SOTW: Delta Turbo

The Delta is a rally legend - and yours for less than a grand...

The Lancia Delta. Rare, collectable, a motorsport icon.

And this week’s shed. It’s not an Integrale, but it is an HF Turbo, with low miles and some history to back it up. I’ll be honest with you; if we didn’t have the Merc then I would seriously consider getting this. Never mind the aftermarket front bumper, this is a nice looking Delta. The little Lancia was penned by Giugiaro and is set-square styling at its best. The car may be all straight-lines and sharp angles but the shape has aged well, despite the fact the Delta made its first appearance at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1979. What started off as an unassuming five-door hatchback also became the most successful rally car of all time.

The HF Turbo was the flagship of the Delta rangebefore the HF 4WD came along, which later became the Integrale rally weapon. Google the HF Turbo and you will be met with horror stories of unreliability, rot and frazzled electrics. But try to ignore these minor details, the fast Deltas are awesome cars. The HF Turbo had a turbocharged 1.6 engine with 140 bhp and could hit 60mph in around 8.5 seconds, and go on to over 125mph.

Unlike the Integrale, the HF Turbo does without the pumped-up wheel arches, but the owner of this particular car has gone some way to giving it a bit more aggression. There’s the aforementioned front spoiler and dished alloys, to go with a few engine mods to make sure the elderly 1.6 goes pop that little bit sooner. From what we can see the interior doesn’t look too bad and the body doesn’t seem to be riddled with rust, which is handy.The only thing the ad doesn’t say is whether the car has any MOT, so that could well be the clincher. However the thought of a 68,000 mile (even though the ad claims 6,800 miles which we assume is a typo) HF Turbo for £950 is incredibly tempting so you

should try and get in there first.

Ad reads: 'Manual, 6,800 miles, Loveley working example of a lancia. UK car so insurance lot cheaper than imports! Some history to back up milage. Starts first time every time. fitted with clifford cat1 alarm an imob. Few modifaction-large incercooler, dump vale, sil hoses, drilled and groved disks, recon turbo not long ago, after market front bumper and lowered. Few marks as you would expect for car of its age. Call for views or info. Selling for motor bike for summer. Pete. £950. offers'

Meanwhile our 1988 Mercedes 420se is proving to be the most popular car in the office. However we did tot up how much petrol had been poured into the V8 Merc’s tank in a week and it works out at something like £125, which works out at about a seventh of what we paid for the whole car. It’s difficult not to like the Merc though, which can provide some exciting handling traits at low speeds, such is the combination of 15 inch

wheels, a 4.2 litre V8, and a hefty kerbweight. The general consensus is it is the most interesting set of wheels in the car park, and as such everyone wants to drive it.

Which brings us to selling it, which, I assure you, we will do at some point – probably when we have sold the contents of our homes to keep the thing topped up with unleaded. The ad is going to go up next week and then I guess we’ll find out what, if anything, a big thirsty tank of a Merc is worth in the real world. We’ll keep you posted…

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ZesPak

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