great name in the industry, Solido now seems to have fallen into the deepest of sleeps for many years. Most of the pre-war classics the French brand proposes are models left unchanged since the Sixties, sometimes removed from production only to be reintroduced later, which obviously don’t compare favourably when faced with recent die-casts. There are some exceptions, though. In 2000, Solido released one of its best models in years, a superb Astura, that is so nicely reproduced that I’m still wondering if this model, built in China rather than in France, couldn’t have been a Detail Cars’ project on which Solido put his hands after the Italian company’s collapse. This said, back to the model itself. Based on a Farina-bodied coupe still extant today, it not only benefits from a very accurate design incorporating many separate parts (though the windshield wipers are unfortunately reproduced the old way - moulded with the windshield), but also from excellent workmanship, which is not always the case with the brand’s other products. A 14/20 mark seems fully justified – for a moment I even considered giving more than this.