Slightly OT: Lancia S4
 

I first posted this in OT forum but figured out it would do good here as well:

1.8 liter engine, turbo AND supercharger...(supercharger boosts at low revs, turbo at high), ~600HP, 950kg curb weight...2.2 sec 0-60

It's an old Group B rally car and best of all: there are street-legal homologisation cars .

Here's short video:
http://www.zavodydovrchu.cz/vrchy/rechberg_2003_ianiello.mpg

It's fast as hell and i really like the sound.

Link fixed! :)

I was reading more about that car in one of the recent Racecar Engineering mags. They reckon that they ran in on an F1 track and it would have qualified in the top 6 F1 cars for that year. They also pointed out how many drivers died or were hurt that year because of the massive power of the Group B rally cars - especially Peugeot and Lancia.

Very scary stuff. I'll try and chase up the article.

Ash

i know that in the last group b year, a s4 competing in the portuguese rally did a time in a special stage in estoril that would have qualified it mid-field in that year's f1 race grid.

Nowdays it's generally agreed that the s4 was the pinnacle of groupe b tech and would probably have been the next "audi quattro" if it had time to sort out the development niggles.

Even spectators were killed. IIRC, one of the Group B cars outran the helicopter, surprising a spectator by landing on him. I guess the spectator was marking (betting?) where he thought the rally car would land after a jump.
That class was nicknamed the "Killer Bees".
-Chris

btw, the "killer bees" was partially correct, partially histerics. If i remember correctly there were 3 accidents which caused all that fuss, 2 in which spectators were killed (the biggest one in Portugal, where a ford rs2000 killed a dozen or so) and the one where a S4 killed it's driver. If you consider modern rallying, in france more people get killed in rallying every year (tarmac rallies can be deadly) than that.

However the B's *were* getting far too powerfull for their own good, the suspension developement wasn't what it is today and seeing movies (like the one above) one can see that they were constantly on the edge.

I remember a video comparing the same stretch of road with a groupe b Audi and a modern mitsubishi. The mitsu comes out of the corner, jumps twice over two large humps in the road and slides around the next corner, perfectly in control. The Audi comes out of the corner, crouches as the driver hits the throtle, jumps clean *over* both humps in one go and see-saws around the corner, barelly missing a stone wall...

Here are pics of the S4 owned by Armin Schwarz , the German rally ace.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1071153433.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1071153446.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1071153458.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1071153484.jpg http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1071153499.jpg

Looks like a farking animal!

Here's a big (26Mb) video of the Audi Sport. Really shows the inadequacies of the suspension!!!

http://www.mp3anthems.com/vwvids/vwvidscouk_auditribute.mpg

...or the adequacies of Walter Röhrl's balls.

Oh yes, the Sport Quattro :)

Take a look at this website, this company will turn your regular Quattro into an SWB:

http://www.dialynx.co.uk/conversions.htm

Actually, if my memory is correct, the Portugese rally was renowned (infamous) for the crowds who would stand on the course until the very last second. Sort of a "running with the bulls" mentality. It was really scary to see these rally cars blasting down a course covered with people who would part like the red sea in front of the competitors.

I believe that it was one of the primary reasons that the FIA dropped the Portugese rally.

Watching the Lancia video, I have to admit that it reminded me an awful lot of Gixxer Kart video.

911777 - thanks for that link. That is awesome!! And the costs seem fairly reasonable! -- Curt

Lots of pictures here of old rally and racing cars:
http://www.carclassic.com/

Porsches too of course, like this '73 911 RS Touring
http://www.carclassic.com/html/CM74.htm
(and we're back on topic :) )

Yup, i'm afraid so. The portuguese spectators were a bit idiotic in that regard (NOTE: I'm portuguese, i can call them whatever i want :rolleyes: ) and managed to get us thrown out of the FIA championship when some drivers flat refused to race here, prefering to forfeit the points. *sigh*

Can you believe that one of these Lancia Delta Integrales is for sale in the US on EBay right now, only $9300 with no reserve and no bidders. Sure there are some certification issues, but at least it's a left hand drive unit in spite of being imported from Japan.

As far as "bang for the buck", this car should be hard to beat, not to mention I doubt that you'd ever pass another one on the road in this country.

Anyhow, I just saw this listing on Ebay and thought of the video from this thread.

Diferent car! The S4 is a mid-engined, supercharged *and* turbocharged, kevlar bodied look-alike of the delta.

The link you mention is of the later, group A champioship-winning car. It's a standard bodyshell with a wider arches, some strengthning, 4wd and a 2.0 L turbcharged engine (in the usual place, the nose) making slightly over 200 hp. It's a lot more common, a lot less powerfull , probably a litle slower....

This is a S4:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1072880395.jpg

this is the only pic i have of the road version:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1072880551.jpg

The S4 i nthe first clip belongs to Ianiello, a Ticinese driver here. He is giving real headaches to my mechanic, with his 700-1000 Hp 935. The guy owns....5 such cars!
For 2003, my mechanic has found a new edge, by installing an electro-pneumatic clutch actuator, triggered by a lever on the gearlever. This enables him quicker shifts, and he again has bridged the void created by his "only" 2WD car.
Oh yes, the car looks 100 times better on the clip than in real life. Cleanness is not the strong point of theguy.

Bothari,
Thanks. I wasn't confused about the differences between the S4 and the "plain Jane" Integrale. You have to admit though that the Integrale is sort of an Italian WRX from 10 years ago and the intention was that the S4 look a little like the Integrale.

BTW - Porsche content, I guess many reviewers have compared the Integrale to the Porsche 959 for a lot less money.

Wow! That is awesome. The perfect winter rat. All-wheel drive and faster than snot. Throw in a set of Blizzaks, a ski rack and a 6-pack of beer and ......... :D