If you consider yourself a true car collector and want to complete your car collection, you must have this Lancia and both Fiat’s in your collection
Forget about impressing us with your Ferrari and Lamborghini car collection. We are not going to be excited with your car collection from Germany. Your constant chatter about your Japanese car collection will not keep us awake.
Now if you really want to impress a car enthusiast who know how difficult it is to keep a car collection (for the average car collector) when you are NOT a super rich person who bought their car collection from ill gotten gains, corruption money and ‘black economy’ means, this is what you should be having in your car collection.
First and probably the most expensive to buy and hard to source is the Fiat 131 Abarth 2-door. This is the car that won the World Rally Championship 3 times in 4 years, 1977, 1978 and 1980. Fiat’s motorsport division, Abarth, was responsible for engineering this car.
To homologate for the series, it needed to build 400 units of road going version. This resulted in the street car we are referring to right here. The 131 Sedan might not be a good starting point for a high performance car. Its boxy body was designed for practicality, its small-capacity pushrod engine emphasized fuel economy, its non-independent rear suspension and 4-speed gearbox excelled only in being basic and simple to use.
But it was Fiat’s last and only rear-wheel-drive platform (if you exclude the outdated 124 Spider), and you know, RWD was a must for rallying before the age of 4WD. This was a good enough reason to select the 131 as Fiat’s next generation rally car.
Next and not too expensive to purchase but hard to find a truly good condition unit is the Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo. Thi is a car that appeals on every possible level. It’s Fiat’s fastest ever production car. It handles superbly and, even though the shape has been around for a few years now, its looks are so striking it still turns more heads than a Ferrari even!
Fiat engineers installed a new five-cylinder 20-valve engine with a large turbo-charger in this sexy Coupe. On the open highway this Fiat goes completely mad. Power is a remarkable 220 bhp while torque is at 228 ft.-lbs. at a low 2,800-rpm. Turbo lag is almost non-existent if the engine is in perfect running condition.
A top speed of 155 mph, with 60 mph from rest in less than 6.5 seconds for a stock unit is easily achievable. The brakes are even more impressive than the engine, giving more than adequate anchoring when necessary. The interior is clad in gorgeous Italian leather and with a typical European race-car dashboard. Fiats however are not cheap to run, but which seriously quick sports car is?
Finally, the most exotic and probably most expensive purchase. The Lancia Delta. This car was produced from 1979 to 1994 for many different road and track applications. The car debuted at the Frankfurt motor show as a Giorgio Guigaro design based on family hatch Fiat Ritmo components as Lancia was at the time owned by Fiat.
Surprisingly, this Delta would lead Lancia into its most successful rally program. By 1985, Lancia prepared a prototype Delta for Group B rally racing. The resulting car, called the Delta S4, was a hot hatch of extreme specification that hardly resembled the product it shared its name with. It had a 480 horsepower engine nestled in the centre of a space frame chassis.
Unfortunately, the S4 raced very briefly as a result of FISA cancelling the unlimited Group B racing in 1986. Thus, the S4 was prematurely withdrawn from racing.
Fortunately, Lancia had the foresight to develop a 4WD, road-going Delta years before Group B was abandoned. For the 1987 rally season, Abarth prepared a version of this car, the Delta HF 4WD, for rally racing. It was much more civilized than S4, having production based aerodynamics and construction materials, but featured a potent four wheel drive system.
With the Delta HF 4WD, Lancia captured the 1987 manufacturer’s title with Juha Kankkunen taking the driver’s championship.
From 1987 to 1992, Lancia consecutively won the Group A manufacturers championship, a record which holds to this day. With these results, Lancia have made the Integrale one of the most successful rally cars ever, a legendary car of our time and a true modern classic.
So, lets see which car collector can shows us the above three cars in their car collection today.
