Lancia Montecarlo Turbo

The Lancia Montecarlo Turbo entered the world of endurance car racing in 1979. This follows Lancia's previous racing success with the Stratos.

The car was entered into group 5 of the manufacturer's world championship, a class for cars up to 2 litres. This car is often referred to as the Lancia Montecarlo Group 5 as this this represents the class it competed in.

A number of developments of this car were made to this car before its last year of racing in 1981. During this time it was quite successful.

One of these cars was advertised and some photos were made available.

The rules for turbocharged cars dictated that a factor of 1.4 should be applied to the engine size. A 1000cc turbo engine would on paper compete against a 1400cc car.

The initial version produced about 370 bhp enough to allegedly power the car to 100kmh in about 4 seconds.

Lancia refined the car in the 1979 - 80 season where amongst other changes the engine was improved to give 400bhp.

Three final variants made were:

A special short tail version was made and a photo of this is available courtesy of Barry Waterhouse.

Last updated: 2001-03-07