International treasures
There were an assortment of special cars on display when Motor Sport paid a visit to Rally Replay. Adam Midghall gives us the lowdown...
1. FIAT 242 REPLICA SERVICE VAN
“It has all modern internals and a modern generator, so you can pull up at any event, pull your rally car up alongside and service from the van. It’s evocative of the Group B period because these serviced 037s and Delta S4s. It features the same roof-rack and jerry cans they used in period, but now fitted with modern appliances – so you can use it without breaking anything original.”
2. REPSOL LANCIA DELTA HF INTEGRALE
“This is a special car. Built at the end of 1991 it was one of three test cars by Abarth, who built all the works rally cars for Lancia. This was the gravel car and they also had a Tarmac car and a Safari car. It was used all the way through 1992 by Juha Kankkunen, Didier Auriol and Andrea Aghini to test set-ups, run new parts and fuels. Then in 1993 it became Carlos Sainz’s car. Again it was a test car, but he also used it on an event in Spain called Formula Rally Oviedo, which he won – the last victory for a works-entered Lancia. At the end of the year the car did the Race of Champions and was driven by everyone: Markku Alén, Stig Blomqvist, François Delecour, Miki Biasion and Auriol. When it was sold on to a privateer it was painted in silver, then a private collector kept it in a warehouse until we pulled it out in early 2018. Working with Miki, we’ve had the car sympathetically restored and it’s been painted with the original stencils. It has the original seats, is in original spec and sits on original tyres – which you wouldn’t want to drive on these days! We reunited Didier with the car at the Castle Combe Rallyday in 2019, since when it’s been sold.”