An Introduction to the
Delicious Delta S4
Lancia rally cars have made a
habit of winning their introductory rally. The Delta HF 4WD made it's
debut on the Monte Carlo Rallye in January 1987 and came home not only
first with Miki Biasion, but Juha Kankkunen backed him up to take
second place. An immediate lesson to the opposition that Lancia meant
business that year.
However, another Lancia had also
achieved the same honour just 15 months previously when the
revolutionary Delta S4 swept all before it to win the gruelling RAC
Rally of Great Britain in November 1985. Again Henri Toivonen won and
was backed up be fellow Finn Markku Alen. This event had been the
debut for the new 1.8 litre with both supercharger and turbo charger
boosting the horsepower and torque allied to four wheel drive.
My good friends at Lancia urged
on by Mr Garibaldi, had suggested that I might like to visit the rally
preparation complex, now housed in the former Abarth factory at 38
Corso Marche in Torino when we met up at the release of the FIAT Croma
in Roma a few days earlier in late November 1985. It was now Tuesday
December 2 and we had been collected from our hotel and taken to this
shrine of rally preparation. Director of this experimental department,
Dott Ingienero Claudio Lombardi, invited us in and proceeded to talk
about the work carried out on these premises before allowing us the
opportunity to have some fun in an
037. In fact it was the actual car
that Markku Alen and Ilkka Kivimaki had finished fourth in the recent
San Remo Rally, and this had been the final rally appearance of this
particular car, as the new Delta S4 would shoulder the rally burden
for the forthcoming year.
After driving 037 of the initial
production batch of stradale S4 was handed over to us. It was painted
a rich dark red metallic with beige suede interior. This suede covered
everything inside, the well designed hip hugging padded seats, the
neat rectangular instrument pod and dashboard, the roof lining and the
door trims. It gave this obviously special car a distinct appearance
and feel. The finish of this early car was extremely good. The factory
mechanics took great pride in showing us the double boosted 2 litre
twin cam engine, pointing out all the important features. However,
disaster struck when they slammed the rear hatch shut as the large
tinted glass rear window burst, scattering little squares of light
brown glass inside and around the car. The only piece of any size was
the Martini sticker and I picked this up as a souvenir. The mechanics
kingly wrapped it up in a box and gave it to me, and I still have it
mounted in a glass fronted frame on my desk. A reminder of a great
day. Within minutes the car had been whisked away to the workshop and
another hatch was fitted and all the broken glass vacuumed away.
This car was fitted with Pirelli
PZero 205/55VR16 front and rear, with asymmetrical tread smooth on the
outside but with tread increasing in depth towards the inside edge.
As a road car this was a
useable, reasonably practical vehicle but with the left hand drive
only production and a price tag of Lira 100,000.000 when it went on
sale the following January. I doubt whether too many of them spent
much of their life just as a road car.
Dott. Lombardi told me that
there would be a production run of 200 stradale, all this charming
metallic red (except they painted four special show cars - one each in
dark metallic green, bright white, silver and black). Additionally,
they would build 20 "sport" versions, and these would be
priced at Lira 250,000.000 to Lira 350,000.000, depending upon the
customer and the planned rally use.
The engine barked into life from
a key start and despite all the obvious sound proofing with the suede,
it was decidedly noticeable in the cabin, The clutch was quite heavy
and the gear change had much longer throws than the 037 we had driven
previously. Acceleration was electrifying, with a powerful push
forcing your body into the firm seats. A series of tests showed with
our own stop watches that zero to 60 kmph took just 3. 11 sec, O to
100 kmph a quick 5.83 sec and O to 160 kmph an outstanding 10.02 sec.
On another test we tried from 60 to 160 and this took just 6.9 sec.
These are the best times we recorded on the special facility that
Abarth have at their disposal. On the road the car had that renowned
Lancia ride and handling, floating over bumpy suburban streets
limousine style. Some playing around on some fast twisty narrow back
roads showed the delight of the car. Initially I thought that with 4WD
you could, like front wheel drive just power into the corner, but
there is a totally different technique with this 4WD. Fast corners are
brilliant using full power, but when the road dives down into some of
those well known little tight Italian corners you have to back off,
point in and then apply the power, and sometimes in a series of these
manoeuvres. It is the traction coming out of the corner which is the
great benefit as the car rockets down the road, quickly telling you
that this is fun and this is how cars like the S4 want to be driven.
Footnote:
This report was first written in
January 1986 after a visit to the Lancia factory in November and
December 1985. It has been changed in the opening paragraph.
Unfortunately, the photographs taken on this day have been
accidentally destroyed.
Some additional notes were also
written concerning the Rally Workshops: A visit
to Lancia Rally Headquarters.
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