Opinion: is Lancia overdue a triumphant rally return?

There must be a term that describes precisely how I, and I assume the majority of the population, feel about professional rally drivers. An oxymoronic combination of having the utmost respect for them, but also harbouring a nagging suspicion that there were a few components left on the counter when their brains were being wired up. The Germans almost certainly have a word for it.

I love modern rallying, and Rally Monte Carlo specifically is an annual non-negotiable in terms of my household television privileges. But much like you never forget your first kiss, or the first time you tasted a sticky toffee pudding, you never forget the first rally car you fell in love with. For me it was the Lancia Delta HF Integrale, decked out in those iconic Martini Racing stripes. The image of that pugnacious Italian hatchback launching over a snowy berm during the Swedish rally is one of my earliest automotive memories. For me, Lancia was rally.

Which is ironic, really, because not long after, in 1992, Lancia wasn’t rally at all. The brand unceremoniously pulled out of the sport entirely and wouldn’t compete again for over 30 years. In those three decades I’ve got a lot bigger, a lot uglier and watched in horror as the hair on my head has started to migrate.

At least during this long hiatus, video games did their bit to cement the legend of the Delta HF Integrale, most notably in 1994 arcade classic Sega Rally, which centred around a duel between Lancia’s compact, chuckable Delta and the faster but more unwieldy Toyota Celica. For a brief, glorious period in the mid 1990s, every British pier from Blackpool to Bognor featured a sideways, gravel spraying Lancia.

With all this in mind, you’ll forgive me for getting just a smidge excited as Lancia is in the process of making its long awaited return to rallying in 2025. It was recently testing its Ypsilon HF Rally2 machine in preparation for next year’s Rally2 championship, the WRC’s equivalent of Formula 2. And fortunately it looks considerably more purposeful than the previous generation road going Ypsilon, which demonstrated that even the reliably stylish Italians can have an off day in the design studio.

As if all this wasn’t enough reason to crack open a celebratory bottle of your preferred brand of dry vermouth, there’s even a rally Lancia on the way for folks who don’t have a lucrative alcoholic drink sponsorship. The newly announced €40k Ypsilon HF Racing is a front wheel drive, homologated Rally6 car designed to attract absolute newcomers to the sport and priced to match that ambition.

While it only has a 145bhp engine, that engine sits in a legitimate competition chassis, complete with rally trappings like short ratio gearing, a mechanical differential and a full roll cage. Best of all, it sits on basic steel wheels like an old Peugeot 106 Rallye.