VIN: Late Surge Spearhead - the Martini Racing Lancia Delta S4 Evoluzione chassis 225
History of chassis 225
Chassis 225 was one of the last Delta S4 Evoluziones called up for service by the official Martini-backed squad for Lancia’s 1986 World Rally Championship campaign. The car debuted alongside chassis 226 in round eleven of 13, the vitally important Rallye Sanremo (October 13th to 17th) where Lancia were looking to cut Peugeot’s advantage in both the Driver and Constructor standings.
Specification-wise the cars dispatched to Sanremo were broadly the same as those which appeared five weeks earlier at the 1000 Lakes Rally albeit with some repositioning of engine control systems, bigger front brake air ducts, revised springs and new Pirelli tyres. The 2149km event (which included 532km of special stages) would see the works cars run with around 460bhp. For the tarmac stages they weighed in at 990kg but on the gravel sections 50kg of additional underbody protection was added.
Chassis 225 was allocated to Markku Alen / Ilkka Kivimaki while sister car chassis 226 was in the hands of team-mates Miki Biasion / Tiziano Siviero.
After a slow start, Alen moved rapidly up the leaderboard as the event switched to gravel. However, when he was within one second of the lead Paugeot, Alen picked up a rear puncture which shredded the tyre and he then suffered with a faulty four-wheel drive system.
On the rally’s penultimate day, the Italian scrutineers scandalously elected to exclude the entire Peugeot team on account of their undertray reinforcement strips (on the cars since the Safari back in March/April) which were deemed illegal aerodynamic devices.
With their chief rivals out of the event, the Delta S4s cruised to 1-2-3 finish as Lancia boss Cesare Fiorio ordered Alen to the head of the field with Cerrato (Jolly Club) and Biasion forced to slow to a crawl to enable the Finn to pass.
Following a second place finish for Alen at the RAC Rally, Lancia’s number one driver headed to the season finale, the Olympus Rally in Washington State (December 4th to 7th) with a one point advantage in the Drivers’ standings over fellow Finn, Peugeot’s Juha Kankkunen.
For this event, chassis 225 appeared in the white and red colours of Roncaglia OPR and was run by Jolly Club (as was the sister car, chassis 223, for Paolo Alessandrini / Alessandro Alessandrini).
Alen took an early lead on the all-gravel event which comprised 540km of special stages, but chassis 225’s power steering system broke on the second stage and could not be fixed until stage six which allowed Kankkunen to pull ahead.
The two championship contenders continued to exchange the lead as both drivers experienced their fair share of technical problems until a puncture for Kankkunen allowed Alen to establish a gap of around 90 seconds. Having eased off during the final stages he won the last WRC event of the Group B era to finish on 124 points to Kankkunen’s 118.
Lancia’s joy proved short-lived though as, within two weeks of the US event, Alen had been stripped of his Drivers’ crown following an FIA meeting in Paris where it was decided to throw out the results of the controversial Sanremo event from which Peugeot had been excluded. This ultimately handed to 1986 Drivers’ Championship to Peugeot’s Juha Kankkunen who finished on 118 points compared to Alen’s 104.
For 1987, chassis 225 was sold to Lancia Espana and appeared in red and white Marlboro colours for Juan Carlos Onoro who won that year’s all-gravel Spanish Rally Championship.
Notable History
Lancia Martini
Registered TO 33874F
13/10/1986 WRC Rallye Sanremo (M. Alen / I. Kivimaki) 1st oa, 1st B12 class (#2)
Roncaglia OPR (Jolly Club)
04/12/1986 WRC Olympus Rally (M. Alen / I. Kivimaki) 1st oa, 1st B12 class (#2)
Lancia Espana (Marlboro)
04/04/1987 ESP Rally RACE Balaguer (J.C. Onoro / J. Lopez Orozco) DSQ (#1)
30/05/1987 ESP Rally RACE Cantabria (J.C. Onoro / J. Lopez Orozco) 2nd oa, 2nd ESP class (#1)
20/06/1987 ESP Rally RACE Lugo (J.C. Onoro / M. Ortiz-Tallo) 1st oa, 1st ESP class (#1)
04/07/1987 ESP Rally RACE Granada (J.C. Onoro / J. Lopez Orozco) 1st oa, 1st ESP class (#1)
03/10/1987 ESP Rally RACE Soria (J.C. Onoro / M. Ortiz-Tallo) 1st oa, 1st ESP class (#1)
30/10/1987 ESP Rally RACE Gironella (J.C. Onoro / M. Ortiz-Tallo) 1st oa, 1st ESP class (#1)
21/11/1987 ESP Rally RACE Avila (J.C. Onoro / M. Ortiz-Tallo) DNF (#1)
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: unattributed
