- #Opel manta 400 vs lancia 037 evo 2 drivers#
- #Opel manta 400 vs lancia 037 evo 2 driver#
- #Opel manta 400 vs lancia 037 evo 2 full#
Built as an ever-faster replacement of the Lancia Stratos, the 037 was designed by Abarth, working with Pininfarina, Dallara and engineer Sergio Limone, the project manager, to build a tube-frame silhouette racer loosely based on the center body section of a Lancia Montecarlo but with steel tubular front and rear sub-frames. The result was a small number of the fastest, most powerful, and most sophisticated Factory campaigned rally cars ever built in what is today commonly referred to as the golden era of rallying. While not well known in the US, Group B was created by the FIA in 1982 for the World Rally Championship season and had few restrictions on weight, technology or boost, the only limiting restriction was that 200 Homologation cars had to be built. In the late 1980s it was restored by Volta, sold to a private European collector and kept in a single private collection until going to its current owner in 2016. After 037 s/n 305 was retired from racing, it was one of a group of then-obsolete ex-works cars sold to Giuseppe Volta of VOLTA racing, an 037 Specialist and subcontractor whose race shop had built some of the Evo 1 cars for Lancia and had provided race support throughout the 037 program.
of 1983 Lancia 037 s/n 305 was piloted by Walter Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer through 30 separate grueling rally stages, covering 709 kms, comprising dry asphalt, wet asphalt, snow and ice, (and sometimes all four in a single stage), to win the Monte Carlo Rally. Unfortunately for the Manta, when the competition is brutally on-point, every little flaw and fault becomes one more move to the back pages of the history book to make way for the even more violent, capable machines.We are pleased to offer 1983 Lancia Martini 037 s/n 305, registered on Italian plates TO Y63865, unquestionably one of the most significant, if not “the” most significant Lancia 037 Group B Rally car of all time.
The car was seriously fast, not just by RWD standards but period, and if Opel had managed to address all of the issues that the Ascona rally car had during the development of the Manta program the cars would have been all but untouchable until the debut of the Audi. The sad part of the Manta’s story is that had it come out two years earlier it would have been a great racer.
#Opel manta 400 vs lancia 037 evo 2 driver#
The Opel’s tendency to understeer displeased Opel driver Ari Vantanen enough that he bailed the team for Peugeot in 1984. Even worse for Opel was the reliability issues that plagued the Manta’s early rally days, with head gaskets and axles for the independent rear end needing constant attention. The Quattro’s place as a rally revolutionary has been well documented, but even if the Manta and the Quattro didn’t meet, the Manta had stiff competition from the likes of Lancia’s 037 and Renault’s R5 Turbo, mid-engined race cars that had been simply homologated for street use. Unfortunately, like most other RWD rally cars developed at this time, there was a storm coming from Germany that was about to rain on everybody’s parade: the Audi Quattro. Keep in mind, these were close to factory specifications…it’s long been rumored that this hyperactive little mill could push into the 400hp territory with a little work, and with the right gearing would make it would make the Manta absolutely nasty. The engine breathed using a pair of Weber carburetors mated to a 4-into-1 intake manifold. Originally Cosworth tried to use the 2.0L Opel four-cylinder with a Cosworth 16V head on it, but the engine simply didn’t produce power. Since the head and engine were meant to go together, Cosworth came up with a plan to use the crankshaft from the similar 2.3 diesel four-cylinder in the block, and to bore out the cylinders, resulting in a 2.4L four cylinder that in race tune could push over 300-350hp naturally aspirated.
#Opel manta 400 vs lancia 037 evo 2 full#
Cosworth built the heads before development of a full powertrain.
Cosworth had been given the task of building a 16V four-cylinder head for the Opel family of engines. The engine proved to be the sticking issue.
#Opel manta 400 vs lancia 037 evo 2 drivers#
They had attempted a rally program using the Kadett and had failed miserably, and drivers had been complaining about some of the handling characteristics of the Ascona, so to hedge their bets for success, the brand chose their sporty Manta coupe as the next rally platform, aimed for the Group B ranks and partnered up with two companies: Cosworth, the famed engine building and engineering firm, and German tuner Irmscher, who had previously worked on the Manta i2800, for bodywork and interior design. In 1979, Opel wanted to get into rallying again.
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