Cars

Lancia Delta Integrale: A stage-ready work of ART

After a lengthy rebuild process involving specialists in Northern Ireland and beyond, Pat Burns's Lancia Delta Integrale rally car is ready for the road again - more than 30 years after it first competed

Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster

Restoring a classic or historic car is a labour of love. Pat Burns, editor of the

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, recounts the ups and downs of the lengthy rebuild of his 1989 Lancia Delta Integrale rally car.

I had been looking for a Lancia Integrale, an itch that I had to scratch ever since I attended the Pentti Airikkala driving school way back in 1988.

Pentti, one of rallying's 'Flying Finns', used 8-valve versions of the Integrale as training cars.

As the 1990s wore on, a Subaru Legacy or Toyota Celica became the rally car to have, meaning the Integrale became less desirable. Then in 2000 the Lancia's homologation ran out, meaning it was no longer certified to take part in top-flight competition. As a result, many were parked up in the corners of workshops.

By the time it arrived in Northern Ireland, my Integrale - a 16-valve Group A model, registration number TO35194M - had been well used and was in need of a complete rebuild, including a new roof, front panel and windscreen surround.

Quite a few years previously, I met Dean Heatherington at an event and got talking to him about Lancias; he had been a works rally engineer, firstly for Talbot, where he built Henri Toivonen's RAC Rally-winning Sunbeam Lotus, and later for Ford Motorsport in the Sierra and Escort Cosworth era.

Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster

Dean, from Markethill in Co Armagh, became Miki Biasion's engineer when Biasion left Lancia for Ford. Dean was also very friendly with one of Lancia Abarth's top engineers known only as 'Zurlo'; it’s fair to say that Zurlo speaks as much English as Dean speaks Italian, but that never seems to have held them back from enjoying themselves on events.

Dean gave me Zurlo's phone number and after a quick call, he put me in touch with Fiorenzo Tovo of Sintesi Motorsport.

Sintesi had been formed by a couple of ex-Abarth and Lamborghini F1 engineers and their work included rebuilding ex-works cars for Italian customers and reproducing works parts.

Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster

Fiorenzo was tremendously helpful and could answer any technical queries with a quick phone call to Zurlo.

Fiorenzo is quite a character - not only does he love Ireland and Redbreast whiskey but he is also president of the Ford Capri Owners Club of Italy and lead singer of Italian folk band Fred e Cocchi di Mama...

Alessandrini Racing Technology (ART) was one of a number of semi-works Italian rally teams that built and ran Lancias in the 1980s and early 1990s.

ART concentrated on the Italian and European Rally Championships, with a selected number of World Rally Championship outings and operated on a similar level as Grifone, Astra Racing and the Jolly Club.

Fiorenzo is quite a character - not only does he love Ireland and Redbreast whiskey but he is also president of the Ford Capri Owners Club of Italy and lead singer of Italian folk band Fred e Cocchi di Mama...

It turned out that my Integrale had been built by ART in 1989 to compete in that year's San Remo Rally.

Usually the ART team used ex-works cars, but as the new 16-valve engine was only going to make its debut at the ’89 San Remo, no spare 16v works cars were available so ART built the car themselves.

It was built to works standards, with full roll cage and strengthening as well as a works six-speed dog-box transmission.

ART owner Paolo Alessandrini, along with his brother Alessandro co-driving, were seeded at number 20 on the ’89 San Remo and finished the event in eighth place, the highest non-works entry.

Paolo and Alessandro went on to use the car on a number of Italian and European Rally Championship events before it was hired out to Gilberto Pianezzola who went on to drive for the Esso/Toyota teams, and also to Michele Rayneri who now heads up the Ferrari Classic Department.

Gilberto reckons the car was a little heavier than the works examples. ART added extra strengthening to the car while works cars used titanium for items like engine brackets as well specially commissioned thin glass for the windows - and don't even mention trick fuel...

As the 1990s wore on, ART was running Piero Liatti, with Alessandro co-driving, in firstly a Sitma Packaging Machinery-sponsored Subaru Legacy and then an Impreza WRC.

ART would also go on to run Volvo 850s in the European Touring Car Championship.

Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster

The car had had a hard life, competing in a lot of rough gravel events including Costa Smeralda and Rally New Zealand.

Gilberto Pianezzola rolled the car on one occasion, while it is also believed that the car ended up in a river on another event - something that became obvious as the rebuild took place.

The front and rear wings had a lot of filler in them so the decision was taken to convert the car to the wider bodied Evo spec.

This work was entrusted to Colin Hagan of Riverpark Training in Mallusk. Riverpark Training is world class and students from the centre have won five medals in Car Painting at World Skills, the most recent being held in Kazan, Russia.

Colin, along with right-hand man David Frizell, stripped the car down to a bare shell which was then blasted and aligned on a jig.

During the rebuild Colin discovered a water mark inside the car from the earlier visit to the river.

The team at Riverpark also reckoned that the car was on to at least its third roof. The cage itself had stood up to the years of abuse fairly well and Colin and his students at Riverpark welded on the new roof, front panel, windscreen surround and rear Evo wings.

Most of these were still available through Fiat parts at the time, though unfortunately this is not the case anymore.

Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster

Lancia Abarth usually finished their cars in white on the outside and silver grey on the inside and the car was painted at Riverpark in PPG paint, who always supplied the paint to Lancia for all the special edition road cars.

Meanwhile, the engine was moved up to engine-builder Mervyn Johnston in Magherafelt, who usually specialises in Porsche 911 and works Chevette HSR powerplants.

Experts online expounded on the difficulties of Integrale twin cam rebuilds but compared to 911 engines, the Lampredi-designed twin cam unit rebuild was relatively straightforward.

During the rebuild, a water mark was discovered inside the car from an earlier visit to a river. The team at Riverpark also reckoned that the car was on to at least its third roof... and during rewiring it was discovered that the rear light clusters were still full of silt from the trip into the river

Road cars run balancing shafts in their engines but these are taken out on rally cars and when the engine was being rebuilt - quite a few years ago - fortunately Astra Racing still had stock of ex-works engine parts.

The transmission was not so straightforward. Works cars used a six-speed dog box built by Italian gearbox specialists Brena Clemente.

There were three different generations of six-speed gearbox - R70, R70 Doppio Supporto and R90, which was fitted to the last of the Evos and requires a lottery win.

A strip down of my R70 Doppio Supporto showed damage to a few parts and a broken tooth on the final drive.

The Integrale transmission set-up utilises a limited slip front differential and a viscous centre diff bolted to the gearbox at the back of the engine, with a rear Torsen LSD on the back axle.

The centre diff is a viscous coupled unit, similar to those used on Sapphire and Escort Cosworths so mine was shipped over to Bara Motorsports in England who were able to rebuild it.

Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster

This all sounds relatively straightforward but it actually took quite a few years and when everything was eventually sorted the front transmission was brought up to Derek McGeehan of McGeehan Motorsport in Draperstown who TIG welded a crack in the casing and put it all back together.

The engine and transmission were assembled by Paul McLaughlin at Mervyn Johnston's in Magherafelt when the shell, looking like new, returned from Riverpark Training.

During the interim years, the works 16v suspension had been traded in for a wide track works Evo set-up.

By now, all the Astra Racing ex-works parts had been bought by Stefan Burkart of Delta Parts in Germany.

The fully rosejointed works suspension was all made by Abarth and uses 41mm Bilstein inserts and Eibach springs.

Brakes were also upgraded to Evo spec, with 332mm bells and rotors on the front and 278mm at the rear, with Brembo four-pot calipers all round.

The car had received a number of upgrades during the 1990s, with an Astra Racing water injection kit and a Lamborghini-designed 'Carlos Sainz' air intake system both being added to the engine.

Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster

Many works parts are no longer available but my good friend and engineer Stephen Best was able to redesign and remanufacture some one-off components for the car.

With the engine and transmission installed, the doors, bonnet and bootlid back on and glass in the car, the next stop was with Ronald Montgomery.

Ronald, whose brother Malcolm owns Montgomery Motorsport in Augher, is the self-taught Nikola Tesla of rally car electrics.

Thankfully, the set-up on the Lancia is fairly similar to that on the Sierra and Escort Cosworths that Ronald knows inside out, so it wasn't too much of a problem for him to rewire the car.

Unsurprisingly, after the rewiring, Ronald discovered a fault in the Magneti Marelli ECU.

This had to be shipped off to specialists in Europe who were able to find and cure the fault.

Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster

With the repaired ECU back in the car, it started first click - a momentous occasion. I was warned by Mervyn Johnston not to over-rev the engine until it has been run-in, and to only start it if there was a sensible adult present...

During the rewiring Ronald thought that the rear light clusters were very dull. He removed and disassembled them and discovered that the rear clusters were still full of silt from the car's trip into the river.

The next job is to get the suspension geometry sorted... and then I can look forward to driving an Integrale for the first time since the Pentti Airikkala driving school more than 30 years ago.

Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster
Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster Lancia Delta Integrale. Picture by Roy Dempster