Let’s say that you are looking for an Italian sporting car and want exclusivity, pedigree, and racing heritage. Finding such a car is easy, but let’s say that you also have a family and need four seats occasionally? Now, finding an Italian collector car that does that becomes more difficult.
Italians built just a car that covers all of those bases, one that has been increasing in both interest and value in the collector car market. The Pick of the Day is one of those cars, a 1988 Lancia Delta HF Integrale 16V.
The Lancia Delta Integrale was the performance version of Lancia’s upmarket front-whee- drive sedan. The car was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of ItalDesign. This example represents the last update of the first-generation cars.
The Delta Integrale would be a huge success in the WRC rally series, earning the championship in 1988 by winning eight out of 11 rounds during the first year that the Lancia competed in the series. It would dominate again in 1990 and ’91, again winning championships in both years.
The Delta Integrale HF 16V was the road-going version of the Lancia rally car, featuring full-time all-wheel-drive and a 2-liter inline-4 with double overhead camshafts, and turbocharged to develop 207 horsepower at 5,750 rpm, and 220 pound-feet of torque at 3,500 rpm.
The Lancia Delta, like many of the amazing European cars from the 1980s and ’90s, was never imported into the United States, but now that they are old enough to be brought in legally, many are showing up here. Car magazine in the UK called this car “The Greatest Hot Hatch,” and most younger collectors would agree.
This video provides a very in-depth history and explanation of the Delta Integrale:
According to the Farmingdale, New York, dealer advertising the Lancia on ClassicCars.com, it was originally delivered in Canada and came into the US in 2010. The car remains all original and has somehow never been modified, rallied or raced, the dealer says.
Total original mileage on this example is a low 35,523 miles, although the Carfax report notes a mileage inconsistency as the result of the original odometer reading in kilometers, the ad says. Documentation at the time of the instrument change shows the odometer as being set to the correct reading, in miles, and the original instrument is included in the sale.
This Lancia Delta HF Integrale 16v is one of the finest surviving original examples, the seller contends, and the pictures with the ad seem to back that up.
The best part of this Lancia is the price, which at $44,900 seems like a tremendous value for a car that could not possibly be hotter in the collector car market today, and at the same time completely delivers on your expectations.
To view this vehicle on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
