This year marks the 40th anniversary of the birth of Group B. Anthony Peacock speaks to those involved with the Lancia team – drivers and tacticians who made the 037 and Delta S4 world-beaters in WRC’s craziest era

PHOTOGRAPHY: GABRIELE MOLETI

In classic Martini livery, the Group B Lancia Delta S4 of Miki Biasion powers through the gravel on the 1986 Sanremo Rally

Lancia team manager Ninni Russo. Above: 2-litre engine in the 037

The Delta S4s of Henri Toivonen (No6) and Markku Alén (No3) are given attention in the chill of the 1985 RAC Rally. It was a strong performance from Lancia – a1-2.

There’s a brutalist magnificence to the concrete sweep of the Mirafiori factory in Turin: a facility that was first inaugurated in 1939 under the gaze of Benito Mussolini – after Fiat outgrew its iconic Lingotto building – and progressively added to over the years.

In time it became a district all of its own; a city within a city where the streets are paved with cars in various stages of life and production. Not just Fiats, but Alfa Romeos and Lancias (remember those?) as well as Jeeps now, following the FCA organisation’s latest round of acquisitions.

It’s a behemoth of a factory, reportedly the largest in Europe, and yet it’s not completely used these days, which gives it a melancholy air of fading grandeur.

The automotive ghosts of the past can be found around every corner: from signwriting that is obviously a product of the 1950s, to abandoned corridors leading to long-dead departments, where footsteps of immaculately attired draughtsmen once echoed to the beat of the dolce vita.

It is here that the FCA Heritage Hub was recently created to safeguard the company’s creations, containing a brand new example of pretty much every model that Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo ever produced. And it is here that we find a breathtaking selection of rally cars including the Lancia 037 – which started the Group B story – and the Delta S4, the Group B monster par excellence. No other cars epitomised the whole triumph and tragedy of Group B quite so eloquently: the ephemeral highs and visceral lows that went hand-in-hand with such unfettered pursuit of power and perfection.

Overseeing this era of excess was Ninni Russo, Lancia’s legendary team manager who started off his career – like so many of the biggest achievers in motor sport – as a co-driver, before being asked by team boss Cesare Fiorio to take care of the day-to-day running of the all-conquering Lancia squad. Clad in impossibly elegant Martini-striped team clothing, Russo was there on every round to witness at first hand the defining epoch of world rallying.