If any automaker’s synonymous with rallying, it’s Lancia. The most winning World Rally Championship manufacturer of all time has ten titles to its name, but after 1992, it decided to hang up its hat. Well, as part of revitalization efforts, the brand is back on the dirt. We’ve seen the cheap and cheerful Rally6-spec Ypsilon HF Racing, we’ve seen the Rally4-spec Ypsilon Rally4 HF, and now Lancia’s one step closer to playing in the big league again with the bonkers Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale.
For those not familiar with the WRC’s current support series structure, Group Rally2 replaced the Group R5 class of cars in 2019, and WRC2 is the successor to the old Super 2000 World Rally Championship. In short, it’s as close as you can get to the top level of rally, like a mud-and-gravel equivalent of NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, or Formula 2. With 1.6-liter turbocharged engines, a power-to-weight ratio of 4.2 kilograms per horsepower, and four-wheel-drive, these are the quickest rally cars that privateers can buy.
As such, it shouldn’t be surprising that the Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale looks a whole lot more steroidal than its more attainable siblings. The first things on the car that hit your eyeballs are the absolutely enormous flares, tapering from the front to form horizontal surfaces and clearly designed for function. There’s something sheer and brutal about them that absolutely works, especially in harmony with the massive rear wing.
Maybe it’s just me, but there’s something cool about wing stanchions that come off the hatch, placing the airfoil higher than the trailing edge of the roofline. There’s also something cool about mesh hood vents, functional roof scoops, and rigid plastic windows with little sliders in them. It’s all serious race car stuff, so it’s not surprising that this thing sports the Integrale name. The old Delta Integrale was one of the most successful rally cars of all time, with variants clinching the championship from 1988 to 1992 consecutively.
So, why a Rally2 car? Well, I have a hunch. The top category of the World Rally Championship is about to undergo a seismic shift for 2027. New regulations aimed at bringing down the cost of top-level rallying mean future WRC cars will feature a €345,000 cost cap, top out at around 300 horsepower, and, crucially, be competitive on paper with Rally2 cars to the point where the junior series cars will move up to the big show. If Lancia launches the Ypsilon HF Integrale in WRC2 next year, that gives the factory team and privateers a season to figure things out in relative obscurity compared to Rally1 before going for the top-level crown.
Anyway, we are so freakin’ back. Lancia has a soon-to-be top-level-eligible rally car for the first time in more than 30 years and isn’t afraid to use it. It looks sweet, it’s got huge flares, and it has “Integrale” in its name. While we don’t know exactly when Lancia’s latest rally car will make its competition debut, I’ll have my eyes glued to the calendar.
Top graphic image: Lancia
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A price cap of €345,000 is a little too rich for my blood. And there is no way I could extract anywhere close to what that car is capable of, but I will enjoy watching them in a year or two.
Always exciting to see more developments in the rally world! And gotta love a Lancia!
Sick! Sick! Sick!
Y’know, I always said the way I’d handle Lancia would be to put them back into rallying, throw everything at it, and it either works or Lancia goes to Valhalla with pride. I can not tell you how excited I am to see this and if it fails, I’ll be glad for that last blaze of glory. I so hope this works out…
I had a neighbor who had a Lancia Beta coupe in his driveway, but I never saw it move. This was a decidedly middle-class neighborhood and so I was surprised to see a family with a De Tomaso Pantera move in and also leave it out on the driveway, getting beat upon by the relentless N California sun.
Decades later, in a somewhat more upscale Texas neighborhood, there was an anesthesiologist who left some McClaren out front in his driveway.
I’m so happy to not have so much crap that I can’t park my Honda Accord and scooter in my garage. Safe from the elements and anti-social humans.
It truly depends on the era, for a while, Panteras were a bit cheap, and Betas have long been cheap-cheap as old/vintage cars go. But yeah, I prefer to keep my cars inside as well
Totally agree. I used to wish I had bought an M-B 280SL back when they were $12-14K, but I have also ridden in one since and it wasn’t as great as it looked.
The Lancia looked pretty scruffy. The Pantera looked better, but its owner didn’t really want to talk about it when I stopped, walking past his place. 40+ years ago… I had a much longer conversation with a CHP officer who lived two blocks away from us while I was in junior high, h0about his Dodge Polara 440. Sigh.
I guess I am now of an age where I just want a non-annoying appliance to get me from point A to point B. Most of the time. Every once in a while, I do like to hear an engine make great sounds and feel pushed back into my seat. So, I’m not dead yet. My V6 Accord can do all that, and it fits in my garage.
Believe it or not, but my Lancia is a pretty easy beast to live with, I used it as a daily for most of last month and it was great!
I’m thrilled for you! I would love to have an older fair-weather car like that. I guess that’s what my scooter is for.
Lancia should never has ceased production on the Integrale and gone on to boring models. The cult following they could have amassed in 40 years? There’s your massive customer and sales crowd.
If you want to expand on that historical record with a little more specific technical information, most of those WRC wins, and Fiat’s, were done with one brilliant engine: Lampredi’s wicked DOHC. From the Abarth 124 Rally (European Rally Championship) to the 131 Fiat-Abarth Rally, to the Lancia 037 Rally to the Integrale.
No, they should never have ceased production or development. They had nothing left to prove so they left the sport to all the minor players.
If Stellantis sells the road-legal version here, me be like:
And the dealer be like:
3 – Bend over… and try to relax…
The only road car that you can buy that is anything close to a Rally2 car is the GR Yaris. They are all price capped at 250k euro with sequentials, 4wd, fancy dampers, antilag,etc etc.
Currently racing are the C3, Fiesta, i20, Fabia, and Yaris.
But there’s also no way anyone over here would buy something as small as an Ypsilon road car
I already solved the Integrale issue. I just slapped an “Integrale” badge on my Ioniq5 XRT and job done.
Not Italian.
Neither are Pizza Hut or Olive Garden – but…
The Integrale is the real thing, and as you said, Pizza Hut and Olive Garden are not.
I’ve heard grumblings that it will debut at the Monte Carlo rally in 2026
… honestly I’m disappointed that it’s not based on a Chrysler Pacifica.
It’s based on almost everything else Stellantis sells, and some it doesn’t:
Lancia missed out on an earlier motorsports opportunity to Hemi/Hellcat swap the early ‘teens Thema (née Chrysler 300). 😉
Yummy. I don’t typically watch auto sports, but if this were easy to find here I’m in.
rally.tv is the official place to watch live streams and recaps of the world championship and the european championship. The tech that goes into live broadcasting all stages from a weekend is pretty wild since they’re way more remote than just being on a single track
Rally has all the stats geekiness of F!, but way more exciting driving to watch. And about the same number of overtakes.
I follow WRC and a few others on Facebook, so I get small clips at least. Have to investigate rally.tv this weekend, thanks.
Rally is awesome, I started watching in 2022.
The thing about it though is it’s a difficult watch, being over the course of several days and multiple stages per day which usually aren’t US-time-zone-friendly live. It’s also got a bit of a learning curve on how the broadcast works, with the timing graphics and whatnot.
However, if you’re committed to it, it’s very compelling and will reward your efforts.
I will that given this is only my fourth year following, this is by far the best season I’ve ever seen. The title is nowhere near settled and any of four guys could win it, including Ogier who is running only a partial season. It’s not too late to jump in, I for one would not call you a bandwagon fan.
and the 30 or 1 hour recap programs are pretty much perfect for people who are too busy. I do try to watch all stages though
I follow WRC on FB, and used to do rallycross here in the US. I’d love to watch more good stuff.
You should definitely follow DirtFish! They put out quality video content from both WRC and the US rally series ARA!
https://www.youtube.com/@DirtFish
American Rally Association:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpdrHX_LTuWWdgETU4C-dNucxX1m2WMMX
Happy to see Lancia somehow not on the Stellantis chopping block, and getting some investment in it’s racing pedigree.
Really curious if/how this translates to the US market. Both Dodge and Chrysler are starving for anything even slightly competitive
I’ve heard that apparently Stellantis is going Mach-Jesus with Auburn Hills, between hiring new people and getting programs going, as CT wasn’t approving over here. Down to the US spec mid-size truck for Ram: apparently that wasn’t even officially started until the new CEO came in!
There might be quite the investment for the two coming. Heavy on the might, like an overly cautiously, optimistically massive maybe, but still.
idk Auburn hills seems as wildly disorganized as ever
Never said they were organized, and I don’t think Chrysler has been ever since 1925, but I’m just going but what I’ve heard. It may be true; it may not be. YMMV, take it with a grain of salt.