Lancia Delta - First Generation

First generation

1991 Lancia Delta GT i.e.
Also called Saab-Lancia 600
Production 1979–1994
Body style 5-door hatchback
Layout Front engine, front-wheel drive / four-wheel drive
Wheelbase 2,540 mm (100 in)
Length 3,900 mm (150 in)
Width 1,700 mm (67 in)
Height 1,380 mm (54 in)
Related Fiat Ritmo
Fiat Regata
Designer(s) Giorgetto Giugiaro

The first Delta was a five-door hatchback designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and released in 1979. For a period of time, it was also sold in Sweden by Saab Automobile, badged as the Saab 600. For a few years after its launch, the Delta was one of the most contemporarily styled cars of its class in Europe and was voted 1980 European Car of the Year.

The Delta range was first introduced to the United Kingdom in 1980 and remained virtually unchanged until 1986, when small changes were made to the cars' body shape, the engines updated and the four-wheel drive model introduced.

While the majority of Delta models were ordinary small family cars, the most famous model was the Delta HF Integrale, a four-wheel drive hot hatch with a powerful turbocharged petrol engine. A tweaked version of the HF dominated the World Rally Championship, scoring 46 WRC victories overall and winning the Constructors Championship a record six times in a row from 1987 to 1992, in addition to Drivers' Championship titles for Juha Kankkunen (1987 and 1991) and Miki Biasion (1988 and 1989).

The Lancia Delta S4, which the works team ran immediately prior to the HF 4WD and Integrale models' world championship careers from the season-ending 1985 RAC Rally until the end of the 1986 season, while sharing the same name and appearance, was a Group B race car designed specifically for rallying, and was entirely different from the commercial Delta in terms of construction and performance.

Read more about this topic:  Lancia Delta

Famous quotes containing the word generation:

    Through centuries he lived in poverty.
    God only was his only elegance.
    Then generation by generation he grew
    Stronger and freer, a little better off.
    He lived each life because, if it was bad,
    He said a good life would be possible.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    Their virtues lived in their children. The family changed its persons but not its manners, and they continued a blessing to the world from generation to generation.
    Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)