Rapid response unit

I’m in a car that works in much the same way almost all cars worked when it was built in 1986: a steering wheel, three pedals, a five-speed gearbox, a limited array of switches and dials and that’s about it.

But a few quite obvious things are different about it. I’m having to be strapped into it for one, the chaps from Sporting & Historic attaching all six points of my harness and then tightening each belt so much it actually affects my breathing. Also, there’s no speedometer for it would serve no purpose in here. All I have is a rev-counter in front of me, readouts for oil pressure and temperature to my right and something called a ‘manometro’ to my left with gradations from one to four. You’ll know it by its more common name: boost gauge.

In period and at least in qualifying for the races it did, the 3-litre, twin-turbo V8 engine would have been set to provide around 3 bar of positive boost pressure. At that level it would be pumping out around 850bhp. This might explain why this particular car was beaten to pole position just once, and only then by its identical sister car. Today it’s blowing at a bit over 2 bar, so let’s call that 700 and something horsepower. Now imagine some econobox tin can like a Citroën C1, but with that amount of power, for that’s the challenge laid down for me by the 850kg Lancia LC2. It also has full ground effect bodywork and slick tyres wide enough to span a couple of postcodes.