What is there to say about the Lancia Delta S4 which hasn’t been said before? In its full-fat Martini-liveried Group B guise, it took fearless and charismatic drivers such as Henri Toivonen and Markku Alén to another dimension of performance. And as a road car, it pioneered twin-charging, an innovation we take for granted nowadays, and proudly showed that road-going Group B homologation specials were not the poorly-built bodge-jobs they’d earned a reputation as being.

It’s wise to outline the popularity of rallying in the 1980s. A kaleidoscopic explosion of speed, noise and very real, very imminent danger, Group B deservedly drew a greater number of viewers than Formula 1. That’s why, despite the inherent risks, automotive brands could warrant funnelling enormous amounts of money into their WRC programmes, which were oriented around their otherwise modest cars you could find in the showrooms.

It’s also why, from a commercial point of view, Lancia (which, let’s not forget, was representing Italy on the world stage) simply had to up its game in 1985 if it wanted to win another title. The dominant success of 1983 was but a distant memory and Audi and Peugeot had proven that powering all four wheels was a quicker means of sending a rally car down a special stage than just two, a la 037 Rally. Decisive action was needed. In a bid to revive its incredible sporting heritage, Lancia greenlit the blank-sheet development of the 037’s new four-wheel-drive Group B successor, based loosely on the flagship Delta HF Turbo.

Christened the Delta S4, it trod a technological path very different to its rivals. The development was entrusted entirely to Abarth, whose creative, bullish and trailblazing engineers poured their everything into the project. Suffice to say, there was not a plan B.

In the mid-1980s, newfangled technology such as four-wheel drive and electronic ignition was in its infancy and Lancia’s competitors had stolen a march. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But without the knowledge to even copy its competitors, Abarth was forced to innovate. And innovate it most certainly did.

The Lancia Delta S4 Stradale was the first car to be ‘twin-charged’, that is fitted with both a supercharger and a turbocharger to better distribute the engine’s torque and reduce lag. It boasted an incredibly clever electronic injection and ignition – genuine Formula 1 technology at the time. The car’s spaceframe chassis was designed by computer. And the four-wheel-drive system was operated by three differentials. The result was a car which pushed the technological envelope to its boundaries and, frankly, made the ‘latest and greatest’ supercars from the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini look antiquated.

Following a 34-month development period and what can only be described as some wishful counting on the part of the FIA officials, the Delta S4 was homologated on 1 November 1985 with the code DGM51831OM. Said code was displayed on the chassis plate in the door sills of the Stradale.

A few short weeks later, Lancia Martini Racing’s drivers Henri Toivonen and Markku Alén vanquished the opposition to score a one-two victory in the Lombard RAC Rally of Great Britain, the S4’s competitive debut. To put the rally car’s astonishing performance into context, an S4 turned a lap of Brands Hatch during a special stage which would have put it halfway up that year’s Formula 1 grid. It was an extremely encouraging result for the marque, which looked to be in good stead ahead of its 1986 WRC campaign.

As the 1986 season campaign panned out and Lancia’s new weapon emerged superior, so tragedy struck on the mountainous French isle of Corsica when Henri Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresta perished after leaving the road in their Delta S4. “This rally is insane,” the Finn was reported to have complained just hours before the accident. “If there is trouble, for sure, I am completely finished.” It was a tragic precursor to a devastating loss.

Perhaps inevitably given the ferocious speeds and hopeless crowd control, Group B was canned by the FIA shortly after the Tour de Corse. Audi and Ford withdrew immediately, while Peugeot and Lancia continued in what was a season marred by tragedy. Notably, a Delta S4 won the season-closing Olympus Rally in the United States – the very last international round of Group B rallying.

The 1985 Rali Lois Algarve marked the first time a Works Lancia Delta S4 Corsa competed in an international championship rally – chassis number 205 was the car the factory used

Among the earliest examples built by Abarth, the Lancia Delta S4 Corsa presented here is chassis number 205. It bears the distinction of being the very first Delta S4 to enter a European Rally Championship event and thus the very first Delta S4 to officially compete in the hallowed Group B category. Lancia was granted homologation for its new twin-charged Group B monster on 1 November 1985. Just hours later, chassis 205 was in action on the gravel stages of the Rali Lois Algarve in Portugal.

The 1978 FIA Cup for Drivers Champion and 19-time World Rally winner Markku Alén and his longstanding co-driver Ilkka Kivimäki were tasked with driving this Delta S4 in Portugal for the Works Lancia Martini Racing Team. The choice of pilots was no accident. Alén and Kivimäki had been heavily involved with the development of the Delta S4, actually winning the Rally Colline di Romagna rally.

The Rali Lois Algarve was to be the final test for the S4 before contesting the final round of the 1985 World Rally Championship in the United Kingdom. Assigned the race number one, chassis 205 was registered with the temporary Italian number ‘A6 37179’. In the week preceding the rally, Alén demonstrated the new model in Lisbon’s Stadium de Restelo on the special request of the Lancia team’s title sponsor Martini.

At this time the ingegneri at Abarth took every opportunity to test and further develop the Delta S4, especially with regards to weight saving (often to the detriment of safety). For the dusty special stages of the Algarve, chassis 205 was set up with 70 percent of the engine’s torque directed to the rear axle, with a Ferguson hydraulic differential in the centre and a mechanical Hewland unit at the front. Alén reportedly preferred the Hewland diff because it made the car easier to driver.

Because even more power had been extracted from the engine, the Lancia outfit experienced a new issue with the transmission shaft in Portugal. Pirelli was also present and observing keenly, for it had provided an experimental new tyre compound with a softer outer edge.

This Lancia clocked up 22 special-stage wins on its maiden outing in the 1985 Rali Lois Algarve, in the hands of Markku Alén

At 10 o’clock in the morning of 31 October 1985, chassis 205 crossed the starting ramp, left the confines of the 14th-century castle which dominated the town of Silves and tore into its first rally as a fully paid-up member of the Group B gang. Almost 1,200km of competition beckoned, with 30 special stages up for grabs. Alén and Kivimäki quickly found their groove, claiming victory in every special stage on the first leg! 

Save for some threatening grey clouds and a little too much dust entering the cockpit, Alén had little to complain about on the second leg, either. The Delta S4 was the clear class of the field – a reassuring sign for the top brass at Lancia, who’d invested so much effort and expense into developing the car.

Alas, Lady Luck raised her hand on the first stage of the final leg, when, again, the transmission shaft failed. Alén limped to the next control, but by the time the mechanics had identified and rectified the issue, it was too late to continue.

After its active competition career, chassis number 205 was employed by the factory as a test and development car, pioneering a number of technological upgrades designed specifically for the Safari and Acropolis rallies

As a gesture of goodwill, the rally organisers allowed Lancia to run chassis 205 in the remaining special stages wearing the number zero and starting five minutes ahead of the rest. This awarded the team with invaluable further testing. The Delta S4 Corsa’s first victory may have slipped away, but the domination exhibited by the new car, which claimed an astonishing 22 stage wins, was confidence inspiring for Lancia to say the least.

Less than three months later, in February of 1986, chassis number 205 was drafted into action at the punishing Nardo proving ground, where a 1,000km test was carried out to simulate the arduous Acropolis and Safari rallies and make the necessary changes to the car in advance of those rounds. During this test, the Abarth engineer Giorgio Gatti used this car to carry out biomedical research concerning the drivers’ seats and helmets, which had been prompted by a consultant at the overarching Fiat company.

Stress gauges were fitted to the shock absorbers, to the front chassis, and to the rear chassis. Additionally, the drivers’ helmets, the interior roll bars and the wheel hubs were fitted with accelerometers. The data gleaned provided information about the movement of the car and how that affected the drivers physically.

Chassis number 205 undertook development duties on several further occasions, including in the Pininfarina wind tunnel, where the upgraded ‘Evo 2’ bodywork was conceived, and during a test held at the Mandria test-track to compare Michelin’s new gravel-compound tyres to the existing Pirelli tyres. The extent to which Lancia developed the Delta S4 was nothing short of mind-boggling – and with a corresponding budget to match. It’s fair to say chassis 205 played an instrumental role in unlocking the model’s crushing performance.

In spite of Group B’s cancellation following the tragic death of Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto in Corsica, the 1986 World Rally Championship was allowed to play out in full. And ahead of the Rally of the 1000 Lakes, Markku Alén’s home round, the Finn employed chassis number 205 as a test car for the event. It was to be this Lancia’s final outing while in the factory’s possession.

Satisfyingly, Fiat kept chassis 205 in Turin, selling it to the famous Works-affiliated Jolly Club outfit in 1991. It escaped the Rally Cross scene of which so many other ex-Group B cars fell foul, and was brought to the United Kingdom in 1996.

After a brief spell back in Italy, chassis 205’s penultimate owner – a man with an astonishing collection of predominantly historically significant Group C prototypes – acquired the car in 2012. He promptly sent it to Elio and Giovanni Baldi in Turin, the renowned Lancia Group B and Group A specialists, to be inspected and serviced. Upon completion of the works, the S4 was subjected to a dyno test, after which it was reported that the engine is producing over 480HP and 516Nm of torque.

Owing to its significance, chassis 205 was subsequently invited to be exhibited at the most prestigious events in the United Kingdom, including both the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Members’ Meeting. In 2018, the owner entrusted us here at Girardo & Co. with selling his Delta S4. In order to drum us some publicity, we produced a video featuring the car and even had it featured in an extensive profile on the popular digital collector-car magazine Classic Driver.

The car was acquired by its current owner, a US-based collector who counts a Lancia LC2 Group C and a McLaren F1 GTR in his stable, in 2018. And it has been seldom used since.

The Delta S4 was – and remains – the ultimate Group B weapon. It’s an embodiment of all that was once great about the daring and innovative Lancia marque. It was the most technologically advanced rally car of all time, born into an era when resources were near-limitless and the performance envelope was pushed so far it had to be curtailed. The sport will, for better or for worse, never be the same again.

Chassis number 205 is a brilliant example of the breed. Not only was it the very first Delta S4 to compete as an officially homologated Group B car, but it also served an instrumental role in the unrelenting development of the model in the period as Lancia aimed to win the rallying arms race.

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