Lancia Delta - Suvereni Sampion!

[BRABUS]

Cao, evo mene!
Lancia je fenomenalan auto,skroz drugi svet, ja ga obozavam, moj je sa 8ventila, 188 konja, na zalost sad ceka na varenje i farbanje, i malo tuninga , po planu oko januara ce biti gotov, svakoga cekam na voznju, ko ima volju. Sad vozim alfu ali i alfa je super auto, ali o tome u drugom topicu!
Sasha daj mi broj mobilnog, da te nazovem, pa da se upoznamo.

Meni je odavno zelja da se provozam u Grale-u iako sam vozio i vozio se u mngo boljim autima, al mi je taj auto posebno drag

[Nikola]

Dobrodosao saby

[BOOST]

Huh.. dobrodosao..

Duzan sam ti neke odgovore ali sam izgubio pitanja.. no sad si yu pa nece biti problema nadam se..

Jos samo da prodje ova paklena nedelja od posla

[Saby]

Caos!
Hvla na dobrodoslice!
sad sam nasao link bbc top gear o integraleu evo vam link: http://www.evocars.com/multimedia/topgear.mpg

[Damijan]

Tuning HF integrale

[Sasha]

[Nikola]

750KS iz 2L u autu laksem od 1500kg

[Sasha]

Christmas special: 25 years of the lancia delta - the ultimate pocket rocket rally extraordinaire

This year marks a quarter-century since the launch of the original Lancia Delta, probably the marque?s best-known model in recent memory and apart from the Y10 / Ypsilon family, also its most successful. Given that 2004 also marks a decade since the last Delta Integrale rolled out of Maggiora?s Chivasso factory, it seems an appropriate time to recall the life and times of Lancia?s belated replacement for the Fulvia, a car perhaps best-remembered as the most successful rally car of all time.

The story all started back in 1975 when Fiat and Saab started a joint development effort to develop a compact luxury hatchback, known as the ?600 Project?. Internally known by Lancia as the ?Y5?, Giorgetto Giugiaro was approached to develop the new compact hatchback architecture, which resulted in a pleasing and groundbreaking 2-box design. Lancia?s collaboration with Saab also resulted in the development of new rust proofing techniques.






The design process by Giorgetto Giugiaro shows how the Delta's nose evolved from the modern Pininfarina range (Gamma, Beta Montecarlo) to its own character.

[Sasha]

ointly developed with Saab, the Delta marked a new era in hatchback design. Rust-proofing techniques from the Swedish manufacturer helped preserve the robust image of the Delta over the years.

The reason for the Fiat-Saab joint venture was due to the oil crisis, which had started to choke European producers by the mid-seventies as a result of higher production costs and stiff competition from Japanese imports.

The Delta was launched in September 1979 at the Frankfurt Motor Show, and with Ermenegildo Zegna designer cloth upholstery as standard, it soon won over the hearts of fashion conscious people looking for an affordable car.

Marketed through Saab in Sweden as the Saab-Lancia 600 between 1980 and 1982 (yes, with Saab badges), the program went on to spawn the ?Type Four? project, which resulted in the Saab 9000, Lancia Thema, Fiat Croma and Alfa Romeo 164 (known during development as the 156!). Saab also marketed the Lancia A112 alongside.

The Delta?s brilliant design soon paid off, with the hatchback scooping up the prestigious European Car of the Year Award in 1980. Fending off competition from the Opel Kadett and Peugeot 505 (369 points versus 301 and 199 respectively), the front-wheel drive Delta was a clever take on the small-medium hatchback segment.

The Audi A3 was touted by its maker in 1996 as being the first ?prestige? hatchback, but what was the Delta if not exactly that? In the same way that all luxury 4x4s can trace their ancestry to the original Range Rover, the recent wave of hatches with a prestige nameplate, such as the A3, BMW 1-Series, Mercedes-Benz A-Class and even the Alfa 147, can all trace their ancestry back to the original Delta. Widely praised at launch as a very neat contender and an integral part of the continuing turnaround of the marque under Fiat ownership, the launch of the ?littlest Lancia? coincided with a Europe-wide trend for downsizing, a trend set off by the oil crises of the seventies ? people wanted the comfort and refinement levels of a luxury car, but also something that was easy to park in cities and economical at the petrol pump.

Early on in its life, in 1982, a Delta also achieved a significant milestone when it became the last car to roll off the production line at Fiat?s world-famous Lingotto plant (of ?The Italian Job? fame).

Lancia?s fourth letter of the Greek alphabet may have been based on humble Fiat Ritmo underpinnings, but the Giugiaro-penned shape was elegant and the interior appointments luxurious for the time.

[Sasha]

A substantial reworking of the Ritmo?s floorplan also meant that Beta-derived MacPherson struts on all four corners (with twin transverse links at the rear) were substituted in favour of the Fiat?s standard MacPherson front/transverse leaf spring and wishbone rear suspension ? a recognisable nod to its Beta and Gamma bigger brothers, but a move which also benefited handling.

This was useful, as the eighties trend towards turbocharging didn?t take long to manifest itself in various developments of Lancia?s baby. In 1983, a turbocharged version of the Beta?s 1.6 twin-cam appeared developing 130 bhp, later upgraded to 140 bhp with the addition of fuel injection in 1986. But these improvements were to be overshadowed by a much more significant development.

The image of the Delta had received a timely fillip towards the end of 1985, six years into its life, when the Delta S4 was let loose onto the world?s rally stages on the end-of-season, and extremely demanding, Lombard RAC Rally. Like all Group B cars, the relationship between the road car and its competition counterpart was next to nonexistent ? Abarth even designed an all-new twin-cam 16-valve engine, with both a turbocharger and supercharger to reduce the effects of low-down turbo lag, mid-mounted and driving all four wheels, some way from a humble road-going Delta. But while there may have been little relation, the car was certainly effective, winning its first-ever special stage and sweeping to a one-two finish on its very first outing, Henri Toivonen leading home long-time Fiat/Lancia exponent Markku Alen.

It seemed after that performance that 1986 would be full of promise, but it was to be a scenario that would not be fulfilled. After taking a superb win on the Monte Carlo rally in January of that year and leading in Sweden prior to engine failure, Toivonen and Lancia arrived in Corsica at the beginning of May searching for a win. Leading from the off, Toivonen and co-driver Sergio Cresto built up a commanding lead, until on the second day ? a year to the day when another works Lancia pilot, Attilio Bettega, was killed on the same rally in an 037 ? their S4 plunged off the road and exploded, killing both crew members, in an accident that has never been fully explained. Lancia immediately withdrew from the rally, and although it continued to fight on in both championships, it was left on the back foot.



The all-wheel-drive S4 rally car launched the Delta into legendary status in 1985, sweeping a 1-2 finish on its very first outing.

[Sasha]

Lancia brought rally technology to the road with the Delta Turbo 4x4.

It was not until Argentina that a change in tyre size meant that the other pilots, such as Alen and Biasion, were truly able to come to grips with the S4, by which time Peugeot had already built up a sizeable lead in the manufacturer?s title race. Despite this, the car was competitive enough to keep Alen in the title fight until after the final round, when a courtroom decision handed the championship to Peugeot?s Juha Kankkunen.

It seems amazing to think now that an all-new Delta was pencilled in for a 1988 launch. In fact, excluding the Integrale, production of the original car ceased in 1993, five years later ? almost the full life of the average car. The Delta may have been a fundamentally decent car, but by the mid-eighties it was ageing and sales were starting to tail off. It was Fiat?s giant publicity campaign which rescued it from death?s clutches ? and more specifically, Lancia?s determination to dominate the special stages of the world.

The death of Group B rallying at the end of 1986 was clearly necessary on safety grounds, but overreaction by FISA meant that the proposed Group S category (effectively quite similar to the world rally cars seen nowadays, with cars limited to 300 bhp) was killed off as well in favour of the production-based Group A. Lancia had already readied the carbon-fibre and Kevlar ECV1 prototype, a Group S contender loosely based around the S4, but found that their newly-released Delta HF 4WD fitted the bill perfectly when Group A was announced as the category of choice. This car, which mated the 1.995 cc twin-cam engine from the Thema Turbo ie to a brand-new permanent four-wheel drive transmission (including epicyclic centre and Torsen rear differentials), was ideal for the new class, for three reasons. It was the right size, featured four-wheel drive, and had a turbocharged engine on the class capacity limit of 2.000 cc ? the three ingredients crucial for any car to succeed in this category. In fact, Lancia was the only manufacturer to combine these three elements ? Renault?s R11 Turbo lacked four-wheel drive, Audi?s 200 Quattro was far too big and lumbering, while Mazda?s 323 had only 1.600 cc and lacked reliability. But it wasn?t just the car being right that made the Delta so tough to beat ? that fact was combined with the most formidable drivers, massive commitment and an unerring determination to win on the part of Lancia and Abarth.

[Sasha]

Predictably, the Delta cleaned up in 1987, comfortably taking the manufacturer?s title from Audi and Renault, while the team?s drivers, Kankkunen, Biasion and Alen, finished 1-2-3 in the championship. This was a result of Lancia being the only team fully prepared for the new class, but also the levels of preparation and commitment from the team, which, reckons Miki Biasion, was the strongest aspect of the package.

This dominance continued into 1988, if anything even stronger than before. The Portuguese round saw the competition debut of the first, eight-valve, Integrale, with the famous flared wheelarches, Biasion taking the win. In fact Lancia exercised a degree of dominance not seen before or since in 1988, winning 10 of the 11 events they competed in and taking second and third on the Tour de Corse. This form continued into 1989, but even as Lancia were busy clinching their third straight manufacturer?s title they were aware of the threat from Japan. Mitsubishi and, in particular, Toyota were slowly but surely preparing to loosen Lancia?s grip on world rallying, a claim evidenced by Lancia?s decision to skip the 1989 RAC Rally to concentrate on refining the new 16-valve model of the Delta.

Although externally similar to the eight-valve, the ?sedici? 16V Integrale, launched in May 1989, was in fact substantially revised underneath. In addition to the 16-valve head and 15 more horsepower on the roadgoing car, the new model altered the front-rear torque split. The HF 4WD and Integrale 8V had used a 56:44 front-rear torque split; this was now biased towards the rear, with a 47:53 bias, ensuring easier transition to oversteer at the limit, while ABS was now listed as an option.

The Japanese threat finally materialised in 1990. Although Lancia took another constructor?s crown, the combined efforts of their drivers (including Kankkunen, back from a two-year stint at Toyota) were not enough to stop Spain?s Carlos Sainz from taking the driver?s crown for Toyota. It was a highly deserved title, but in some ways it set the foundation for Lancia?s 1991 success.

Sainz?s success seemed to persuade the Toyota hierarchy that 1991 would be much the same as 1990, and as a result they failed to give him the support he needed. Sainz began to feel the weight of expectation as the season went on, and despite starting promisingly with a win in Monte Carlo, the accidents started to mount up, culminating in three rolls in four stages in Australia.




above: the 8-valve Integrale won 10 of the 11 rallies competed in 1988, a feat that has never been bettered. Below: the 'Sedici' 16V Integrale of 1989 with a rear-biased 4x4 system gave perfect handling on the road.

[Sasha]

With the Delta Integrale 16V Evoluzione II, Lancia offered the ultimate high-performance hatchback of the day. The all-round performance of this model literally shamed most supercars.

Meanwhile, seemingly by black magic, the ancient Delta actually became more competitive as the season progressed. Lancia had wrapped up the constructor?s again prior to the final round, but it was at the RAC, scene of many a dramatic showdown before and since, that Sainz finally lost the driver?s crown to Lancia?s Kankkunen.

Nevertheless, the increasing speed of the Celica and others could not be ignored, and Lancia and Abarth?s response to this threat had been unveiled in September 1991, in the form of the Integrale Evoluzione. This car, nicknamed the ?Deltona?, was superior to the old 16-valve in every way ? more powerful, wider, stronger, and more stable.

It still had the aerodynamics of a barn door ? indeed, the width of the car had grown by a massive 15 inches over the progression from HF 4WD to Evoluzione ? but in every other conceivable way it was an even more formidable opponent than before, as Didier Auriol set about proving.

Rallying aside, Lancia launched the road-going Integrale Evoluzione at the 1991 Frankfurt Motor Show. It suddenly dawned on enthusiasts and journalists alike how simply stunning the 12-year-old design still looked. Albeit on steroids, the Delta was a legend both on and off the tarmac.

The Evoluzione road car saw the return of the galloping red elephant on the HF badge, but the most striking external feature were the aggressively swollen wheelarches to accommodate the wider track. These were no crude add-on, they were an integral part of the design, and blended perfectly into the contours of the Giugiaro shape. The car now looked so chunky, it seemed formidable enough standing still. But that would be missing the point.

Under the bonnet, there was 210 bhp and better low-end punch, thanks to a re-mapped ECU and a highly revised exhaust system. The road car now felt faster and more sure-footed than ever before, with uprated brakes and - in true sporting style - optional ABS.

For a new price of ?23.145 (pounds Sterling) in 1992, the car offered a sensational package and brilliant performance for money. Here was a machine that could seat 5 people and provide stunning performance and truly chuckable handling. There was quite simply nothing else like it.

Shortly after the launch of the road-going Evoluzione, Lancia officially announced its withdrawal from the world championship. This was just prior to Christmas 1991, leaving a smaller level of works support with Jolly Club (a Milan-based engineering outfit which had largely built and prepared the cars, excluding the engine, for some time before the pullout). Despite this, the pullout had little effect on the success of the final evolution of the Delta in 1992.

Although Auriol contested only ten of the fourteen rounds in 1992, the Frenchman took six wins, a record, and for much of the year it seemed a foregone conclusion that he would end up as France?s first-ever world rally champion. Yet despite the fact that Lancia took its sixth manufacturer?s title in a row, a shocking run for Auriol towards the season?s end, culminating in a retirement on the season finale RAC Rally, and sheer dogged determination on the part of Sainz to remain in the hunt meant that the Toyota pilot won his second title, with Auriol only third in the final standings.

[Sasha]

As it happens Sainz and Kankkunen (who finished second) took only five wins between them, a fact which nicely illustrates the dominance of Auriol and the Delta in 1992.

1993 saw considerably less success, despite the proven talents of Sainz in the lead car, but by then the Integrale was showing its age against full factory efforts from Toyota, Ford and Subaru and marked Lancia?s final tilt at the crown, and for that matter its last official participation in world motorsport up to this point.

But, Lancia were able to make the most out of their glory while it lasted. If the road-going Evoluzione's muscle-building, Weetabix-packed looks were not enough, there were a handful of Special Editions, including the exclusive Club Italia of which only 15 were built.

The snazzy graphics and flashy colours only made the 'Grale seem more impressive - it had become a cult object and a symbol of Italy. Clients included Mauro Forghieri, Luca de Montezemolo, Michele Alboreto and Dante Giacosa.

If the 'standard' Evoluzione wasn't sufficiently exclusive, there was always the Lancia Hyena Zagato, a car which perhaps epitomised the ultimate Integrale. Designed in 1990 by Marco Pedracini, and launched as a full-scale model at the Brussels Motor Show in January 1992, the project was conceived following a meeting between Andrea Zagato and Paul Koot, the Lancia importer for The Netherlands.

It had been almost two decades since Zagato and Lancia had last created a car, so the Hyena was a particularly emotional project. Zagato successfully created a masterpiece in modern design with traditional features such as a double-bubble roof and minimal overhangs. It was a complete rethink of the boxy Delta.

After some sympathy from Lancia, Zagato struck a deal to produce 500 units. Production started at Via Arese in 1993, but the project was unfortunately stopped short due to management changes at Fiat Auto (what?s new?) and only 24 examples were made.

Whilst on track with special editions, there was also the one-off Integrale 16V HF cabriolet painted silver for the bon viveur, Giovanni Agnelli. Due to the handicap of the "Avvocato", this particular Delta was equipped with an automatic Valeo electronic clutch. This car perhaps represents the most desirable road-going Delta of all time.

In the final analysis, it is apparent that the 'Grale wasn?t just a brilliant rally car, it was also a sensational road rocket and one of the finest-driving cars of its era. At the time of the HF 4WD?s launch, there were other permanent four-wheel drive cars available, but none which had a setup as advanced or effective as the Delta?s four-wheel drive system.




Ultra exclusive! Above: the last-of-the-line "Dealer's Collection" special edition, of which only 180 examples were made. Middle: the one-off Integrale Cabrio for Giovanni Agnelli boasted an automatic Valeo clutch. Below: based on the Integrale Evoluzione, the Lancia Hyena Zagato gave an indication as to what could be done with the underpinnings of the rally legend.

[Sasha]

Above: the Delta range of 1995-1999 was never as popular due to a poor marketing strategy. Unfortunately the Integrale never made a comeback. Below: Come on Lancia! Build the damn thing!! The Stilnovo represents Lancia's potential successor to the Delta, and would be an ideal player in the C-segment.

Truly, the four-wheel drive Delta, in all its forms, was an antidote to the sterility which largely marked out new car releases in the eighties, and was a more than worthy successor in Lancia?s line of ?rally cars for the road?, following as it followed in the footsteps of the Fulvia 1.6 HF, Stratos, the beautifully elegant 037, and brutal Delta S4. As a measure of the respect afforded to this car, there was an owner?s party at the factory to commemorate the last of the line in November 1994, almost exactly a decade ago this month.

In fact, there is a small post-script to the Delta story. Whilst Integrale production had carried on in a small corner of Maggiora?s Chivasso plant (actually the old Lancia factory), Lancia themselves had replaced the standard Delta range with a brand-new Delta in mid-1993. Despite the name, there was almost no carry-over from the old car ? apart from being based on the platform of the Lancia Dedra, necessitating all-new suspension and drivetrain layouts, the body, although recognisably carrying styling cues from the original, had no parts in common. Designed by IDEA and originally launched in five-door form, a three-door version, designated ?HPE? (an old Lancia name dating back to the days of the Beta), was unveiled in 1995. This car was actually conceived with more the look of a coupe, and elements of that look did indeed make it into production.

Sales for the Delta II were, however, disappointing, and when it was finally killed off in late 1999, it was not replaced owing to a projected lack of demand. Even though the Delta?s sales were miniscule by the end ? a piffling 9,000 were sold in 1998 ? the problem seems to have been not the car itself, which was a competitive proposition when stacked up against rivals, but a dearth of effective marketing. The death of the Delta also marked the demise of the last overtly sporting Lancia, the Delta HF HPE, which also marked the last home of the classic Aurelio Lampredi-designed twin-cam (in turbocharged 193 bhp form).

It has now been five years since the last Delta was made, five years which have seen Lancia?s sales suffer a steep drop and only recently get back on a steady footing. One can?t help but feel that now is an appropriate time to start thinking about a Delta III.

Such a car, perhaps drawing on design cues from the 2003 Granturismo Stilnovo concept, in returning Lancia to Europe?s biggest segment, the C-sector, would help to re-establish Lancia as a genuinely significant player once again. Lancia?s key brand characteristics of sophistication, style and sportiness precisely match the demands of buyers in this sector, and provided it is executed well, there seems to be no reason why it should not be as successful as the original which kicked off the whole prestige hatch phenomenon in the first place.

By Shant Fabricatorian & James Granger