Lancia Delta Integrale

Lore & Background

When Lancia fielded the Delta Integrale in the World Rally Championship, the result was a dynasty. For six consecutive seasons the car and its drivers dominated the global rally calendar, and the Delta became synonymous with the sport in a way few machines have achieved. Its rear-mid engine, turbocharged four-cylinder, and full-time four-wheel drive gave it a character unlike anything else on the gravel and tarmac stages of the era.

In Their Own Story

The sun is low over the Sierra Madre, painting the switchbacks in amber. You drop the Delta Integrale into third, the turbo spooling with a whine that builds into a snarl, and the rear end steps out just enough to remind you who is in charge. Gravel kicks up in a brown curtain behind the tail lights. You counter-steer, the light front end swings the nose back into the apex, and the car slides—controlled, singing, alive—through the hairpin. A rival hypercar in the class above watches from the radio feed, its six-cylinder purring politely. You do not care. The Delta is how you drive.

Reader's Guide

Full model: Lancia Delta Integrale, late-1980s to early-1990s, C class in Forza Horizon titles.

Stock, the Delta Integrale is a light, rear-engine, four-wheel-drive car with a small turbocharged four-cylinder producing roughly 200 hp. It is quick off the line, nimble in tight corners, and noticeably oversteery at the limit. Its handling rating sits in the mid-to-upper tier for C class, but the rear-heavy balance means it demands active steering input rather than passive stability.

Tuning levers in Forza are broad. You can upgrade the turbo and exhaust for more peak power, shorten the final drive for a quicker launch, stiffen the rear suspension to curb the tail, and swap to a stickier tire compound for grip on tarmac. You can also shave weight by removing the spare wheel and interior trim. The trade-off is real: adding 30 or 40 hp to a car this light and this rear-biased makes the rear end far more unpredictable, and over-stiffening the suspension kills the compliance that lets the car rotate smoothly. Tire choice matters more than raw power here—too much grip on the rear and the car stops sliding where it needs to.

Build philosophy: treat the Delta Integrale as a precision instrument, not a brute—add just enough power to keep it honest, let the tires and suspension do the talking, and trust the slide.

Did You Know?

• The Delta Integrale's rear-engine, four-wheel-drive layout was extremely rare in Group A rallying, giving it a balance no front-engine rival could match.
• Lancia's WRC dominance with the Delta and its variants spanned six consecutive championship seasons, a run that remains one of the sport's great dynasties.
• In Forza Horizon, the Delta Integrale is frequently chosen by players who want a rally-feel car in a class dominated by road-going sports cars, making it a crowd-pleaser in multiplayer lobbies.
• The car's 1.4-litre displacement was a deliberate choice under Group A regulations, which tied engine size to the production car's displacement, forcing engineers to extract maximum power from a very small block.