Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione Martini 6

Bianco 210 under the Martini stripes is less a colour than a claim. The tricolour running the length of the white bodywork announced six World Rally Championships before the engine had turned, and on the Evoluzione's blistered arches it reads as a record rather than a decoration. WORLD RALLY CHAMPION is set along the sills in plain lettering, because by late 1992 Lancia no longer had to argue the point. The adhesives are the ones the factory applied, and the yellow HF elephant still sits on the C-pillar where Lancia put it.

The Martini 6 was the closing statement of the Delta’s competition life. Introduced in late 1992 on the HF Integrale Evoluzione to mark an unprecedented sixth consecutive World Rally Championship, it took the 2.0-litre turbocharged four and the permanent all-wheel drive that had won them and dressed the road car in the livery of the service park. Only 310 were built. Each carried a numbered plaque on the centre console, white Speedline wheels and Recaro seats trimmed in blue Alcantara, decisions made by Lancia, not selected from a catalogue.

One Of One's unit is number 3 of the 310, the figure carried on the plaque in its console. It was built on 30 November 1992, registered in Italy that December, and remained with a single owner there, covering 67,500 kilometres. Chassis, engine and official plates have been physically checked and match. It retains its original Clarion radio-cassette, its gear lever, its un-drilled rear parcel shelf and its factory livery, and was inspected before acquisition by Lancia Delta Integrale specialists who rated its originality very high. The timing belt and engine oil were renewed on the way into the collection.