The queen of world championship rallies between the late 80s and early 90s, the Lancia Delta HF Intégrale went on to collect titles and victories in countless championships, both on the road and in rallycross, and is now the talk of historic rallies.
Just before the HF, the Group B Delta S4 had also flummoxed the counters in 1985 with untold power. Lancia had even developed an even crazier Delta, the ECV1, which was to correspond to the new FIA Group S scheduled for 1987, with even more mind-boggling performance. However, the premature discontinuation of Group B, following Henri Toivonen's fatal accident in the 1986 Tour de Corse, put an end to all these projects and sent Group B into retirement, while Group S remained a stillborn project.
Madness from Slovenia
In the end, it was in hill-climbing that these monsters found a second life, and where daring drivers embarked on some pretty crazy projects, with the Lancia Delta S4 or HF being particularly sought-after guinea pigs. The most spectacular of all is undoubtedly that of Slovenian driver Milan Bubnic.
Milan Bubnic began racing in 1996 with a Clio Williams. But in his first season, he experimented with a Lancia Delta and fell in love with the car. The following year, he bought one and began modifying it.
Splitting his time between hillclimbing and rallying in the early 2000s (he was national rally runner-up in 2003), Bubnic switched fully to hillclimbing in 2004/2005.
Since then, he has won the national hillclimb title 11 times, but has also competed against the best in the European championships, often finishing at the top of his class.
Several models have been built since then, not least following a major accident in 2019. The super-Delta has steadily gained in power, topping 550, 600 and now 700 hp.
Obviously, all this required a drastic increase in downforce, as evidenced by the huge spoilers and widened tracks for the big tires, but cooling also had to be increased, hence the gigantic front end with its multiple openings and huge, clearly visible radiators. As if the Delta had been on steroids...
FIAT engines are resourceful
What about the engine? In hill-climb racing, "swaps", i.e. engine changes, are legion. So it's no longer the original 4-cylinder Lampredi that sits inside the beast. Bubnic has opted for an original engine in FIAT's history, namely the in-line 5-cylinder 2.0-liter turbocharged 20-valve unit that was installed in the evolution of the Fiat Coupé, produced between 1996 and 2000. This 700 hp turbocharged 5-cylinder engine is reminiscent of the Audi Quattro's 5-cylinder turbo!
With 700 hp and just 1100 kilos, you can imagine what a missile it is, as well as the skill required to tame it in the rain and on corner exits.
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