Lancia back in WRC(2), three cars for £35k...

...and how you stumbled across this here forum

By Cam Tait / Tuesday, 28 October 2025 / Loading comments

You may remember that, back in 2023, we tried to turn a VW Golf GTI (Mk5) into a track car that could lap a circuit quicker than a (Mk8) Golf R for just £10,000. While we ultimately missed the mark, we did get mighty close, which made handing it over to the eventual winner all the more painful at the end of the year. Well, it’s now back, just not in the way any of us saw coming. PH Project Car is officially up for auction, and that seemed like the perfect place to kick off this week’s episode of The Gassing Station podcast.

As ever, we’ve packed a huge amount into this week's episode and no, it’s not just me gushing about PH Project Car’s cream leather interior. We’ve picked Lancia’s rally return (well, sort of) with the Ypsilon WRC2 car that’s due to enter the World Rally Championship next year. And with a major rule shakeup due in 2027 that’ll closely match WRC2 cars with prototype-style Rally1 machines, there’s a good chance the firm will be gunning for its first WRC crown since 1992. While there’s no sign of Lancia returning to the UK any time soon, a hot, albeit electric, Ypsilon HF is available on the continent and a Delta HF Integrale due imminently does suggest the rally legend may have (finally) rediscovered its mojo.

Moving on to our buying challenge of the week, which comes from AlexNJ89 and might just be the most difficult one we’ve faced yet. With a budget of £35,000, AlexNJ89 wants to know whether they should put the money towards a dream car (ideally a Porsche 911) and put whatever’s left towards something sensible, or buy as many cars to fulfil lots of different roles. John, naturally, went for the latter, putting forward this Lexus LS as a luxurious cruiser, this Mercedes SL320 for something a little more special and this L322 Rangie as an everyday runabout. I, however, decided to follow the brief, with this 996 Carrera 2 Cabriolet scratching the Porsche 911 itch while also ticking off the convertible box, while this Caterham Seven Beaulieu could work either as a track car or a weekend toy. Feel free to drop your own suggestions in the topic here, and tell us how well/terribly we did in the usual spot below.

Rounding things off, we go on a trip down memory lane by reading about how PHers came to join the forum courtesy of White-Noise’s ‘How did you discover PistonHeads?’ John and I throw our own contributions in, with his nibbs remembering the time he stumbled across the PH team tucked away in what appeared to be a broom closest, while I accosted Nic C on the Toyota GR Yaris launch to validate my opinions on how bloomin’ good it was. All that and more on today’s episode of The Gassing Station.

Listen here