This car is the predecessor of the Lancia LC2 we features last week. It debuted in 1982 to contest the World Endurance Championship, which was held under the FIA’s Group 6 regulations.
The chassis for this car was designed by built by Dallara (by Mr. Dallara himself at that). It wears a Kevlar and carbon body and is powered by a turbocharged 1.4-liter Lancia-Abarth inline-four capable of 450 horsepower.
Only four examples of the LC1 were built. The competition history for this car, chassis #2, includes:
1982 24 Hours of Le Mans – 36th, DNF (with Fabi, Alboreto, and Rolf Stommelen)
That Nurburgring victory was the highlight for the entire LC1 program, and the car is now presented in its original Martini livery. You can read more about it here.
The World Sportscar Championship produced some pretty awesome race cars in the 1980s, including this, the Lancia LC2. Group C was where all the big dogs played during this era. The LC2 was Lancia’s factory-backed entry between 1983 and 1986.
The fun part about this car is that it is actually Ferrari-powered. It’s got a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V8 that can be boosted to over 800 horsepower. Group C cars are not for the faint of heart. Only seven LC2s were built, six of which wore a factory Martini livery like this one. The competition history for this chassis, which was the first one built, includes:
1983 24 Hours of Le Mans – 34th, DNF (with Alessandro Nannini, Paolo Barilla, and Jean-Claude Andruet
This is the LC2 that later spent time in the Blackhawk Museum. It’s now available by Girardo & Co. with a price available upon request. You can read more about it here.
The Aurelia is a very historic nameplate in Lancia’s past, yet it was produced in fairly limited numbers between 1950 and 1958. Only 18,201 were built in total across all body styles. They revised the chassis over the years during the various series of Aurelias built.
The B50 was the less-pedestrian version, and they make up a very small percentage of Aurelia production. Offered as a bare chassis to coachbuilders, B50s would turn up with some fantastic coachwork. In 1952, Lancia updated the chassis to B52 specification, and they built 98 examples through 1953.
Power is provided by a 1.8-liter V6 – the Aurelia was the first mass-produced car with a V6. This example was bodied by Vignale and debuted at the Brussels Motor Show, where it may have caught the eye of the Belgian royal family…
It remained in Belgium through 2007 and was later restored to its motor show stand-livery. It was shown at Villa d’Este in 2016 where let’s be honest, a car like this absolutely belongs. This right-hand drive example is one of 12 B52s built in 1953. You can read more about it here.
Yes, I know. The lead photo for this should be the car flying through the air on a rally stage in the middle of the forest. Want to know why that is not the case? Because this car has been very nicely restored and is now worth a lot of money (though Girardo & Co. do have some cool period competition photos for this car on their website, link below).
Creatively-named, the WRC2003 was Subaru’s 2003 entrant in the World Rally Championship. This car was built by WRC experts Prodrive, and the “standard” WRC2003 was powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter flat-four capable of about 300 horsepower in competition form.
Subaru’s drivers in 2003 included the legendary Petter Solberg, who went on to win the drivers’ championship that year in a WRC2003. After the season, this car was sold into private hands, where it spent the next decade competing in England and Barbados, of all places.
It was restored in 2018 and wears its 2003 Monte Carlo Rally livery. It’s for sale in England now – where it is road registered! Imagine someone blasting past you in this. Wait. Imagine blasting past someone else in this. That’s better. Check out more about this car here.
The Porsche 935 was a factory racing version of the 911 Turbo, aka the 930. It was built for competition in the FIA’s Group 5 category, hence the 935 designation. Porsche launched it with the 935/76 in 1976, followed by the 935/77, which included customer cars.
Porsche updated it one more time in 1978 before moving on to other projects. Fortunately, for those still interested in a car that continued to dominate, Kremer Racing was building their own versions of Porsche’s 935 Evolution models. The K2, K3, and K4 versions of the 935 were available from Kremer 1977 through about 1980. A K3 like this one won Le Mans outright in 1979.
This car started life as one of about 24 factory 935s built for customers. It was delivered in the US in 1978 and raced for a few years before being upgraded to Kremer K3 specification later on. K3 spec normally meant a twin-turbocharged 3.2-liter flat-six capable of more than 740 horsepower. The competition history for this chassis includes:
1979 12 Hours of Sebring – 26th, DNF (with Henn, Hurley Haywood, and Peter Gregg)
1980 24 Hours of Daytona – 2nd (with Henn, John Paul Sr., and Al Holbert)
1980 12 Hours of Sebring – 4th (with Henn, Paul Sr., and Holbert)
1981 24 Hours of Daytona – 64th, DNF (with Henn and Bob Bondurant)
1981 12 Hours of Sebring – 48th, DNF (with Henn, John Gunn, and Gary Belcher)
Henn, who owned the car, sold it in 1982. It then had a lengthy career int he SCCA. It’s eligible for historic racing events the world over, and you can read more about the car here.
Lancia, though a shell of its former self, has produced some cool cars over the years. Perhaps none more so than the 037 (yes, I include the Stratos in that assessment). The car was essentially a purpose-built rally car meant to dominate Group B – but the company had to build road cars in order to satisfy the FIA’s homologation requirement.
So Lancia built 207 of the road cars. Requirement satisfied. And then they dominated Group B, winning the 1983 WRC constructor’s title. It also won three consecutive European Rally Championships (’83-’85). The 037 holds the distinction of being the last rear-wheel-drive car to win the World Rally Championship.
Power is provided by a mid-mounted, supercharged 2.1-liter inline-four that makes 325 horsepower. This car has such a great, hunkered-down look. And check out photos from the rear. You can almost hear it barking. A competition car from birth, the race history for this chassis includes:
1983 Targa Florio – 2nd (with Carlo Capone)
1983 Rally Sanremo – DNF (with Andrea Zanussi)
1984 Rally Sanremo – 4th (with Fabrizio Tabaton)
This car competed in WRC events (the last two above), as well as other rounds of the European Rally Championship. It competed with multiple different teams and wore a few different racing liveries over the years. The Olio Fiat livery it wears today has been there since 1984. Oh, and this car is currently road registered in Monaco, so there’s that added bit of insanity.
A note on these cars… it would appear that Girardo & Co. is the world expert in the Lancia 037. A quick browse of their “sold” history shows three (!) 037 rally cars and four road cars. I think the only people to have sold more 037s was Lancia themselves. So I guess you can’t go wrong here. You can check out more on this car here.
The Lamborghini Jarama was a two-door 2+2 produced between 1970 and 1976. With its front-engine, rear-wheel drive, and four-seat layout, it is not the type of car Lambo builds today. Which is a shame. But in the 1970s, this sort of expensive continent-crosser was a popular sell. It competed against cars like the similarly-styled Iso Lele. What an interesting time that would’ve been, getting to cross-shop those two now-obscure models.
This is a 400 GT model, meaning it is powered by a 350 horsepower, 3.9-liter V12, which was shared with the Espada. A hotter “S” model was also produced and brought a modest horsepower gain, among other options.
Originally silver, this car is (obviously) now finished in white – which is a really nice, underrated color for something so exotic. It reigns it back in a bit. This, #18 of the 177 GT models produced, is offered by Girardo & Co. You can find out more about it on their website, here.
