Predictably, the Delta cleaned up in 1987, comfortably taking the manufacturer’s title from Audi and Renault, while the team’s drivers, Kankkunen, Biasion and Alen, finished 1-2-3 in the championship.  This was a result of Lancia being the only team fully prepared for the new class, but also the levels of preparation and commitment from the team, which, reckons Miki Biasion, was the strongest aspect of the package. 

This dominance continued into 1988, if anything even stronger than before. The Portuguese round saw the competition debut of the first, eight-valve, Integrale, with the famous flared wheelarches, Biasion taking the win. In fact Lancia exercised a degree of dominance not seen before or since in 1988, winning 10 of the 11 events they competed in and taking second and third on the Tour de Corse. This form continued into 1989, but even as Lancia were busy clinching their third straight manufacturer’s title they were aware of the threat from Japan. Mitsubishi and, in particular, Toyota were slowly but surely preparing to loosen Lancia’s grip on world rallying, a claim evidenced by Lancia’s decision to skip the 1989 RAC Rally to concentrate on refining the new 16-valve model of the Delta.

Although externally similar to the eight-valve, the ‘sedici’ 16V Integrale, launched in May 1989, was in fact substantially revised underneath. In addition to the 16-valve head and 15 more horsepower on the roadgoing car, the new model altered the front-rear torque split. The HF 4WD and Integrale 8V had used a 56:44 front-rear torque split; this was now biased towards the rear, with a 47:53 bias, ensuring easier transition to oversteer at the limit, while ABS was now listed as an option.

The Japanese threat finally materialised in 1990. Although Lancia took another constructor’s crown, the combined efforts of their drivers (including Kankkunen, back from a two-year stint at Toyota) were not enough to stop Spain’s Carlos Sainz from taking the driver’s crown for Toyota. It was a highly deserved title, but in some ways it set the foundation for Lancia’s 1991 success.

Sainz’s success seemed to persuade the Toyota hierarchy that 1991 would be much the same as 1990, and as a result they failed to give him the support he needed. Sainz began to feel the weight of expectation as the season went on, and despite starting promisingly with a win in Monte Carlo, the accidents started to mount up, culminating in three rolls in four stages in Australia. 
 

 
Meanwhile, seemingly by black magic, the ancient Delta actually became more competitive as the season progressed. Lancia had wrapped up the constructor’s again prior to the final round, but it was at the RAC, scene of many a dramatic showdown before and since, that Sainz finally lost the driver’s crown to Lancia’s Kankkunen.

Nevertheless, the increasing speed of the Celica and others could not be ignored, and Lancia and Abarth’s response to this threat had been unveiled in September 1991, in the form of the Integrale Evoluzione. This car, nicknamed the ‘Deltona’, was superior to the old 16-valve in every way – more powerful, wider, stronger, and more stable.

It still had the aerodynamics of a barn door – indeed, the width of the car had grown by a massive 15 inches over the progression from HF 4WD to Evoluzione – but in every other conceivable way it was an even more formidable opponent than before, as Didier Auriol set about proving. 

Rallying aside, Lancia launched the road-going Integrale Evoluzione at the 1991 Frankfurt Motor Show. It suddenly dawned on enthusiasts and journalists alike how simply stunning the 12-year-old design still looked. Albeit on steroids, the Delta was a legend both on and off the tarmac.

The Evoluzione road car saw the return of the galloping red elephant on the HF badge, but the most striking external feature were the aggressively swollen wheelarches to accommodate the wider track. These were no crude add-on, they were an integral part of the design, and blended perfectly into the contours of the Giugiaro shape. The car now looked so chunky, it seemed formidable enough standing still. But that would be missing the point.

Under the bonnet, there was 210 bhp and better low-end punch, thanks to a re-mapped ECU and a highly revised exhaust system. The road car now felt faster and more sure-footed than ever before, with uprated brakes and - in true sporting style - optional ABS.

For a new price of £23.145 (pounds Sterling) in 1992, the car offered a sensational package and brilliant performance for money. Here was a machine that could seat 5 people and provide stunning performance and truly chuckable handling.  There was quite simply nothing else like it.

Shortly after the launch of the road-going Evoluzione, Lancia officially announced its withdrawal from the world championship. This was just prior to Christmas 1991, leaving a smaller level of works support with Jolly Club (a Milan-based engineering outfit which had largely built and prepared the cars, excluding the engine, for some time before the pullout). Despite this, the pullout had little effect on the success of the final evolution of the Delta in 1992.

Although Auriol contested only ten of the fourteen rounds in 1992, the Frenchman took six wins, a record, and for much of the year it seemed a foregone conclusion that he would end up as France’s first-ever world rally champion. Yet despite the fact that Lancia took its sixth manufacturer’s title in a row, a shocking run for Auriol towards the season’s end, culminating in a retirement on the season finale RAC Rally, and sheer dogged determination on the part of Sainz to remain in the hunt meant that the Toyota pilot won his second title, with Auriol only third in the final standings. 

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