Lancia entered the Group B era with the 037, a mid-engined rear-wheel-drive car developed in collaboration between Pininfarina, Abarth, Dallara, and engineer Sergio Limone. The car debuted at the 1982 Rally Costa Smeralda and, despite persistent reliability problems early on, achieved sufficient wins for Lancia to claim the 1983 World Rally Championship for Manufacturers — with Walter Röhrl and Markku Alén as principal drivers. The 037 was the last rear-wheel-drive car to win the WRC manufacturers' title.
For 1984, an Evolution 2 version with improved power was introduced, but the four-wheel-drive Audi Quattro proved too strong, with Audi winning both championships in 1984. Alén's sole Evolution 2 victory came at the 1984 Tour de Corse. The 037 was pensioned off in favour of the Delta S4 for the season-ending 1985 RAC Rally.
The Delta S4 was an entirely different proposition — a purpose-built Group B car using both a turbocharger and a supercharger to eliminate lag, with four-wheel drive. The works team ran the S4 through the 1985 RAC Rally and the full 1986 season. Driver Attilio Bettega had died in an 037 crash in 1985, a portent of the carnage that would unfold in Group B's final year. The fatal accident of Henri Toivonen and co-driver Sergio Cresto in a Delta S4 at the 1986 Rally de France was among the incidents that led to Group B's abolition at the end of that season.
The transition to Group A regulations required manufacturers to homologate road cars for competition, a rule that played directly into Lancia's hands. The Delta HF 4WD, unveiled at the 1986 Turin Motor Show with permanent four-wheel drive and a 165 PS turbocharged 2.0-litre engine, was pressed into WRC service for 1987. Despite not having been developed primarily as a rally car, the HF 4WD won nine of thirteen championship rallies in 1987 and gave Juha Kankkunen the drivers' championship alongside the manufacturers' title for Lancia.
The Delta HF integrale replaced the HF 4WD for 1988, incorporating wider wheel arches, a larger Garrett turbocharger, and improved four-wheel-drive calibration. Miki Biasion won the drivers' championship in both 1988 and 1989. Kankkunen returned to claim the 1991 drivers' title. Through this period the Lancia works team accumulated four individual drivers' championships to complement the run of manufacturers' titles.
The 16-valve Integrale arrived for 1989 with a 200 PS turbocharged engine and revised torque distribution, winning the 1989 San Remo Rally on debut. The Evoluzione version, introduced for 1992, powered the team to its sixth consecutive manufacturers' championship — a record that stands to this day. At the end of the 1991 season, Lancia officially retired from direct factory rallying. For 1992, factory-developed HF integrale Evos were fielded by privateer Jolly Club under Martini Racing sponsorship, still sufficient to secure the championship. Lancia did not contest the 1993 season as a works program.
Across the four evolutions of the Delta — HF 4WD, 8-valve Integrale, 16-valve Integrale, and Integrale Evoluzione — the car accumulated 46 World Rally Championship event victories. The six consecutive manufacturers' titles from 1987 to 1992 remain unmatched in the history of the World Rally Championship.
Lancia Martini Racing represents the most sustained period of dominance in WRC history, achieved with cars that were developed from production road models rather than bespoke racing machines. The connection between the competition cars and their road-going equivalents — the Delta HF Integrale line produced in various forms until 1994 — gave the program unusual commercial resonance, with the Delta's rallying success directly credited with a 42% sales increase in the Italian market in the first half of 1987. The combination of Martini Racing livery, the Lancia badge, and the Delta's visual identity created an aesthetic legacy that endures in motorsport culture long after the program's conclusion.