1993 Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evo 2 review from UK and Ireland

This is a classic, extremely high performance, yet humble, version of a tried & tested, thoroughbred 6x WRC winning, (who else has even come close?) rally car.

S*&t happens, with any car.

Engine blew due to an Arthur Daley 'Specialist', not because of the car. Once he'd replaced the engine nothing in 6 years (beyond the usual of a high performance car) went wrong. (i.e. wear & tear, (brakes, clutch, belts, fluids) - the usual if you want to keep it at it's peak.

The rest of the car had no problems beyond being awesome & needing care & attention like anything to keep it at it's peak.

Only failures were due to previous owners lack of

care & general wear & tear.

Pussycat Golf lookalike in London, Paris & urban traffic. Rearview exocet on an open (or busy) road.

You first need to decide if you want to join the raterace & pay the psychiatrist, or take the risk & take life out of the tarmac.

I had one for 6 yrs. A dark blue anonymous evo2,

& could cut a path through any road, & resolve any problem through becoming conjoined.

Yeah. I guess I probably am a whacko. But what I saved in Woody Allen fees I gained in experience &

doing things.

6 yrs ownership. No nasty surprises, fines, CSJ's, or insurance claims.

As compared to 6 yrs. of chaise longue Time? No contest.

Buy a darker colour & revel in it's rarity & anonymity (although a rosso in sushine is stunning & will get a ticket whilst parked). Those in the know get out of your way & will try to pull alongside & offer a px.

There is no other ultimate. You're in it, & you will become it as it becomes you.

What's the tighter fit, the hand in the glove, or the glove on the hand?

Drop the Psychiatrist & pay the maintenance as you do the 303 on a Sunday in August. Better yet find any A / B road anytime of year & by the 3rd tricky corner you're merged & it becomes what argument/ problem?

If you can think it, you're probably already doing it.

It is THE rocket propelled scalpel.

Don't go on Motorways, unless you never tire of the immediacy of total control, communication & never tire of living on instinct alone.

It is still, 11 yrs later, the only benchmark.

Goodwood in the wet, sub 9 min Nurburgring,

Caravans, HGV's, Single lanes, Overtaking lanes. Will take in AC comfort & SR71 acceleration, with sublimity, style & ball / fanny tingling rush any road, corner or gradient at any speed or warning.

Babies can be calmed by familiar sounds from their passage in the womb. Until you've heard the sound of an Evo with clean, fresh belts, on an undriven (by you) country road, you probably never even knew you are alive.

Life is for living.

Scrap anything, but Michelin's, short service it yourself, & make sure you warm it up & down. Live life at 3k rpm & never bother to look in your rear view mirror.

Hey Boy's, Hey Girls, Here we Go. But you won't even turn on the radio because it distracts. The sound, the smells, the fit, you are one.

Smell the engine as you aim at a corner & stamp the brakes, feel it suck into the road & then floor it through, & experience time slowing to a second a minute, as you, the car & the road fuse into one, & before you know it you've just done a 180 hairpin, you're still alive & f%*k it the next corner is coming up even faster.

Live it.

Be it.

Should have been deflatble & have fitted into cabin luggage.