Over the weekend, Swedish driver Johan Kristoffersson overcame a 17-point deficit to Timmy Hansen to claim his fourth World Rallycross (World RX) Championship driver’s title. When the Swede lines up for next year’s campaign, which is going all-electric, eyes might not be on him but on a Franco-Italian runner tucked among the 14-car field. That’s because French World RX team GCK Motorsport will be campaigning Lancia Delta Integrale bodywork in next year’s all-electric silhouette series.
Last year, away from the race track, French company Green Corp Konnection (GCK) debuted its Lancia Delta Evo-e, a restomodded Delta Integrale given a dual-motor AWD electric powertrain transplant. GCK plans to produce just 44 of them, each putting out 197 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque, able to go about 124 miles on a charge and – get this – shifted through a five-speed transmission.
As part of the company’s motorsports activities, it already supplied the charging needs for a WRX support series this year, the all-electric RX2e. The headline series is going electric in 2022 and becoming RX1e, each car using a spec electric powertrain provided by Austrian firm Kreisel, the twin motors putting out a combined 671 horsepower and 649 pound-feet of torque. Atop that chassis, GCK will power the field and bring bodywork mimicking its the work of its Exclusive-e division, appended of course with the angrier fenders and wings every WRX car needs. GCK says the car will do zero to 62 miles per hour in 1.8 seconds. We say it’s a shame the customer version can’t be had with the same powertrain.
The original Delta Integrale swept eight FIA World Rally Championship campaigns between 1988 and 1992, drivers Juha Kankkunen and Miki Biasion claiming three driver’s championships, the car earning five manufacturers’ titles. As one of the mightiest pillars of support and nostalgia for Lancia lovers who have lamented the brand’s three-decade decline, beyond the GCK effort, Automobili Amos created an ICE Delta restomod in 2018, and the Lancia brand plans another in about six years.
Before GCK’s motorsport arm lines up for WRX next year, it will campaign its e-Blast H2 hydrogen fuel cell racer in next year’s Dakar Rally.
Related Video
Source: www.autoblog.com