Supra-Powered Lancia: Behind The Build
The idea…

There’s no doubt that you remember the insane Supra-powered Lancia Delta that we featured this summer.  The crazy machine generated quite the response, so we decided to get in touch with the man behind the car to get his story on how the build came together. Without further delay, here’s Peter Pentell to take us through the creation of this car.

-Mike

Hi everyone out there in the Speedhunters scene. Let me introduce myself. My name is Peter Pentell, the owner and builder of what some of you know as the Epic Lancia Delta, or as I’ve named it – the LaSupra. Now I will tell you the story of how and why this car was built.

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We will start from the beginning. I have owned this car now for more than ten years and in the beginning when it was an original Lancia Delta Evo 1, the plans were like many other street cars out there – to give it a small tune-up and some rims…

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I made one version of the car where I still used the complete Lancia drivetrain and engine, but it never gave me the satisfaction that I needed.

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Now 10 years later and after years of building and tuning for the track days, I gave up the idea of using the Lancia chassis and drivetrain as it just didn’t deliver what I was seeking – traction and durability. So the aim of building my own race car started to grow. Just why I was using the Delta body for this build is quite simple – I already had it and from what I know it had not been used before in the track racing scene like this.

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The car was stripped down to its shell and welded onto a metal frame so I could be sure that I always had a straight platform to measure from. Now the cutting could begin…

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Quite soon I realized that the driver position had to be quite far back to meet my idea of a good weight distribution to get the engine as far back as regulations allow. I ended up cutting the B-pillar out and move it back 150mm so I would have enough space to get in and out of the car.

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My idea was to use something that I know works when it comes to suspension and control arm geometry. It’s been proven for many years now that you can make a Supra go fast on the track so that’s why I used a front and rear axle from a Toyota Supra. They were put in complete on the frame and when I had the factory set-up measurements I simply attached the upper and lower arms coming from the wheel hub and took out the subframes. This left me with all the control arms in the right positions and made it easy to run the framework in the correct way so I could make good connecting points.

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Peter the builder

The first part of the frame to be put in was the main rollover bar, and now I could start to plan the seat and engine position. I started to see the Delta body as a really small cockpit and that the rest of the build would become a fight to get everything inside. It took four different seats from Sparco to find one that was narrow enough to get the clearance I needed for the engine and gearbox. Also the fight for leg space began. I needed to have enough space behind the seats to fit in the gas tanks so I couldn’t move back too much, and still I needed enough space for the front lower control arm that was intruding on my pedal space.

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The drivetrain that I ended up using was from a Toyota Supra JZA80 , and the 2JZ engine barely fitted between the windshield and the bottom frame, but it worked after some modification. Now I could start to build the frame forward and back to meet the suspension.

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The frame is made out of 30×2 circular piping and the roll cage has the regulation sizing of 45×2,5 in the main overhead roll bar, with the rest of the piping being 40×2. I used a more or less full roll cage with all the X bars and extra reinforcement I could fit. This way I could go a bit easier on the bottom of the chassis.

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The frame itself is made from my head and of course some sneak peeks at other builds, both factory race cars and home-made frames. One key point of this was to start racing, so it had to meet rules and regulations. That makes the build a bit more tricky and you spend a lot of time reading and translating the rules.

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After I had the base of the frame done and could start with placing the parts inside, the challenge began. How will it all fit inside? Because I decided to use pushrod suspension the space in the front and rear was dramatically decreased.

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But after many hours of moving the parts around that could be moved, I eventually found a position for everything. In the picture you see the airjack sitting next to the propshaft. Because the angle of the rear diffuser this was the furthest back I could place it. I have three jacks installed which come from a Porsche Cup car. They have two in the rear and one in the front, but since I have a front engine set-up I swapped places and run them the opposite way round.

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Trick stuff

In between the rear section of the frame and the seats I made two custom aluminium gas tanks with internal compartments and one-way valves to keep the gas from rushing back and forth during cornering. The rest of the tanks are foam filled. The capacity ended up at 22 liters per tank so 44 liters should be enough for a sprint race.

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Behind the tank you can see the electrical servo pump sitting low and far back on the co-driver side, and on the driver’s side I have the fuel pumps and catch tank.

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As you can see I’ve chosen to have two possibilities in height for the control arms. This is because I didn’t want to lock myself to only one tire height, so I have the option to run 680mm or 650mm and still run Toyota factory geometry. Or I can use them to adjust roll center, bumpsteer and camber gain in both front and rear. To adjust bumpsteer in the front I can raise or lower the steering rack or adjust the steering joints on the wheel uprights.

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I had the feeling that the front section would be easier than fitting everything in the rear section. But I was so wrong.

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Not only is the 2JZ engine a pretty big monster, but in front of that I had to place the shocks, radiator, oil cooler and intercooler. All this inside the relatively small engine compartment of the Lancia. Lucky for me I had moved back the engine as far as I did.

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I ended up with a hanging pedal box from Tilton because of the narrow space. It became a compromise that affected my angle of the steering column. At first I wanted to use a standing pedal box to have a straighter steering column, but it just wouldn’t have worked so I ended up with this.

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And sometimes it isn’t how it seems. All the small points that annoyed me from the beginning quickly disappeared the first time I took it on the track. The pedals have a 1:7 ratio and together with the Brembo brakes it feels perfect! I didn’t get the feeling of pushing your foot through a brick wall, instead I got the smooth pedal that allows you to apply just the correct braking pressure.

Finishing the chassis
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At this point I’d used up around one year of building and finally I could see the light at the end of the tunnel for sending the frame out for powder coating.

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We cut it off the jig, lifted off the body and for the first time since the start I could see the chassis on its wheels outside of the garage. This was the biggest milestone in the build. After this it felt like the finish line was just around the corner…

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It was now stripped down and sent out for paint. After paint, I didn’t have much time to get it back to a rolling chassis before the car would have its public debut at the Alive.se yearly car meet.

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And finally we could reveal it…

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When the evening came and the car meet was over, we took it back to the garage and plans began on how to proceed with the bodywork.

But I will tell you about that the next time…

Peter Pentell

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1

This is one of the best builds i've ever seen. Keep up the great work, Peter!

2

This answers alot of questions I had when this car was introduced to us during Gatebil. Your geometry of the chassis is phenomenal! Any future plans for other platforms and crazy swaps?

3

Definitely should've taken it for a quick hoon with no body shell on it.
Looks great though. I can appreciate how difficult fabrication is, but on a level like this.... You have some skills my man.

4

Mother of God...

5

Holy cow!

6

Way to destroy a piece of art/history..

7

Love reading about this build - so much work that's gone into it. It looks great without any bodywork - did you drive it at all like that Peter? Looks like it would have been a blast! 

I miss my cans of Magic... ;)

8

Hardly understood any of the technical aspects of this, but enjoyed it hugely nonetheless - looking forward to the bodywork tale!

9

I love the car but I just cant fathom the idea of cutting my integrale into pieces like that.

10

oh men, the skills.... Props to you, this is insane. Oh and I hope you took it for a spin without the bodywork men does it look badass!! ahah

11

Anyone else HATING the new 'next chapter' format of Speedhunters?

12

@regularReader me. sometimes i can't be bothered to get past the first chapter

13

@regularReader Then we are 2, dont like the their new layout at all. But still the material is great :-)

14

I always like seeing completed frame builds.  I'd be happy with just that.

15

Where can you get to see a vid of this monster??  Amazing build...amazing...

16

The old speedhunters page format was way better. It was easy to navigate, didn't have that stupid next chapter system and was  just nicer to look at. At least they still have beautiful cars like this though.

17

Like the idea, dislike the fact that's one less Delta Evo on the road. Should've done it with something less rare and awesome.

18

Peter you must be fucking. What armadillo's asshole were you fisting when you came up with this pile of asscheeks. Who in the titties vandalizes a Delta Evo because it doesn't give their weiner an erection you bizzare box of fuck.

19

Peter you must be fucking. What armadillo's asshole were you fisting when you came up with this pile of asscheeks. Who in the titties vandalizes a Delta Evo because it doesn't give their weiner an erection you bizzare box of fuck.

20
Industrial Designer

@regularReader I have to agree also, Why the need for chapters? not only does it interupt my reading experience. When I'm done reading the story I now have to navigate back "X" number of pages to get to where I was when looking for a good article to read. As usual the content is great, but I find I'm visiting SH less because of the layout.
The front page layout is cool and clean, but please SH bring back the continuous page for the article content!

21

Dafuq where you thinking dude..? I personally don't like not because is not pretty or fast.. But because it is retard as an idea to destroy such a historic car... You could easily try to find some japan junk car to destroy and do your thing.. If you wanted to make your lancia faster you could do some serious research and develop an s4 engine for this king of job... Anyway..

22

I'm so down for this, if for nothing other than to get comments from asshat purists like the two below.  
Don't like what he did to his OWN car? Too effin bad, boo hoo, he drove the piss out of it and got tired of it, then took it to another level.  You're bitter he lived YOUR dream, and it didn't fit him so he made it better.  You make me sick.

23

Deeboy Thanks, I have been useless this year with video I know, sofar I only have some vids with bad sound or bad picture.Only 3 warming up laps at Mantorp park exists where sound and video are ok. Tomorrow I will be back at Mantorp park raceway for my last run of the year before the winter.

24

d_rav well I have 1000+ upgrades and crazy ideas of how to make the car faster,cooler,lighter, better. some of them I will show you all during this winter as long you hang around to see it. So I´ll leave you with a cliffhanger. ;)

25

aussieANON the idea was to test it without the body on, but caused by the tight timeframe I had in the end I had to skip it. but I think it would have been insane to drive all stripped out.

26

@JSL some destroy them in the rally woods and some adjust them. I am one of them how adjusted it to be what I liked to have, sure it has a great history but I would like to show how a Delta could have looked like as a group 5 car. to take a real factory built rally car with history from the great Era and used it for this built would have been insane. but here I used the most manufactured evo model they made.

27

SuzyWallace i never did but maybe in the future I show up somewhere without the body on and alott of cans of Magic ;)

28

This is incredible.. I'm glad you cut up the Delta EVO screw all these butthurt Euro dudes.

29

ChrisMitsis of course this gets some irritade like hell that I used the car I did. I understand. thrust me, I have good knowlege about what the delta intergrale and s4 can and can´t do and if it only was the power I was missing it would have been easy. I already had built an extrem delta engine sitting on a stand beside the car. thrust me it´s a big different between tarmac rally,street and race tracks. the delta is super fast in compere with other rally cars from that era but today we have gone a few steps forward in technology. not only engine and drive terrane, the big differens is in chassi and suspension.

30

Utterly immense build, hats off to you my good man.

Also the new website layout is brilliant, the full screen mode is also ideal. Well done speedhunters

31

The Lancia Delta Integrale is a historic car, this build is a great tribute to the original car.

32

D1RGE EXE I agree, ofcourse the Lancia Delta Evo is a lovely rare car with alot of history.
 But it's hes choise, and I think using the body of the Lancia means it will always keep the Lancia glory which it deserves.
In my opinion he made an incredible car into an even more incredible car. Love the pushrod suspension!

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