I think a competitor, in general, should always be,
I'm not saying insecure, but he should always seek perfection.
In the world of rallies and auto racing
there are two kinds of drivers:
drivers who race to beat their adversaries
and drivers that try to better themselves, time after time.
I think I belong to the second category.
I am Miki Biasion,
I am a failed architect because I dedicated my life to car racing
and I'm a two-time rally world champion.
The only Italian to have such title, therefore,
mine is the only name in the International Automobile Federation (FIA) Hall of Fame.
Since I was a child I was passionate about car racing and competitions.
In Veneto there were no circuits,
therefore, those who loved racing cars had to let it all out at rallies.
In the first half of the 80s you could compete in rallies
with vehicles called “B Group”.
They were prototypes, specifically built for competitions.
But from 1986 to 1992
rules imposed car builders to race with vehicles derived from commercial models.
Ones not specifically built for competitions.
But vehicles you could buy at a dealership,
modify for competitions, and enter in the rallies.
L'avvocato Agnelli, who was very passionate about the mountains,
wanted to use the Delta in the mountains,
So he ordered a Lancia Delta prototype built with four-wheel-drive,
because the Delta was generally used as a city vehicle.
Already at the beginning of 1986, when nobody yet knew rules would change,
there was a production-ready, four-wheel-drive version of the Lancia Delta.
I was a test driver and I was in charge of the development of this very car.
During the first test drives we completed on the Island of Elba,
on the second day of test driving, I destroyed the first version of the car
because the suspension had not yet been strengthened for racing,
and having increased the power by a lot,
the suspension collapsed and I rolled down the mountain.
THIS IS HOW BIASION CRASHED AT ELBA WITH THE DELTA
Believe it or not, I still have that car in my garage
and I'm rebuilding it as a relic from the past.
I called the Lancia Delta “Bambina”
specifically because, having been Lancia’s test driver,
ever since the first version from 1985 to 1992,
I had been following this car’s development.
Therefore, as we Italians say, “I have raised her.”
I've made her six times world champion.
It took me a while to win a race.
I won two Italian Championship titles,
but that was not my life’s goal.
Lancia promoted me to the World Championship
and, finally, in Argentina, in 1986,
I took my first world victory in the “Argentina Rally”, with the S4 model.
I dominated from the beginning to the end.
From there my epic journey began, with the most important years of my career.
However, my favorite race was the East African Safari Rally.
Finally, in 1988 – and then also in 1989 –
I won this race, which was considered bewitched by the FIAT Group.
Every time I won a race or a championship
I was happy, but I did not savor my victory
for a simple reason: I had a way of thinking that was purely competitive.
Therefore, every victory was a passed exam
which, in turn, allowed me to take the next-level exam.
Therefore, every race was a challenge and every win was
a further step up to overcome the next race.
In fact, when I realized I was no longer extremely competitive, in 1995,
I left the racing world without any sadness
because I knew I had given it my very best for many years,
having achieved top honors,
and, above all, as an Italian, nobody else in history had achieved what I had.
The biggest job with the Delta
was bringing as much weight as possible from the front axel onto the posterior.
Therefore, the Delta was to be driven with a certain amount of aggressiveness
trying to enhance the feel of the front tires on your steering wheel
and have the back of the car feel like a cart which followed you in your various trajectories.
So it was a car that you had to drive differently from the ones you were used to before,
such as the ones with rear-drive wheels or the S4, which all had engines in the back.
You always had to race with cars derived from commercial models.
Therefore, if engineers wanted larger cars for competitions,
they also had to build them for the general market.
Therefore, the anterior engine was moved slightly more backward
to achieve better weight balance.
A four-wheel-drive transmission with three differentials:
a front, a central and a posterior so that you could spread
engine power over all four tires
and not solely on the axel, which provided for better traction.
This partitioning of weight, that was initially 80% at the front and 20% at the back,
almost got to 50/50.
Therefore, from the slim 4WD, to EVO1, EVO2
cars from 1992 and 1993, after five years,
the understeering had completely vanished, and the car had become much more neutral
and easy to drive for the every day driver.
This Delta from 1989, the car I won my second title with,
has very special features.
There are vents on the front wheels
which are disks with the purpose of removing heat from disk brakes.
Bumpers are slightly wider
so that much larger tires could be fitted
because every year Lancia put on the market a better performing tire
with wider measurements for better traction on the road.
Circuit drivers engage in shoulder-to-shoulder challenges,
therefore, they always know if they are in the lead, in the front, in the back,
and if they have managed to overtake their fellow competitors.
The rally pilot is in his car, with his navigator, tackling roads,
hundreds of kilometers of mountain terrains, savannas, forests,
but he does not engage in direct confrontations with his competitors.
He does not know if his adversaries are running slower or faster than him.
I mentally conjured images of my adversaries gaining terrain over me, catching up with me,
so that I could increase my rhythm by mental will
which made me more aggressive with my car and with the turns.
To me cars have been tools of the trade.
When I quit racing they became a passion.
Today such passion brings me to baby the cars
with which I won my world championships.
It's a great satisfaction to see them again
and to keep my "bambine" in shape.
Rarely cars sporting the Martini livery failed to win the world championship.
Therefore, this is a livery which is etched in the memory of the people and still, today,
when a car displays the Martini colors, people expect a winning vehicle.
One thing I like to talk about is that today
I realize what I have accomplished much more than back then.
Back then I was living with the angst of constantly having to prove myself.
Today, the fact that no other Italian managed to accomplish what I have...
When I wake up in the morning and look at my trophies
or I look at my Lancia Deltas, I say:
"What a beautiful story. What a lucky man I have been in my life!"