Fiat's takeover of Lancia preceded their takeover of Alfa Romeo by around 17 years, and while industrial giant Fiat would seem like a suitable companion to the smaller Italian brands, what resulted in both cases was an unfortunate dilution of each brand's distinctive products. Odd then, that the Fiat-Chrysler merger has been so successful, whereas Lancia has been driven into the ground with Alfa Romeo's demise looking more and more certain.

The Delta came from the second wave of Fiat-spiked Lancia products, and the Delta S4 came from a tube steel factory, seeing as it shared nothing but its silhouette with the Deltas scattered about European roadways. Itself an evolution of the WRC Group B Lancia 037, the Delta S4 was powered by a mid-ship turbocharged, supercharged and intercooled 1.8L 4-cylinder. The combination was good for 5 wins in its 12 race entries, but not good enough for a season victory in its sole years of competition, 1985 and 1986. US rally fans would have been fortunate to witness the Delta S4's 1986 victory in the Olympus Rally in Washington state.

Year: 1985
Model:  Lancia Delta S4 Stradale
Engine: 1.8L 4-cyl
Transmission: 5-speed manual
Mileage:  9,200
Price: Inquire
Location: Long Beach, CA

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1985 Lancia Delta S4 Stradale

Seller’s Description: 1985 Lancia Delta S4 Stradale with only 9,275 miles! (15,265 kilometers) Italian delivery, 1 owner since new. 
Unmodified, 100% completely original. 1759cc motor producing 250hp. 
One of approximately 80 Lancia Delta S4 road cars made, not 200 road cars like most people know or think!

We are less than impressed with the listing. The photographs are comically bad, and the listing reveals absolutely zero details about the car's condition outside of the mileage and originality. The seller claims that these are more rare than commonly believed, asserting a production figure of 80 compared to the commonly quoted 200 units. Either way, it's a rare homologation car, but it lacks a winning history, having ceded to Peugeot in both years of competition.

While the car is special and absolutely wild, we don't see the harm in downgrading to the more common streetcar variants, which traded at 1/5 the price of an S4 Stradale when new, and likely trade for 1/10 to 1/20 the price today. If you can get your hands on an Integrale Evo2, you might even have a chance at hanging with the S4 Stradale - on pavement, that is.

-Graham