There have been a lot of legendary rally cars->ke191 over the years; cars that have brought their manufacturers all kinds of motorsport->ke447 credibility. But there can only be one car that has won more WRC->ke523 races than any other, made by the marque with more constructor titles than any other. That car is the Lancia->ke45 Delta Intergrale, a towering legend of a machine from a marque that has almost completely ceased to exist. But word is that a case is being to bring back the Delta Integrale, with Lancia existing solely as a one-model brand for the foreseeable future.

The thinking is that the Delta Integrale name is one that is still spoken of in hushed tones, and for FCA not to capitalize on that is to leave money on the table. A lot happened has to Lancia since the days it reigned supreme in WRC, not least of which being that Alfa Romeo->ke1386 took over the role of Fiat's->ke30 sport sub-brand. But this is part of why no case is being made for reviving the whole brand, and really, so long as there was a Delta Integrale, not many enthusiasts would mind that being the only Lancia.

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Why it matters

While the long list of rally victories that the Delta racked up over the years certainly has something to do with why people love it, that isn't the whole story. High-performance versions of the car made for great production hot-hatch->ke304 road cars as well, offering turbocharged engines at a time when that was still something that people got really excited about. FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne has not expressed much interest in the idea, and it's very likely that FCA will be putting a good deal of its resources into relaunching Alfa Romeo in the U.S. and into generally just improving and expanding Alfa. The business logic behind such a decision is easy to understand, but a new Delta sure does sound cool.