1984 LANCIA 037 Group B EMINENCE

1983 LANCIA 037 Group B EVO 2 EMINENCE

TO-Y75887

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Important racing history in particular at the 1986 Tour de France with B. Darniche

One owner since 1998

The Lancia 037 was the first true queen of Group B

The perfect alliance between purity of lines and technical elegance. The result of the collaboration between the genius of racing mechanics, Abarth, and the prince of automotive haute couture, Pininfarina.

Flash back. 1982. At the end of several months of negotiations with the manufacturers, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile revolutionizes its Sporting Code. : his " Annex J "Dedicated to the classifications, definitions and specifications of competition cars, also called" green pages »(It is the color of the paper on which they are printed), sees the disappearance of the old Groups 1 to 8 of Categories A and B, replaced by categories identified by letters.

As regards the rally, the few lines drawn by the legislator in article 256 are the starting point of a true automobile mythology: that of the Group B. From 1982 to 1986, five seasons of excess, of fury, mechanical and human paroxysm. Five seasons and five world crowns which remain the most prestigious ever awarded.

The technical revolution of Group B

This Group B regulation was born under pressure from manufacturers who have long been asking for more freedom. Previously, to be approved, the cars were derived from series models produced at least 1000 copies between January 1 and December 31. This lock jumps with Group B : two hundred copies are sufficient initially, then the manufacturers can develop each year a new evolution of which they only have to produce twenty copies.

The competition departments of the major manufacturers who had negotiated these regulations rush into the breach and imagine the most fantastic rally machines in the history of the automobile, real prototypes of the road. The rules are very open.

Abarth and Pininfarina on the birthplace of the Lancia 037

The project n ° SE 037 is entrusted to the engineer Sergio Limone, who brings together a team of engineers from Lancia and Abarth (acquired by the Fiat Group in 1971). The concept retained is that of a two-wheel drive. And to compensate for the lack of traction (the championship is played mainly on dirt, gravel and snow), Limone optimizes the overall architecture of the car. : rear mid-engine - finally supercharged thanks to a positive-displacement compressor - and low center of gravity (the car is 1.24 m high). For its part, Pininfarina manages magnificently to make people forget these technical constraints thanks to a line that is both fluid and aggressive that no aerodynamic extension or evolution will manage to make ugly.

Simply called Lancia 037, the car was presented on April 21, 1982 at the opening of the Salone dell'Automobile di Torino by Cesare Fiorio, the engineer Claudio Lombardi, Technical Director, the engineer Sergio Limone and the brand's staff at the full suit.

The Lancia 037 is crowned 1983 World Rally Champion

The 037 is immediately entered in the world championship for the rallies which remain to be contested. It immediately turns out to be competitive. When the 1983 season began, Martini-Racing, the team which officially represented the brand in the world championship, therefore had high hopes. They will be fulfilled.

If the 1982 world championship had been a breaking-in year for Group B after which Audi had won ahead of Opel, 1983 saw a fantastic duel between the Lancia and Audi drivers. After twelve months of the championship and ten events, Lancia won over its German rival five wins to four. The Lancia 037 is crowned 1983 World Rally Champion. It is the first and the last time in the Group B era that a two-wheel drive has won the title. Now the crown will go to all-wheel pull-ups. Whatever, Lancia has won its bet magnificently.