Tarmacworks LANCIA 037 RALLY – A legendary FEATURETTE
A history of its own...
Group B is considered by fans to be the golden (and towards the end, unfortunately, also dark) era of rallying. Walter Rรถhrl and the Lancia Rally 037 were among its heroes. That car, which Rรถhrl likes to call the best rally car of his career, turned 40 in 2022. Tarmacworks took this as an opportunity to present us with 4 different Lancia Rally 037s in 2022 and 2023. With their new series HOBBBY64+, Tarmacworks entered completely new spheres!
The development of the Lancia Rally 037 began in July 1980 under the (Abarth) project abbreviation SE037 (hence the name) as part of an intensive cooperation between Lancia, Abarth and Pininfarina. In December of the same year, the first prototype ready for use was presented. The Rally 037 has a mid-engine, which is supercharged to 228 kW (310 hp) with the help of a mechanical Roots compressor. This enables acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in four seconds. The basis of Abarth's two-litre 16V engine comes from the Fiat 131 Abarth. The Hobby64+ range from Tarmacworks showed for the first time the special feature of opening the tailgate to admire the detailed engine compartment including the mid-engine.
Road version from Kyosho
For homologation reasons, there was also a road version (Stradale) of the Lancia Rally 037. In this version, the 2-litre engine produced 151 kW (205 hp) at 7000 rpm. Including the competition-specific versions, Lancia built a total of 257 units of the Rally 037 together with Abarth and Pininfarina. Opinions differ about the effective number of units. Today, a Rally 037 Stradale in good condition is listed at over 400,000 euros.
It is no longer a secret that the test committee of the time was treated to a leisurely lunch of wine and Italian food, while in the meantime, on the factory premises in Turin of Lancia the workers at Lancia had simply moved the cars they had just tested to the other car park of the factory premises. Thus, in the end, it could be wrongly assumed that Lancia had produced the correct number of vehicles to be able to participate in the rally competitions.
The road version (chassis numbers 001 to 200) was the basis for the first competition cars, which were recognisable from the Lancia Montecarlo by their wide rear lights. The cars of evolution stage 1 (chassis numbers 201 to 220) had round rear lights, those of evolution stage 2 (chassis numbers 301 to 320) additionally dispensed with the rear bumper in order to make them more attractive. the rear bumper to improve heat dissipation from the engine compartment. Thanks to the model car manufacturer Kyosho, we were able to add the Stradale version to our car collection some time ago. Kyosho models themselves can usually only be found on Ebay or other sales platforms that also offer used pieces. Meanwhile, Hot Wheels had also released several colour variants of the rally version.
Of victories and cheating
This car was optimised for one purpose: victories in rallying. And it succeeded impressively: in 1983, Lancia snatched the Constructors' World Championship with the Rally 037. They won a total of six WRC rounds. Walter Rรถhrl would probably also have won the drivers' title, but he deliberately decided not to take part in some races in order to avoid pressure. A season of pleasure, so to speak, as Rรถhrl had already won the title on an Opel the previous year, and also in 1980 with Fiat. His retrospective admiration of the culinary and fashion highlights at Lancia fits in with this. As always, the most important thing for Rรถhrl: winning the Monte Carlo Rally, which he achieved in 1983 in the Lancia 037.
The era of four-wheel drive had already begun. But although the 037 only had rear-wheel drive, it was the only car that could compete with the technically superior Audi Quattro in 1983 and 1984. The Lancia Rally 037 won six WRC rallies, some of them even on gravel. Its competitiveness did not come by chance: On tracks with surfaces as well as solid asphalt, the Lanica was able to keep up with its opponents; on loose or icy surfaces, they only knew how to help themselves by cheating. According to the rulebook, it was neither forbidden nor allowed to change tires. So Lancia carried out tyre changes during the stages. So the Lancia service vehicle was also on the spot when it came to dumping tons of salt on the icy road in a night and fog operation. On partially ice-free road sections, the rear-wheel drive was no longer a handicap and it was possible to keep up with the four-wheel drive Audi.
On gravel roads, the starting procedure was artificially prolonged by Lancia so that the dust clouds of the preceding vehicle would not be a problem. After all, a clear view made significantly faster stage times possible. However, the cheating was put a stop to and gradually uncovered. When the cheating was stopped, the results also became worse. Although Hannu Mikkola won his first and only world championship in an Audi, the manufacturers' championship for the very last rear-wheel drive car went to Lancia.
Masterpieces in 1:64 Scale
In 1984 and 1985, the Lancia 037 Rally continued to be used in various class types of the rally scene and achieved success in the form of stage victories. Tarmacworks therefore released the most popular liveries in rallying. Be it the white 037 decorated with Martini stripes in the Safari variant, or the test variant from 1983 in Martini red. Due to the regulations of toys and collector's items regarding advertising material of cigarettes, we have to stick the cars ourselves with the sponsors of the time.
Therefore, the 1985 cars are each supplied with Bastos and Rothmans stickers. Even if this additional effort seems unnecessarily tedious at first glance, this project has a decisive advantage: The watersliding process lets us spend even more time with the model, we pay attention to details. Decal after decal we are allowed to hold a piece of rallying history in our hands, some absolute masterpieces of modelcar craftmansship.
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