Lancia Race Cars

Rally Cars

• Lancia Fulvia (1963 - 1973) (WRC)

• Lancia Stratos HF (1973 - 1981) (WRC)

• Lancia Rally 037 (1982 - 1986) (Group B)

• Lancia Delta S4 (1985 - 1986) (Group B)

• Lancia Delta HF 4WD (1987) (Group A WRC)

• Lancia Delta HF integrale 8v (1988) (Group A WRC)

• Lancia Delta HF 16v (1989 - 1991) (Group A WRC)

• Lancia Delta HF "Evo" (1992) (Group A WRC)

F1/Other Race Cars

• Lancia D50 (1954 - 1957) (F1)

• Lancia D24 (1953 - 1957)

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  Lancia ECV (1988) (Prototypes)

• Lancia ECV 2 (1988) (Prototypes)

Touring/Endurance Race Cars

• Lancia Montecarlo Turbo (1979 - 1980) (Group 5)

• Lancia LC1 (1982 - 1983) (Group 6)

• Lancia LC2 (1983 - 1986) (Group C)

Introduced in 1953, the sophisticated design of the D24 was leagues ahead of anything produced by rival manufacturers at the time. The D24 had a steel tubular space frame and an aluminum body. The D24 featured large inboard front and rear drum brakes, a four-cam, twin-plug, dry sump V6 engine. The car had near-perfect weight distribution and low unsprung weight. The D24 came out swinging, competing at the highest level in the grueling Carrera Panamericana. Finishing first with Manuel Fangio and second with Piero Taruffi and then in 1954, it clinched both the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio.

After the Second World War, Lancia wanted to build a competitive racing car for Formula One. Jano chose to use the 'V' configuration due to its compact design and the resulting V8 engine was placed in the D50 and made its Grand Prix racing debut in 1954 at the Spanish Grand Prix, with Alberto Ascari driving it to pole position. Lancia was in financial difficulty and prospects in the Formula One had gone bleak and the costs had brought Lancia towards the brink of bankruptcy. Lancia withdrew from racing in mid-1955 and offered to sell their racing cars and equipment. It ended up in Ferrari's hands.

Aprototype Group S rally car developed by the Italian manufacturer Lancia to replace the Lancia Delta S4 in World Rally Championship competition for the 1988 season. However, Group B as well as Group S cars were banned from competition by the FIA in late 1986 due to safety concerns and the ECV never raced. Lancia instead developed the Group A Lancia Delta. The car originally produced over 600 hp from a 1759 cc twin-turbo engine. This engine, christened TriFlux, was built in an unusual fashion; the valves were crossed so that the two turbos could be fed with two separate manifolds. 

The ECV 2 was a prototype developed as part of Lancia's exploration into the next generation of rally cars following the end of the Group B era. The ECV 2 was designed to be an evolution of the ECV 1, which aimed at exploring advanced technologies for rally racing. The ECV 2 continued this theme but focused heavily on materials science, particularly through the use of composites. One of the most notable features of the ECV 2 was its extensive use of composite materials, including carbon fiber and Kevlar. It had the same TriFlux engine as the earlier ESV.

With the exception of 1970, Fulvias won the Italian Rally Championship every year from 1965 to 1973. The Fulvia's rallying career reached its zenith in 1972, when Lancia won the International Championship for Manufacturers two rounds in advance. The Fulvia Sport was prepared and raced by several privateers in track events. During 1968 Zagato built 27 Sport Competizione competition versions, as well as two specials which later became known as Sport Daytona. These were modified in a number of ways.

By the late 1960s Lancia's successful Fulvia was still winning rallies but was getting a little aged. Born from the ingenuity of Nuccio Bertone and the intuition of Cesare Fiorio, the Lancia Stratos was a radical, wedge-shaped rally car built with one purpose: to dominate motorsport. Its mid-mounted Ferrari Dino V6 engine roared, while its futuristic Bertone-designed body sliced through the air. The Stratos was a demanding beast, cramped and unforgiving, but its legendary performance and unique design secured its place as an automotive icon.

The Lancia Rally 037, the successor to the Stratos which had won in the 1970s, was designed specifically for the new Group B and introduced during the 1982 World Rally Championship. While most of the brands competing in the World Rally Championship at the time, such as Audi and Renault, opted for four-wheel drive and turbocharging, Lancia chose rear-wheel drive. From the very start, it designed a version for racing, incorporating its experience in various disciplines. The last two-wheel drive car to win the Championship in 1983.

With the Delta S4 Lancia went right back to it's roots - this was an ultra-innovative rally car, designed solely to win races! The Lancia Delta S4 was a wild, purpose-built Group B rally car. With an extreme mid-engine layout, a supercharged AND turbocharged engine for insane power, and a lightweight composite body, the Delta S4 was both ferocious and technologically groundbreaking. While its Group B career was sadly short-lived due to safety concerns, the Delta S4 remains a legendary, and slightly terrifying, icon of the sport.

Officially rallying’s most successful car ever, the Delta made hay in 1987 when Group B was banned and the tamer Group A was brought in, optimising its four-wheel drive system and 2.0-litre turbo-charged engine to outclass rivals like Mazda’s 323 and Ford’s Sierra. The four-wheel-drive system used on the HF 4WD and all the coming iterations of the HF Integrale was based on the one developed for the 1985 Lancia Delta S4 Group B Rally Car, albeit in a transverse front-engine instead of a longitudinal layout.

HF integrale "8v" (Abarth SE044) appeared at the third round in Portugal in 1988. Team boss Cesare Fiorio remarked in an interview before that event that the Integrale's larger wheels, bigger brakes, improved suspension and greater power would make it more competitive on asphalt, although on gravel it represented a relatively small improvement over the 4WD. By the season's end Lancia had won ten of the eleven rounds which counted for the manufacturers’ series, and Biasion was drivers’ World Champion.

The Lancia Delta HF 16v Integrale was the successor to the HF Integrale 8v.  The Integrale 16v made its début on the 1989 Rallye Sanremo where, for the first and only time, it ran in Italian racing red. Didier Auriol went out early in the event after a high-speed crash, but Biasion went on to win. Having won both the manufacturers’ and drivers’ titles for the third year running, Lancia declined to contest the final round of the season, the RAC Rally. Lancia continued to use the HF integrale 16v throughout 1990.

During the latter part of the 1991 season, Lancia developed the Delta HF integrale "Evoluzione" sometimes nicknamed the "Deltona" or "Super Delta", which would début on the 1992 Monte Carlo. This final evolution, with its stiffer body, wider wheel arches, bigger wheels and brakes, improved suspension and aerodynamics and more powerful engine, was said to be 5-6% faster under most circumstances than the 16v car. However, it represented the most that could be extracted from a design.

The Montecarlo Turbo was a Group 5 racer. It was the first racing car to be fielded by Lancia in eight years when it entered the May 1979 Silverstone Six-Hours race. It won the 1979 World Championship for Makes (under 2-litre division) and overall for 1980 World Championship for Makes and 1981 World Endurance Championship for Makes. Hans Heyer also won the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft in 1980 at the wheel of a Montecarlo. In 1980 Turbo also placed first and second at Giro d'Italia automobilistico, an Italian counterpart of the Tour de France Automobile.

Run by Lancia under the Group 6 regulations in the World Endurance Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1982 to 1983. Built as an attempt by Lancia to move up from production-based competition with the Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo in Group 5. The LC1 featured a chassis built by Dallara with an open cockpit, while the engine would be a 1425 cc straight-4 Lancia unit with a single turbo. Martini Racing would run the program, with all cars running the Martini & Rossi colors. However, the car's life was short due to rule changes enacted prior to the LC1's competition debut in 1982.

The Lancia LC2 was a ferocious Group C sports prototype race car born in the 1980s. Its powerful Ferrari turbocharged V8 engine, sleek aerodynamic design, and a focus on endurance racing made it a formidable competitor, although its success was often limited by reliability issues. With just two races left until the end of the season, Lancia decided to raise the white flag. The team managers realized that even under the most ideal conditions, they were no match for their strongest opponent – Porsche. The LC2 was a constant battle between raw speed and mechanical fragility.