One to Buy: Rally Portugal & Argentina-winning ex-works 1989 Lancia Delta HF Integrale Gr.A
Currently on offer at the Ruote da Sogno showroom in Reggio Emilia is a veteran of Lancia’s 1989 World and European Rally Championship campaign with a stellar event winning history.
The car in question won Rally Portugal which was round three of that year’s World Championship and took place over 593km of tarmac and gravel stages between February 28th and March 4th. Miki Biasion and Tiziano Siviero topped the time sheets on 17 of the 37 stages and took a famous victory over team-mates Markku Alen / Ilkka Kivimaki by a little over ten minutes.
Alen and Kivimaki were then allocated the car for round ten of the European Rally Championship: the mixed gravel and tarmac Rally Costa Smerelda between April 12th and 14th. They won four of the first 14 stages, but then encountered mechanical trouble on stage 14 and retired on stage 15.
Having been converted from 8 to 16 valve trim, the car was used by Mikael Ericsson / Claes Billstam on round eight of the World Championship: Rally Argentina. Held between August 1st and 5th over 598km of gravel special stages, Ericsson and Billstam headed the field in a Lancia 1-2-3 beating the Jolly Club entry of Alessandro Fiorio / Luigi Pirollo by a little over two minutes.
Markku Alen and Ilkka Kivimaki were then put back in the car for round ten of the WRC: Rally Australia between September 14th and 17th. On this occasion, the Lancias lost out to the factory Toyota Celica GT4s. However, Alen / Kivimaki were best of the rest during the 544km of gravel stages and bagged the final podium spot. They completed the course just two minutes behind winners Juha Kankkunen and Juha Piironen.
Today, this historic ex-works Group A Lancia is offered in superb condition and would make an ideal addition to practically any serious collection.
