1994 Lancia Delta Evolution 2 on 2040-cars

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Maturo Stradale another sweet Lancia Delta restomod

On the one hand, what we have here is (yet) another vintage World Rally Championship Lancia restomod. On the other hand, we just haven't (yet) got tired of vintage WRC Lancia restomods. This one hails from The Netherlands, quite a bit further north than the Swiss and Italian takes we've seen so far. A company called Maturo Competition Cars in Veghel, which specializes in prepping old Delta Integrales for rallying, decided to work up a Delta HF Integrale 16v in the manner of the Group A cars that won WRC Manufacturer's Championships in 1990 and 1991. The trio of men behind it decided they wanted to stay close to the feel of the original in order to provide a similar driving experience — with more horsepower, naturally — built with far more reliable and luxurious components.  The hatchback now known as the Maturo Stradale starts with a Delta HF Integrale in serviceable condition. The chassis is stripped, then sandblasted. Welders install a full custom roll cage and add spot welds in 250 places, increasing rigidity. These much stronger bones are then primered and repainted for corrosion resistance.   While all that's being done, the 2.0-liter four-cylinder goes in for an even greater overhaul. The Group A Lancias made about 200 horsepower. Upgrades bolt on a larger carbon airbox, rebuilt Garrett turbo, larger intercooler, upgraded injectors and fuel system, new wiring harness and reprogrammed motorsports ECU. New internals include forged rods and pistons, and lighter valves. There's a thicker timing belt, and the balance shafts are gone. Peak boost climbs from 1.2 bar to 1.8 bar, upping peak power to about 355 hp. The company says the engine "Will deliver a completely reliable 380 hp or more and more than 550 Nm [405 lb-ft] of torque.” The original five-speed gearbox is rebuilt with stronger gears, and can be further revised with straight-cut gears in a dogleg pattern for power shifting. The original Deltas went without a locking front diff, making do with a Ferguson viscous center diff and a Torsen rear differential. Maturo puts in a new viscous center differential and mechanical locking diffs on both axles, meshed with driveshafts formed from an alloy created for Formula 1 cars that can endure angles of up to 40 degrees without deformation.  The four-way adjustable suspension derives from the firm's rally-spec cars, and can be enhanced with a hydraulic ride height control system.

A presumably stolen Lancia Ypsilon prototype is pulled from a canal in France

Lancia is a long way from its heyday. The Italian automaker’s time in motorsport is far behind it, and its business efforts have been reduced to a single model sold only in Italy. ThatÂ’s changing, at least according to company officials, as the automaker is gearing up to release a few new vehicles in the coming years, starting with an updated electric Ypsilon. Though itÂ’s not due to be revealed for a few more months, a Ypsilon prototype recently made news after it was presumably stolen and crashed into a river in France. ? FUITE ! Voici la future Lancia Ypsilon dans des conditions tres particulieres. ?? Ce prototype sans camouflage a ete repeche a Montbeliard, non loin de lÂ’usine Stellantis, et selon lÂ’Est Republicain, il sÂ’agirait dÂ’un vol. Cependant, rien nÂ’a ete confirme.#Lancia #Ypsilon pic.twitter.com/mxNmIWJ9hL — Le Rendez-Vous AutoÂ’ (@lerdvauto) December 12, 2023 Officials havenÂ’t handed out many details but said that firefighters arrived on the scene to find the white hatchback submerged in a canal near Rue du Port, near the local Stellantis factory. No victims or other wreckage was found, and the team lifted the car out of the canal by crane. While a presumably stolen prototype is interesting on its own, the secondary story here is that this is likely the best look anyone outside of Lancia has had at the new car. Every image seen to date has been of a heavily camouflaged car with hard-to-discern lines and details. We can see the rear door handles in the C-pillar and unique design elements that set it apart from the Opel Corsa upon which it is based. Though Lancia likely wishes firefighters had been more discreet in pulling the car out of the water, the automaker has an exciting few years ahead of it. After the new Ypsilon, Lancia said it would deliver a compact SUV in 2026, followed by another hatchback in 2028. It has also expressed plans to expand outside of its home market, Italy, to other European countries. The automaker may also expand to other continents, but itÂ’s unlikely Americans will see a Lancia on our streets anytime soon.

New electric Ypsilon city car is Lancia's last bid for relevance

Stellantis-owned Lancia has unveiled its first new model in well over a decade. Offered only with an electric drivetrain, the new Ypsilon is a small, premium four-door hatchback developed to make the 118-year-old Italian brand relevant again after an extended period of decline. We shouldn't be writing this story, because Lancia shouldn't be around to release a new Ypsilon. Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles until his death in 2018, planned to close the brand. It was too small, too heavily reliant on the European market, and ultimately more of a burden than anything else. He executed his plan gradually: first, he tried giving Lancia a handful of Chrysler models to sell in Europe, which didn't work. Then, he gradually pulled the plug on Lancia's range and foreign operations, leaving the company with a single model (the last-generation Ypsilon) to sell in a single country (Italy). Rewind to the 1990s, and that's exactly how Autobianchi shut down. History didn't repeat itself this time. Stellantis executives decided to give every brand in the group a chance to prove why it deserves to exist. The third-generation Ypsilon (we're counting the Y launched in 1995 as the original) is Lancia's first argument. Having access to its parent company's parts bin helped keep development costs in check, and the hatchback shares its Common Modular Platform (CMP) with other small hatchbacks you'll see meandering across Europe such as the Peugeot 208 and the Opel Corsa. Visually, it borrows a handful of styling cues from the Pu+Ra HPE concept unveiled in 2023, like low-mounted headlights and three thin strips of LEDs on the front end. Out back, you'll find a pair of round headlights ostensibly inspired by the ones fitted to the Stratos, a coupe that cemented Lancia's reputation as a force to reckon with in the World Rally Championship (WRC) during the 1970s. That's as much of Lancia's rallying heritage the brand chose to channel, however. Instead, it's highlighting the upmarket chapter of its history: for decades, the brand was associated with luxury rather than with performance. Italian presidents rolled around in purpose-built Flaminia sedans in the 1960s. Rallying was the brand's claim to fame in the 1970s and the 1980s, and Lancia unceremoniously became associated with badge-engineering during the 1990s. This is where its decline began. The new Ypsilon's job is to reverse it by giving buyers a more stylish alternative to, say, the 208 it's based on.