<< Prev Page 2 of 2 Lancia struggled to get to terms with the four-wheel-drive system, which caused the introduction of the Delta S4 to be postponed to the very end of the season. Markku Alén first campaigned the new Lancia in a round of the Portuguese championship, where he had to retire early with mechanical issues. The car's World Championship debut came at the season finale, the RAC rally of Great Britain. Two examples were entered for Henri Toivonen and Markku Alén. The bugs had clearly been ironed out as the two S4s finished first and second with Toivonen beating his compatriot by just under a minute.
Toivonen repeated that feat in the 1986 season opening Monte Carlo Rally, despite severely damaging his car between two special stages. The Lancia mechanics managed to repair the damaged chassis by simply cutting out the damaged tubes and replacing them by new ones and all of this in less than 30 minutes. At the next round in Sweden, the S4 dictated the pace again, but this time the reliability let Toivonen down. Markku Alén's car did survive the arctic rally and he finished second.
After Sweden it all went terribly wrong for Group B in general and Lancia in particular. At the first day of the next round in Portugal, local driver Joaquim Santos went off the road in a Ford RS200 killing three spectators and injuring several dozen more. The rally was obviously cancelled and the FIA promptly killed off the Group S class proposed for 1987. This was intended for an even more specialized machine of which just ten examples were required for homologation. At the Tour de Corse things got even worse when Toivonen had a fatal crash. This was the final blow for Group B as Audi retired immediately after and the FIA announced the World Championship would be run for more civilized Group A cars in 1987.
Even though the Delta S4 was still very fresh, the engineers at Lancia saw an opportunity to incorporate even more know-how in for the proposed Group S car and work commenced on that early in 1986. Surprisingly the project was not abandoned when Group S was cancelled. Later in the year the wraps were taken off the Experimental Composite Vehicle, or ECV at the Bologna Motor Show. It looked similar to the S4, but featured a highly advanced carbon composite monocoque chassis. It was powered by twin Turbocharged version of the four cylinder engine, which was capable of 600 bhp, although Group S regulations would have restricted it to 300 bhp. Sadly the car was never raced.
In compliance with the rule changes, Lancia developed a rally car much more closely related to the Delta production car. The engine was mounted transversely in front of the driver and although turbocharged, produced a more civilised 265 bhp. Both the road and rally versions of this Delta HF Integrale were a big hit and Lancia dominated the World Rally Championship for years to come. << Prev Page 2 of 2
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Lancia struggled to get to terms with the four-wheel-drive system, which caused the introduction of the Delta S4 to be postponed to the very end of the season. Markku Alén first campaigned the new Lancia in a round of the Portuguese championship, where he had to retire early with mechanical issues. The car's World Championship debut came at the season finale, the RAC rally of Great Britain. Two examples were entered for Henri Toivonen and Markku Alén. The bugs had clearly been ironed out as the two S4s finished first and second with Toivonen beating his compatriot by just under a minute.