Lancia Delta HF Turbo

The Lancia Delta is a motor sports icon, as well as one of the best-loved and most talked about youngtimers.

Lancia Delta, a name which brings a lump to the throat of anyone with even a minimum of knowledge of the history of Rally racing. The saga of Turin’s four-wheel-drive sports cars is craved indelibly into the annals of motoring, notching up an as yet unequalled string of victories: no less than six consecutive world Rally Championships, between 1987 and 1992, and four driver’s titles: two with Miki Biasion (1988 and 1989) and two with Juha Kankkunen (1987 and 1991). This inevitably means that day, the Delta HF Integrale series are the most sought-after, collected, appreciated and obviously, talked-about Lancia youngtimers.

A beautiful story started exactly 10 years earlier. The Lancia Delta made its debut in 1979.

Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the new compact Lancia immediately established itself as a premium model in the segment, causing havoc amongst the competition with its taut, squarish lines and balanced, modern proportions, both inside and out. It was a mix of elegance and innovative solutions which at first left the public perplexed, but which earned it the prestigious title of Car of the Year 1980, a ultimate “first” for the Turin brand. This, together with its sporting successes, allowed it to remain in production until 1993 and on the catalogue, with a number of special series, until 1995.

This new Turin beauty debuted with two engine sizes, 1.3 and 1.5 litres, which were joined by two new, exuberant versions during the first restyling in 1982: the 1.6 GT and the HF Turbo. And it is on the last version that we have chosen to focus our attention. That’s because this is where we find the first real seed of what would become the racing Delta dynasty. The name that they chose is very evocative: the HF acronym immediately brings to mind the Rally racing companies of the unbeatable Fulvia and Stratos, while the turbocharged engines were a must at the time, also due to the popularity endowed by the new Formula 1 rules.

In June 1991 the last update of the first generation Lancia Delta went on sale. The HF integrale 16v—due to be replaced at the end of 1991 by the much improved HF integrale “Evoluzione”—handed down its dual round headlights and domed, vented bonnet to the HF turbo, which now looked almost like an integrale. A few months later the HF turbo even replaced its traditional red model identification script on the radiator grille with a yellow HF badge, like the one found on the newly introduced Evoluzione.

A very final, minor round of updates was made when the 1992 models switched to a catalytic converter-only engine offering, in compliance with Euro 1 emission standards.

Although the production numbers of these Lancia Delta’s was not low, it is very difficult to find them, especially good preserved examples. Almost all of them have been used and like almost every other Italian and French car of the period, they were prone to dissolving when faced with only modest quantities of salt and water.

Therefore we are very proud to present you our Delta HF Turbo that has survived in such a good condition it might come as a surprise.

Our Delta HF Turbo was delivered on the fouth of february 1992 by Pollina Auto to its first italian owner who owned the car till september 2014.The second italian owner sold the car in june 2018 to the third and last owner.

The car still wears its factory paint (Blue Madras – 429 A). The interior is like new and the door cards still are wrapped in the plastic it left the factory with!

To date, the car has covered only 37.000km’s! It comes with its original service book, all manuals, tools, owner history and service invoices. The timing belt just has been changed.

When you fancy to own a very well preserved and completely original Lancia Delta series 1, this is the closest you can get to the Lancia Delta Integrale, for a fraction of the price! Don’t wait till its too late!