LANCIA DELTA S4: 40 YEARS OF GROUP B FURY INSPIRES THE YPSILON RALLY4 HF
Autumn, 1985. The world of rallying would never be the same again. Lancia rolled out the Delta S4 Martini at the RAC Rally in Great Britain, and it didn’t just turn heads, oh no, it pretty much wrecked the competition. Henri Toivonen and Neil Wilson powered the radical machine straight to victory on its debut, while Markku Alén had already proven its dominance earlier that summer at the Rally Colline di Romagna, finishing a casual nine minutes ahead of the field. From day one, the S4 was a monster. The car was built for Group B - the most unhinged, experimental, and dangerous era in rally history. Rules were so loose that engineers had free rein to build whatever madness their imaginations and budgets could conjure. For Lancia, that meant the S4, with its name spelling out its secrets: “S” for supercharged, and “4” for all-wheel drive. The mid-mounted 1.8-litre twin-charged four-cylinder (yes, turbo and supercharger working together) spat out over 360 kW, sending the featherweight 966 kg frame hurtling past 250 km/h like it was nothing. It was an engineering fever dream: steel tube-frame space cage, Kevlar and carbon honeycomb bodywork, and a sound like nothing else on Earth.
It wasn’t just quick, it was devastating. The S4 racked up wins across Italy and Europe in 1986, with trophies from Monte Carlo, Costa Smeralda, Mille Miglia, and Targa Florio filling Lancia’s cabinet. It became a symbol of Group B excess: cars so fast and advanced that they eventually had to be banned. The S4 was the pinnacle of that madness. Today, one sits proudly at Stellantis’ Heritage Hub in Turin, alongside a rare Delta S4 Stradale—one of 200 road-going versions built to satisfy FIA homologation rules. Few cars embody “peak rally” quite like it.
Now, 40 years later, Lancia isn’t content to just polish the silverware and bask in past glories. The brand is back in the game with the Ypsilon Rally4 HF, a compact, fire-breathing machine designed to carry the torch into a new era. Built for the Rally4 category - the proving ground for young talent - it packs a 156 kW turbo engine, a five-speed SADEV sequential gearbox, adjustable Ohlins suspension, and rally-spec brakes. It’s raw, it’s quick, and it’s built to be the new training ground for future champions.
This isn’t just a side project either. The Ypsilon Rally4 HF will spearhead the new Trofeo Lancia single-make series, giving privateers and young guns a chance to cut their teeth behind the wheel of a modern Lancia rally car. Add to that the recently unveiled Ypsilon HF Racing, designed as an entry-level racer to bring fresh blood into motorsport, and it’s clear Lancia isn’t just playing at nostalgia - they’re rebuilding a competitive pyramid from the ground up. The Delta S4 was the boldest rally car of its generation. The Ypsilon Rally4 HF might not breathe fire in quite the same way, but it channels the same DNA: a hunger to push limits, to race harder, and to put Lancia back where it belongs - in the thick of motorsport. Different cars, different eras, but the same burning spirit. Because Lancia doesn’t just look back. It looks forward, with a wheelspin and a wink to its legendary past.
Take a look at the YouTube video that shows this evolution of the HF Rally car that's already been seen doing race duty in select events. It's pretty cool, not Group B cool, but still pretty cool: Lancia returns to rally with the new Lancia Ypsilon Rally4 HF Rally Car | RalliTurk TV
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