In the lead up to Hyundai and Toyota’s showdown for the manufacturers’ title in Japan later this month, we’re looking back at some of the greatest manufacturer fights in World Rally Championship history. We asked you to vote for your top-five, and this is what you picked at number four.
In the late Eighties, Lancia was the World Rally Championship’s Everest. With a Group A car primed, ready and tested, the Torinese hit the ground running in 1987. The competition was still searching for its Nikes.
Mazda and Ford did the best they could, but neither was suitably equipped with a car sporting one turbo, two liters and four-wheel drive. That left the original Delta HF 4WD and subsequent HF Integrales (eight and 16-valve variants) to rip through the immediate post-Group B years.
And just when we thought Lancia had delivered its trump card, then came the sensational Super Delta HF Integrale. The Deltona.
In 1987, the Italians won eight of the 10 events it started. The following year was even more impressive, with 10 from 11. It was walking the manufacturers’ titles and the identity of the drivers’ champion was very much the business of Lancia team principal Cesare Fiorio.
Nobody got a look in.
Complacency? Not pictured. Success simply generated more success.
Toyota's Supra was strong in Africa, but another solution was needed
Due north over the Alps, Cologne was busy and getting busier. The loss of Group S and a proposed MR2 forced a rethink for Toyota. The three-liter Supra was good enough for the Safari podium in 1987 (it did lead in Kenya and on the Ivory Coast Rally), but it was overweight, underpowered and never an answer to the Group A question. It was a stop-gap.
In the twilight of Group B (October 1986, to be precise) the Toyota Celica GT-Four – or All-Trac Turbo stateside – went into road car production. That was more like it. Toyota Team Europe went to work.
And Ove Andersson went to see Juha Kankkunen, Lancia’s 1987 world champion. By his own admission, the Finn was down. Well on his way to a second consecutive title, he was searching a new challenge. A Toyota return sounded good for 1988. Especially when it was combined with a Dakar outing with Peugeot. The new Toyota wouldn’t be ready until Corsica in May and Kankkunen had persuaded Andersson to talk to Jean Todt. A deal was done and Juha started the season with a marathon win aboard the 205 T16.
Kankkunen switched to Toyota for 1988 but suffered with the Celica's early unreliability
The same couldn’t be said for the Celica. There was no doubting the car’s potential on paper – but competition immediately exposed significant cooling issues which led to engine problems. The car’s transmission was undoubtedly trick with a hydraulic center differential capable of altering the torque split depending on the car’s attitude and the driver’s requirement. The Lancia looked positively agricultural. But the Delta delivered again and again.
Carlos Sainz joined Toyota for 1989, but four from four wins for Miki Biasion set the Italian well on the road to a second consecutive drivers title aboard a Martini Delta. And by mid-season, Kankkunen had had enough of the Toyota’s reliability issues. He signed a three-year deal to return to Lancia from 1990.
The Delta was evolving, with a 16-valve engine introduced for the 1989 Sanremo Rally. That revised head delivered more torque at lower revs, helping offset a loss of power which came courtesy of the FIA’s decision to reduce the turbo air intake to 40mm. Good as the latest Lancia was, it was the first Delta to lose a title under Group A regulations as Sainz took a well-deserved drivers’ award in an increasingly dialled Celica.
Sainz, Auriol and Kankkunen all competed on both sides of the Lancia-Toyota rivalry
That year was also the closest Toyota came to defeating the official Lancia squad, finishing the year just six points adrift. Twelve months on and Italy dominated once more as Kankkunen celebrated his third world title and second aboard a Delta. While fighting tooth and nail through ’91, both teams were flat-chat developing their new WRC metal. For Lancia, the Deltona was the ultimate Group A car. Flared arches gave the car an aggressive stance that was stiffened by all-new shell preparation, suspension travel grew and the driveability was sufficient for Didier Auriol to dominate the 1992 season. He won six times. But missed out on the title. Retirements cost the Frenchman dearly and opened the door for Toyota man Sainz to take a second crown in three years.
Toyota’s Celica Turbo 4WD was based off the homologation special Carlos Sainz Limited Edition. Technical director Karl-Heinz Goldstein had put everything into this car – determined to land the ultimate Delta-beater. It didn’t work. It was too complex. The seemingly endless adjustability of the suspension sent the drivers around in circles, while the transmission struggled to cope with increased torque levels. Locking the center diff at a 50:50 split helped deliver consistency – but it came at the cost of armfuls of understeer.
By the time Sainz drove a Delta, it was no longer a match for the Toyota
The car’s reliability paid dividends and a battling year from Sainz was rewarded. But Lancia was still ahead in the makes’ race. Even when it wasn’t Lancia… Having done all the hard work in developing the Deltona for 1992, Lancia pulled out of the WRC as an official manufacturer at the end of 1991. The Jolly Club-run cars looked the same in their Martini stripes and a sixth straight manufacturers’ title demonstrated the firm’s final fling kept the Delta out front.
World champion Sainz jumped ship for 1993, driving a Repsol-liveried Lancia, while Kankkunen went in the opposite direction for a third stint with Andersson’s TTE squad. For the Spaniard, it was a disaster. Shorn of Lancia’s development budget, the Deltona was dropped by Cologne’s solid evolutions for 1993. Kankkunen was champion for a fourth time, while Toyota finally celebrated a manufacturers’ title – and victory over Lancia. Of sorts.
