Lancia Delta Integrale EV to race in World Rallycross Championship

French racing outfit GCK Motorsport has modelled its all-electric 2022 World Rallycross Championship (WRX) contender on the original Lancia Delta Integrale. 

The French team will field a rallycross-prepared version of their existing Exclusiv-e Delta restomod.

Like all cars in next year’s WRX, the GCK Delta Evo-E will use Kreisel Electric’s RX1e kit, generating 680bhp and 649lb ft of instant torque, resulting in “in eye-watering acceleration faster even than Formula 1”. 

The Delta won eight FIA World Rally Championship titles between 1988 and 1992, a fact that GCK says the name celebrates. It never achieved the same level of success in rallycross, though, with its best result coming at the hands of Bruno Saby in 1988, who drove a modified Delta S4 to second in the French Rallycross Championship.

GCK has previously fielded Prodrive-built Renaults in the WRX, with a best team finish of fourth in 2019.

GCK president and former rallycross driver Guerlian Chicherit said: “We chose the Lancia Delta Integrale because it's a vehicle that made us all dream. It's the rally car par excellence – without doubt the most incredible of its era – and one that remains hugely popular to this day.

“It’ll be a busy year for GCK Motorsport, and the whole team is looking forward to taking on this challenge.”

 GCK has also announced that it will provide the energy that will power the whole RX grid.

The firm will use a combination of solar energy and “power collected from green energy networks” to supply electricity to recharge all of the cars in the championship. GCK says that “this will make the new generation of World Rallycross one of the most environmentally-conscious disciplines in international motorsport".

“Motorsport is going through a significant change at the moment with the impact felt across all industries,” Chicerit said. “Playing our part in developing some of this change is what keeps us all motivated every day.”