The wonderful cooperation
In the mid-1970s, Lancia was more dominant on the world’s rally tracks with the magnificent Stratos than any brand had ever been before. But it was becoming apparent that the parent company Fiat was going to go for the 131 in the foreseeable future; the Mirafiori was in desperate need of more publicity. So Lancia Corse, this team with so much engineering and racing expertise, needed a new playing field. And it found it in Group 5, in which it had already competed in 1975 with a Stratos prepared by Dallara. All that was missing was a suitable vehicle.
It was found in the Lancia Beta Montecarlo. The Beta had been introduced in 1972 as a rather conservative family car, and the Montecarlo was added in 1975. The small coupé was a rather unusual vehicle, the 2-litre four-cylinder engine designed by the legend Aurelio Lampredi with its 118 bhp was not a real winner, but at least it was installed in the middle. These were pretty perfect prerequisites for Group 5, in which the designers were pretty much free, only the doors and the roof had to come from a production model in these “Silhouette” cars.
It came to a wonderful cooperation. Giampaolo Dallara, this chassis wizard, took care of the underbody, took over just the middle section of the steel frame of the Beta Montecarlo, added subframes to the front and rear, which also allowed him to completely redesign the chassis. So there was McPherson all round – and above all plenty of room for enormous tyres. Pininfarina was engaged for the bodywork. Although the Turin-based company was not necessarily famous for racing cars, they had their own wind tunnel and received clear specifications from Dallara – the result was one of the most brutal and at the same time most beautiful racing cars of all time.
With the help of Abarth, the Lampredi engine was first downsized to 1425 cm3 – and then blown up again with a massive KKK turbocharger, the same one, incidentally, that Porsche used for its 3-litre engine in the 934. Multiplied by the turbo coefficient of 1.4, this meant that the Lancia could compete in the sub-2-litre class. At 1.2 bar the engine produced 370 hp, at 1.6 bar 420 hp.
The Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo was unveiled in December 1978, but it would take until May 1979 for the Italians to compete in a race for the first time, the 6 Hours of Silverstone, with Riccardo Patrese and Walter Röhrl at the wheel. The Lancia was fast in practice, but in the race, after four laps, it was already end of fire (literally, the turbo became famous for releasing enormous jet flames from its exhaust pipes). The Italian also failed to finish the 1000 kilometres at the Nürburgring, but two wins at the end of the year in Enna and Brands Hatch were enough to bring the world championship title to Turin in his very first season. The Lancia would also have won the Giro d’Italia at the end of the season, but Villeneuve/Röhrl and Patrese/Alen used the motorway on the intermediate stages – and were disqualified. But what a driver pairing, Villeneuve and Röhrl.
In 1980, the regulations were changed once again, Group 5 was divided into classes with less and more than two litres of engine capacity. A nice battle broke out between Porsche and Lancia, who dominated their classes. But because Lancia poached in the Porsche class in two races with a car with a slightly increased engine capacity (1429 cm3), the Italians were able to claim another world championship title at the end of the season. It was a good year for the Fiat group: Hans Heyer won the German Touring Car Championship in a Beta Montecarlo Turbo. And Walter Röhrl became World Rally Champion in a Fiat 131 Abarth. Only Ferrari pulled off a disastrous season.
In 1981, Lancia again became world champion with the Beta Montercarlo Turbo, which now competed in its famous Martini colours – and subsequently devoted itself to Group 6 (Lancia LC1, story follows) and Group C (Lancia LC2, story follows). Eleven of these beautiful racing cars were built, most of which are still in existence. The biggest difficulty, they say, was finding the right tyres. But they had already proved that they are reliable, among other things by winning their class at the 24 Hours.
More beautiful racing cars can be found in our archive.
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