His Lancia Delta S4 develops 650 hp... he tested an even more powerful version but found it «too powerful and unrideable»

The Lancia Delta S4 was the quintessential Group B racer: radical, bestial, wild, overpowering. Launched at the end of 1985, victorious at the Monte Carlo 86, the new queen of Group B, it was also its gravedigger: the deaths of Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto in the 1986 Tour of Corsica sealed the category's fate, as it had become too dangerous.

Love at first sight

Bruno Ianniello is a 60-year-old industrialist who has been racing in hill climbs and rallies for over thirty years. The racing career of «Bruno the Rocket» or “Speedmaster” - yes, that's his nickname! - began modestly in 1993 with a Fiat 128. At the end of the 90s, he discovered the Lancia Delta S4 Stradale, the road-going version of the S4, and it was love at first sight: «At that time, I already owned a Lancia Delta S4 Stradale. Lancia 037, the predecessor of the Delta. I instantly fell in love with the Delta S4. I'm not saying it's the most beautiful car in the world. It's more its mid-engine technology that fascinates me.»

Ianniello then set about building his own S4, transformed into a Group B. He made regular trips to Italy to buy parts. He took the engine to the specialists who had worked on the racing engines and bought a racing gearbox. With his Delta S4, he thought he'd beat everyone and everything to the punch, he imagined... but he couldn't master the beast's 500 hp at first. «First I had to learn how to drive and control the car, which is why I took part in slaloms and small circuit races in industrial areas in Italy».»

Delta Baba's cave!

Abarth originally intended to produce 200 examples of the Delta S4 Stradale, as stipulated by Group B homologation, but the premature discontinuation of the category meant that fewer than 50 were produced. Lancia then scrapped most of the parts. They changed hands several times before the bulk of the stock ended up with the Italian company Gianetti LM, which, for the record, helped design the Laffite LM!

While in the Turin area to perfect his driving skills and accompany a friend who was also looking for an S4, Bruno Ianniello came into contact with the Gianetti LM company by pure chance. One of his friends made him an offer: to buy all the parts for him. Lanniello would then build him his S4 and keep the remaining parts for himself. The stock of parts recovered from LM Gianetti would fill the equivalent of two semi-trailers. In his warehouse, Ianniello would have enough spare parts to maintain and repair his car several times over. Over the years, he assembled no less than four Lancia Delta S4s, plus a fifth for a customer.

Success is coming

After a few years, the results began to fall in. Between 2003 and 2006, he won the Swiss Mountain Cup three times, and in 2008 and 2009, he pocketed the Swiss Touring Car Championship titles. Even today, he says, «my Delta is, from a standing start, one of the fastest cars on the hill, and that's without traction control, sequential control and other such frills.»

Since 2010, he has made several attempts to win first place in Group E1, finishing 2nd on three occasions and 3rd twice. He has also enjoyed success abroad: in Austria, he scored several victories in the Rechberg roof car category, beating competitors such as Herbert Pregartner, Günther Gabat and Felix Pailer. In the German championship, he particularly shone in the 1998 season, beating the likes of Georg Plasa in duels. He also entered Delta S4s in numerous historic rallies.

Uncontrollable power

For Ianniello, better results would have been possible, but there simply wasn't enough money to buy better tires or to hire mechanics capable of fine-tuning the car, for example. Since the 90s, he has hardly modified his Lancia Delta S4 Groupe B: «On this car, all the parts are original. I've only replaced the shock absorbers with more modern parts from KW. And even then, I did it for safety reasons. The base power of his preparation is 650 bhp with a turbo pressure of 1.5 bar. He reckons that with a pressure of 2.5 bar, good fuel and modern engine management, you can easily climb to 900 hp. He has already tested a variant with more than 730 bhp and 690 Nm, but found it unworkable and too powerful, preferring to stick to more »normal“ values. It's all relative...

Ianniello hopes that other Group B monsters, such as the Peugeot 205 T16, will join the hillclimbs more often. It's a real shame, in his eyes, that these monsters have fallen asleep. In any case, he feels that he and his Delta S4 are inseparable.