Lancia Delta: 40 years of an icon

Introduced in 1979, the Lancia Delta is known globally as a rally icon but it has much humbler roots.

It stemmed from Lancia’s effort to forge itself a new identity during the 1970s. The company needed volume, not first-place rally finishes, to stay afloat and keep up with increasingly fierce competition in Italy and abroad.

The Delta turns 40 as Lancia is on its death bed, ironically. We’re taking a look at its origins, its success, its demise and how it shaped Lancia over the course of three generations:

From Beta to Delta (1970s)

The Beta (pictured) was the entry point into the Lancia range during most of the 1970s but it wasn’t a true entry-level model. Relatively powerful and reasonably expensive, it was a car designed for middle- and upper-class buyers who wanted to commute in something more luxurious and less sporty than Alfa Romeo’s offerings. The need for a model positioned below the Beta became clear as small cars flooded the market during the 1970s; even Alfa Romeo moved into this space with the Alfasud launched in 1972.

The Japanese, the French and the Germans were there, too. Lancia needed to be there too.

The Y5 (late 1970s)

Fiat, which purchased Lancia in 1969, couldn’t ignore the Volkswagen Golf’s popularity. It fittingly asked Giorgetto Giugiaro (born 1938) – the designer who penned the Golf – to draw the model that would propel Lancia into the 1980s. Called Y5 internally, it took the form of a four-door hatchback with boxy lines and proportions similar to the Golf’s. It needed to spearhead Lancia’s renaissance so it shared few styling cues with other members of its range.

And, early on, decision-makers decided to make the new car front-wheel drive (a layout Lancia had experience with) and not to release a two-door model. Giugiaro remembered he wanted to install a sliding rear seat that would let owners choose between space for luggage or people, though Lancia didn’t add the feature to keep costs in check.

The Delta makes its debut (1979)

The Y5 became the Delta to fall in line with the rest of Lancia’s range, which included the Beta and the Gamma. It was unveiled at the 1979 Frankfurt motor show. At launch, the entry-level model came with a 1.3-litre four-cylinder engine rated at 77bhp while upmarket variants received a 1.5-litre tuned to 84bhp. Some markets got a 63bhp 1.1-litre, too, though it was only offered when circumventing displacement- or horsepower-based taxes was necessary.

The Delta was relatively well received; it was voted European Car of the Year in 1980, finishing comfortably ahead of the Opel Kadett D and the Peugeot 505. The public and the press jointly praised its styling, its relatively high level of equipment and, shockingly for a Lancia, its fit and finish.

The Delta’s Swedish cousin (1980)

Possibly united by their love of turbocharging, Lancia and Saab forged an alliance during the late 1970s. Lancia parent company Fiat allegedly wanted to learn rust-proofing techniques from its Swedish partner while Saab sought an entry-level model it could replace the seriously outdated 96 with. The tie-up spawned the Saab-Lancia 600, a badge-engineered Delta sold in Sweden and Norway, in 1980.

Lancia hadn’t applied whatever lessons it learned from Saab about rust-proofing to the Delta. The 600 was called structurally unsuitable for Scandinavian winters and it quickly earned a bad reputation. Saab stopped offering it in 1982 and filled the void when it released the 90 – a fascinating 90-900 hybrid – in 1984. The 600 is a rare sight in 2019; few were made and many were off the road by the 1990s.

An extra box (1982)

Lancia again hired Giorgetto Giugiaro to create a three-box variant of the Delta named Prisma. Introduced in 1982, the Prisma was mechanically identical to the Delta but it was about 254mm (10in) longer. It quickly became one of Lancia’s most popular models, especially in markets outside of Italy.

The Delta’s performance genes (1982)

The original Delta received the first of several updates in late 1982. In addition to minor styling tweaks, Lancia expanded the palette of engines with a 1.6-litre four-cylinder that made 104bhp when naturally aspirated and 128bhp when turbocharged. These variants of the Delta remained front-wheel drive but they played a significant role in unlocking the model’s performance potential. PICTURE: Delta GT 1600

The Delta goes racing (1985)

There was no question in Lancia’s mind that the 037 couldn’t give the Audi Quattro a run for its money in the World Rally Championship’s (WRC) high-profile Group B category. It fired back by developing the Delta S4, which made its competition debut at the 1985 RAC Rally. It benefited from a fire-breathing, 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine that was both turbocharged and supercharged to at least 450bhp. The mid-mounted four spun the S4’s four wheels to increase its chances of dethroning the Quattro.

The Delta S4 Stradale (1985)

Lancia promised to make 200 street-legal examples of the S4 starting in 1985 to homologate the car in Group B. The Stradale model kept the 1.8-litre supercharged and turbocharged engine but it was detuned to a tamer 247bhp. And, while it was vaguely marketed as a member of the Delta family, the S4 only shared its grille, its windscreen and its rear lights with the regular-production hatchback.

Historians disagree about how many units of the S4 Stradale were actually built most are adamant that Lancia didn’t make 200 units. Estimates vary between 45 and 150 cars.

Spinning the rear wheels (1986)

The Delta’s next major update came in 1986, when it became available with permanent four-wheel drive at an extra cost. Here again, the idea wasn’t necessarily to go flat-out through a rally stage. Fiat’s Panda 4x4 was tremendously successful in the mountainous regions of Europe and Lancia was also in the process of adding four-wheel to the Y10, the sub-Delta city car it released in 1985.

Performance was always part of the package, though. The Delta HF 4WD received a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine that delivered 163bhp, a healthy amount in spite of the extra weight it had to haul.

Agnelli’s Prisma (1987)

The Prisma was available with four-wheel drive but it never received the high-performance engines offered in the Delta. There was one exception. Fiat chieftain Gianni Agnelli (1921-2003) commissioned Abarth to build him a one-of-a-kind car with a turbocharged 2.0-litre engine tuned to 197bhp and four-wheel drive. It was painted dark blue and fitted with run-of-the-mill steel wheels to blend in with the crowd.

Agnelli used this wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing when he wanted to fly under the radar in Turin, never an easy task for one of Italy’s wealthiest and most famous men.

The Delta’s racing comeback (1987)

Lancia knew Italy had racing in its blood. WRC was almost as popular as Formula One during the 1980s. The Delta S4 retired when the FIA shuttered Group B at the end of the 1986 season so Lancia entered Group A in 1987 with a rally car that was much closer to the series-produced Delta.

Called Delta HF 4WD, it looked like a regular hatchback decked out in full rally regalia. It wasn’t overly muscular or aggressive but it won the world championship in 1987, beating the second-place Audi 200 Quattro and the third-place Renault 11 Turbo by a wide margin. Its career was short-lived, however.

From the race to the road (1987)

The Delta’s status as a rally god was cemented after the 1987 season. Lancia took advantage of its trophies to put race-winning performance in the hands of the enthusiasts willing to pay for it. Far from its roots as an entry-level model, the Delta HF Integrale arrived in 1987 with 182bhp on tap and punched-out wheel arches that created a visual link between the road car and the race car. It gained 11bhp the following year when Lancia released a 16-valve variant of the 2.0-litre engine.

The Delta HF Integrale (1988)

Group A’s rise to prominence in 1987 caught Lancia by surprise; it needed a car to stay competitive so it quickly threw the Delta into the mix. It had far more time to prepare for the 1988 season.

In WRC, the Delta HF Integrale took the torch from the HF 4WD. It arrived on the starting line with bigger brakes, wider wheels, a redesigned suspension and more power. Lancia again won the world championship, this time by beating the mighty Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and the Audi Coupe Quattro. PICTURE: Safari-spec Delta

Agnelli’s drop-top Delta (1992)

Gianni Agnelli (pictured) had more than enough money and influence to commission one-off cars. He also loved cars, especially fast ones he could drive around while holidaying in Saint Moritz. In 1992, he asked Fiat to turn a Lancia Delta Integrale HF into a two-seater convertible. There’s no word on how much the project cost, or how long it took to complete, but Agnelli got the drop-top of his dreams, all to himself.

This one-of-a-kind Delta now resides in Italy’s National Automobile Museum in Turin.

The Hyena (1992)

Italian coachbuilder Zagato toyed around with the idea of dropping a sporty, two-door body on a Delta Integrale platform during the late 1980s but nothing came of the project. Dutch Lancia importer Paul Koot somehow caught wind of the car and funded its transition into a production model.

Presented at the Brussels motor show, the Hyena arrived as a slick coupe with Zagato’s signature double-bubble roof. The body was made with aluminum and while carbon fiber components helped keep weight in check. The Hyena weighed nearly 205kg less than the Delta.

Lancia initially agree to send Zagato the Delta parts needed to make 500 cars but it inexplicably withdrew from the project. Koot and Zagato soldiered on but reduced the number of cars they planned on building to 75. 24 examples were ultimately built for the European and Japanese markets.

The Delta retires (1994)

Lancia continued making the Delta more powerful, quicker and wider during the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The street-legal cars benefited from this trend, too. In its most powerful configuration, the Delta HF Integrale Evo2 had 209bhp and it could reach 60mph in 5.7sec. Enthusiasts praised the high-performance versions of the Delta with near-biblical awe but normal car buyers couldn’t ignore the model had turned 10 in 1989.

Yes, the Delta was getting on a bit; the Volkswagen Golf had gone through three generations during its career thus far. The Delta’s illustrious racing career ended after the 1993 season; it had won 46 rallies and brought Lancia six consecutive world championships, exceeding everyone’s wildest expectations. Production of the street-legal model ended in 1994 but that wasn’t the end of the line for what had become one of Lancia’s most hallowed nameplates. PICTURE: 1992 Delta HF Integrale Evo

The second-generation Delta (1993)

Introduced at the 1993 Geneva motor show, the second-generation Delta reflected Lancia’s ambitious plans to morph into a luxury automaker during the 1990s. Stylistically, it was more of a revolution than an evolution, which was hardly a surprise. Its silhouette nonetheless made it loosely recognizable as a Delta, but styling cues from the original were few in number.

The second-generation Delta (1993)

The second-generation Delta didn’t manage to capture the public’s attention in the same way that the original model had. It might be because Lancia didn’t take it racing; many criticized its design, too. High-performance variants were made but they lacked the spark to light the enthusiast world on fire. Production ended in 2000 and Lancia decided not to immediately replace the model.

The third and final Delta (2008)

The Delta returned to the Lancia range in 2008 after an eight-year hiatus. Enough time had passed since the nameplate’s introduction – and its rally victories – to credibly make a hot hatch with a handful of retro styling cues added as a nod to the original model but Lancia didn’t take this route. It wanted to be chic but it didn’t have the money to design a new car from the ground up. The third-generation Delta consequently shared much with the second-generation Fiat Bravo and that was its first sin.

The third and final Delta (2008)

Italians mostly liked the third-generation Delta but the rest of the world didn’t want much to do with it. Fiat gave the hatchback to Chrysler (pictured) to sell - at optimistic, premium prices - in the UK between 2011 and 2013 but sales were dismal. Lancia had left the British market after 1993 due to low sales didn’t help its cause.

The company even considered briefly selling the Chrysler-badged model in the US, and  they brought it to the 2010 Chicago motor show, but the project was cancelled. Unloved and too Fiat-esque, the Delta retired for the last time in 2014.

The Amos Delta (2018)

There’s no reason to believe Lancia will re-release the Delta during the 2020s; we don’t even know if the brand will be around during the coming decade. In 2018, Italian coachbuilder Automobili Amos took the matter into its own hands by unveiling a resto-modded first-generation Delta named Futurista.

Starting with an Integrale donor car, Automobili Amos fitted a new two-door body made from aluminum and installed carbon fiber body panels to further reduce weight. The original engine received comprehensive updates to generate 325bhp, which is more than many hot hatches offer in 2019.

An updated interior that retained a period-correct look rounded out the modifications. Automobili Amos announced plans to make 20 units and priced each one at about $350,000 (approximately £270,000).