Following its successful early-1950s World Sportscar Championship front-running Lancia D24, Grand Prix racing Lancia D50, and 1960-70’s World Rally Championship campaigns with the Fulvia HF and stunning Stratos, Lancia reverted to international sportscar racing to build its brand in 1979. Lancia Corse/Martini Racing contested the Group 5 title from 1979-82 with the Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo.
The shot above shows Riccardo Patrese on the way to winning the Brands Hatch 6 Hour on March 16, 1980. He shared the car with Walter Rohrl, second was Eddie Cheever and Michele Alboreto in another Lancia Corse entry, with Alain De Cadenet and Desire Wilson third in De Cad’s De Cadenet Lola LM Ford. To reinforce the Lancia rout, the Jolly Club Montecarlo raced by Mario Finotto and Carlo Facetti was fourth.
Group 5 was a silhouette formula for modified production cars spilt into under and over 2-litre classes. Lancia’s weapon of war was an extensively modified version of the Beta Montecarlo Coupé.
While normally aspirated in road trim, Lancia Corse sporting director Ceasare Fiorio concluded that turbo-charging the 1,425cc four-cylinder engine would give sufficient power and torque to win the 2-litre class allied with wild chassis and body modifications. As it transpired, the machines were also outright contenders.
Engineer, Gianni Tonti was in overall control of the project. Ex-Lamborghini designer Gianpaolo Dallara built the Group 5 Stratos that won the 1976 Giro d’Italia, Fiorio was impressed with his work and therefore engaged Dallara Automobili to design and build the chassis. Carrozzeria Pininfarina designed and built the bodies.
Group 5 permitted bulk modifications, so the roof and door centre monocoque section of the donor car was retained but it was sandwiched by bespoke tubular subframes to carry the front suspension, wishbones and coil springs, and rear suspension, McPherson Struts, wishbones and engine/gearbox and ancillary components.
Pininfarina’s striking fibreglass coachwork was designed to increase downforce and featured an aggressive chin spoiler, extended wheel-arches and big rear wing. Only the car’s centre section retained any resemblance to the production car, yet it weighed 300kg less than the road car at about 810kg.
The engine development programme was supervised by Gianni Tonto at Abarth. With an engine naturally aspirated to turbo-charged capacity equivalency factor of 1.4 times, the Aurelio Lampredi designed, twin-cam, two-valve, Kugelfischer-Bosch injected engine had a capacity of 1425cc to pop in under the 2-litre limit.
Maximum output was boosted to 370bhp at 8,800rpm using a KKK-K27 turbo-charger and 1.2 bar of boost, a result slightly more than the 118bhp of the standard 2-litre Monte! The car was tested with up to 420bhp but the engines became grenades with 1.6 bar of boost.
The engine and five-speed transaxle was mounted transversely behind the driver as per the donor car and the regs. While the gearbox was cast using production moulds, the use of magnesium saved weight while Colotti internals provided a gearbox fit for purpose.
Presented to the press at the Pininfarina factory in December 1978, the Montecarlo commenced testing in February 1979, initially with a 220bhp 2-litre Mirafiori normally aspirated rally engine until the 1.4-turbo was ready.
It first raced in the Silverstone 6 Hours in May (#51 below) having missed the Championship’s first two rounds. Finished in dramatic Zebra livery, Montecarlo chassis #1001 was driven by rising F1 racer Riccardo Patrese and ex-European Rally Champion and 1980/82 World Rally Champion Walter Rohrl, proving impressively quick in qualifying (seventh) but retired from the race after only four laps with a blown head gasket.
Despite continuing unreliability the team bagged sufficient points with class wins at Enna and Brands Hatch to take the World Championship of Makes Division 2 title in its debut season.
Lancia Corse made great advances with the five new cars which were built for 1980, the most significant developmental changes were in relation to tyres, suspension geometry, engine power, and weight.
Two extended sessions with Pirelli resulted in substantial changes despite the P7 Corsa radials being of the same construction and compounds. ‘Both the front and rear the overall diameter of the wheel-tyre assembly is unaltered, the front rims are now an inch smaller at 15 inches, and rears three inches larger at 19 ins. The new front tyre is narrower with a higher profile to provide a softer ride and better turn-in,’ Autosport reported. ‘The new rear is more significant, with a very low profile and greater width on the road, utilising all but 4mm of the maximum permitted 14ins of tread.’ Lancia made suspension changes to suit, with the drivers much happier with the overall balance of the car by the end of the sessions.
The engines were improved from the 380bhp delivered through a power band of 5500-8600rpm in 1979 to 410bhp arriving between 4500 and 9000rpm. In addition, a trip to the Jenny Craig Clinic reduced the ’80 cars weight to circa 770kg compared with circa 810kg of the early cars.
The Zebra livery continued but now with white/red and white/blue combinations. Although the team fared badly at Le Mans 24 – of three cars that started only the Finotto/Facetti machine finished in 19th – victories at Brands Hatch, Mugello and Watkins Glen brought the Lancia Montecarlo overall victory in the World Sportscar Championship. Patrese was the ‘winningest’ Lancia pilot, being the lead driver in each win.
Having clinched victory by the penultimate Vallelunga round, Lancia missed the final event at Dijon in favour of the Giro d’Italia, in which the works cars appeared in the stunning, iconic Martini Rossi colours for the first time. First and second places ended a great year for the Montecarlo.
Lancia Corse raced with Martini livery from the start of 1981, that year the Montecarlo was equipped with twin turbo-chargers giving circa-450bhp. This was final year in which Lancia Corse used the Montecarlo as its frontline tool, they planned to enter Group C with the LC1 Barchetta in 1982. Despite that, the Monte proved good enough to secure its second World Championship with wins at the Nurburgring and Watkins Glen.
The works cars – 11 were built between 1979 and 1981 – were then sold, some were raced by privateers in 1982 in the last year of Group 5 but by then they were also-rans. See here for bulk detail: http://www.lanciabetamontecarlo.nl/Gp5/group%205+6.html
Etcetera…
Shots of the launch function at the Pininfarina wind tunnel on December 19, 1978. Walter Rohrl is facing us at left with Cesare Florio further back.
Fiorio achieved a promotional coup by signing Walter Rohrl and Gilles Villeneuve/Christian Geistdorfer to drive one of two Lancia Monte Carlo Turbos (Riccardo Patrese/Markku Alen/IIkka Kivimaki raced the other car to second place) entered in the 1979 Giro D’ Italia Automobilistico.
Both cars were set up to give about 360bhp with Villeneuve contesting only four of the races due to his Ferrari testing commitments. Rohrl/Villeneuve were first on the road aboard chassis #1002, but were later disqualified for using the motorway – failing to follow the route-book.
Villeneuve ready to rock in these shots above and below, in his Ferrari overalls. Note the Momo steering wheel and stopwatches in the cockpit shot below.
The shot above shows the business end. You can see where the structural frame ends where the top of the strut mounts and the KKK-turbo is mounted. The lighter frame sections carry the other bits: oil tank, roll bar, exhaust etc.
The contemporary (Goodwood FOS) shot below completes the rear suspension picture by showing us the disc/hub/strut assembly which is located below by a barely visible boxed inverted wishbone.
The engine is shown above, it looks innocuous enough with the giant KKK-turbo out of picture. Camshafts are belt-driven, two-valves per cylinder. Fuel injection is Kugelfisher-Bosch.
Eddie Cheever about to climb aboard, and Michele Alboreto coming out of the car at Le Mans in 1981, eighth outright and first 2-litre car. This shot makes one feel as though you are there!
Kyalami 9 Hours, November 1981, Emanuelle Pirro and Michele Alboreto enroute to fourth place. The three cars in front were all Porsches, the winners, Jochen Mass and Reinhold Jost, raced a 936/80.
Credits…
Autosport, Anthony Fosh, Getty Images, Pure Racing GT, French Speed Connection, Nick Forsythe, Belles Italiennes, Bonhams, Dominic Balboni, Ferdi Kraling, rainmakerbell.com
Tailpiece…
Finito…
primotipo... 