Lancia 037 prototype number one up for auction

A legend in rallying, the Lancia 037 marked the end of an era. It was concurrently the initially motor vehicle to earn the famous Team B constructors’ championship, but also the very last non-AWD motor vehicle to earn an over-all WRC title. And, it did so by defeating the juggernaut of Audi’s VW-backed, all-wheel-travel Quattro, a feat several assumed achievable. Now, the originator of that historic victory, the initially Lancia 037 prototype, is up for auction.

Chassis 037-001 could not search like the two hundred or so homologated 037 Stradales, but beneath the cobbled-jointly styling, uncomfortable panel gaps, and kit motor vehicle-like regulate panel, it has the basics that designed its successors world champions. Power arrives by way of a mid-mounted, supercharged sixteen-valve 2.-liter four driving the real wheels by a 5-speed transmission. Dependent (incredibly) loosely on a Lancia Montecarlo (AKA Scorpion in the U.S.), the the entrance and rear sub-sections are tube-framed, and the motor rotated ninety levels for a longitudinal orientation.

This unique motor vehicle was developed by race motor vehicle constructor Dallara, but you can detect an Abarth badge on the rear deck. At the time, the Fiat tuning division was was in charge of Lancia’s rally software, so it bought some branding highlighted on the prototype that did not make the remaining reduce. Other stylistic differences on this prototype that did not make it to the race motor vehicle involve its squared-off wheel arches, staggered headlight placement, and spherical taillights.

The prototype was at first red but sooner or later Lancia painted it in the white and blue Martini livery of the race automobiles, employing it on reconnaissance operates. The latest proprietor, Sergio Limone, restored it again to its unique colour and spec.

The 1983 WRC fight amongst the 037 and the Audi Quattro is the things of legend. Lancia stretched the rulebook to its limit to seize the earn, focusing its endeavours on the rounds it knew it could realize success in, flooding them with 037s to box Audi out of the podium (and factors), while totally skipping rounds wherever it knew its RWD would be at a downside. Ironically, it was a different German, Walter Rohrl, along with Finland’s Markku Alén (Finland was one particular of the skipped rounds) who sent Lancia their WRC title.

In 2019 a Lancia 037 road motor vehicle sold for about $867,000 at auction. Although not as driveable, this prototype is arguably more important, historically speaking. We will know its true value when it crosses the block at an RM Sotheby’s auction in Milan on June 15.

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