Lancia 037
Euro · Lancia
Lancia 037: The Last Rear-Drive Car to Win the World Rally Championship
The Lancia 037, officially the Lancia Rally, is a mid-engined, supercharged rally car that Lancia built in the early 1980s for Group B. It beat the four-wheel-drive Audi Quattro to the 1983 manufacturers' title and was the last rear-wheel-drive car to win the championship.
Development began in 1980 under the new Group B rules, which let manufacturers race cars with relatively few road-going homologation models built. The name came from the project number. Abarth, by then part of the Lancia-Fiat family, did most of the design work with Pininfarina, Dallara, and project manager Sergio Limone, and it borrowed cues from its own 1950s and 1960s racers, including a double-bubble roof. The car was loosely based on the mid-engine Lancia Montecarlo and shared its center section, but the engine was turned from transverse to lengthwise and most body panels were Kevlar.
Lancia chose a supercharger over a turbo to get rid of turbo lag and sharpen throttle response. The four-cylinder engine traced back to the Fiat Abarth 131 rally car. Power was first quoted at 265 hp, then 280 hp, and the Evolution 2 made 325 hp after displacement grew to 2.1 liters. Group B required 200 road cars, and 207 examples of the 037 Stradale are known to have been built between 1982 and 1984. The Stradale's 2.0-liter engine and Abarth Volumex Roots-type supercharger made 205 hp, good for more than 220 km/h (137 mph) and 60 mph in 7.0 seconds.
The 037 debuted at the 1982 Rally Costa Smeralda, where both cars retired with gearbox trouble. The 1983 season went much better. With Walter Röhrl and Markku Alén as its main drivers, Lancia beat Audi to the manufacturers' title. Four-wheel drive caught up fast, though. Audi won both 1984 titles, and Peugeot's 205 T16 beat the 037 in 1985. Alén scored the final 037 win at the 1984 Tour de Corse, and the Delta S4 replaced it at the 1985 RAC Rally. Attilio Bettega died in a 037 crash in 1985.