VIN: the Martini Racing / Jolly Club Lancia Delta S4 'Corsa' chassis 222
/ Ben Tyer
HISTORY OF CHASSIS 222
Chassis 222 was one of the Delta S4s used during the latter half of 1986.
The car’s first competitive outing came in round seven of the World Championship, Rally New Zealand, where it was allocated to works Martini Racing team leader, Markku Alen, and his navigator, Ilkka Kivimaki. Lancia ran three factory S4s at the event. They arrived with improved fire systems, more progressive rate springs and weighed 1060kg.
Held from July 5th to the 8th, Rally New Zealand comprised 34 special stages totalling nearly 600km of mostly smooth gravel but with the odd tarmac stage thrown in as well.
Despite his headlights dimming every time the engine went above 5000rpm, Alen shared all the opening day’s stage wins with title rival Juha Kankkunen’s Peugeot. Having held a ten second overnight lead on day one, Alen ended day two on par with Kankunnen; the Lancia ace had tried to boycott the final stage of day two which he thought should have been cancelled owing to the dreadful weather and number of downed trees. Alen only discovered it would go ahead at the last minute which is where he lost the time to Kankkunen.
Day three saw Kankkunen begin to edge ahead, moreso after Alen had frightening incident on stage 26 when he rounded a bend to find his route blocked by a truck and trailer.
The final day saw the Lancia’s unable to keep pace with Kankkunen’s Peugeot. The championship leader eventually finished 99 seconds clear of Alen and Kivimaki in chassis 222. Alen’s Lancia team-mates, Biasion / Siviero and Ericsson / Billstam, placed third and fourth respectively.
Following this appearance for the works Martini Racing team, chassis 222 was loaned to Lancia’s satellite operation, the Jolly Club.
Once re-liveried in Totip colours, chassis 222 was driven by Jolly Club’s Dario Cerrato on four occasions.
First up was Rally Piancavallo which took place in the Italian Dolomites on a mixture of tarmac and gravel between August 28th and 31st. On this occasion, Cerrato and his co-driver, Giuseppi Cerri, finished well behind the Peugeot Italia 205 T16 driven by Andre Zanussi.
Chassis 222’s next outing came at Lancia’s home World Championship event of 1986, Rallye Sanremo, which took place between October 12th and 17th over 532km of tarmac and gravel special stages.
After a series of ding dong exchanges between Lancia and Peugeot, the penultimate day saw the Italian scrutineers scandalously throw the 205 T16s out of the event as it was deemed their reinforced undertray protection strips (in place since late March) were deemed to be underbody aerodynamic devices. Lancia subsequently cruised to a 1-2-3 finish with Lancia boss Cesare Fiorio ordering Alen to the head of the field with Cerrato and Biasion forced to slow to a crawl to enable him to go passed and thus close the championship gap to Kankkunen to just two points.
Cerrato and Cerri were initially classified in second place, but the results from the Sanremo were annulled following an investigation.
Chassis 222 subsequently appeared in a pair of all-tarmac Italian Championship events before the year end and kept up its strong finishing record. Cerreto and Cerri won the Rally Valle d'Aosta (November 28th to 30th) and then finished the year as runners up with second place on the Rally Autodromo di Monza (December 6th).
Notable History
Registered TO 90679E
Martini Racing
05/07/1986 WRC Rally New Zealand (M. Alen / I. Kivimaki) 2nd oa, 2nd B12 class (#2) Lancia Martini -
Jolly Club Totip
28/08/1986 ERC Rally Piancavallo (D. Cerrato / G. Cerri) 2nd oa, 2nd B12 class (#2)
13/10/1986 WRC Rallye Sanremo (D. Cerrato / G. Cerri) 2nd oa, 2nd B12 class (#8)
28/11/1986 ITA Rally Valle d'Aosta (D. Cerrato / G. Cerri) 1st oa, 1st ITA class (#2)
06/12/1986 ITA Rally Autodromo di Monza (D. Cerrato / G. Cerri) 2nd oa (#1)
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: unattributed
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