Performance

“It only took them 20 minutes to re-chip my engine and now I have 350 bhp!” –  …If only life was that simple!

We hear similar tales all the time, but just look at the facts:

• Lancia themselves never made any such claim – why?
• Lancia’s Delta won six Consecutive World Rally Championships, they created a Rallying Legend, yet they never promised such amazing results – why?
• Walkers started four RAC Rallies and finished four, but they also refuse to make any such claim – why?

ANSWER – because it can’t be done!

We believe in Honest Horses and Satisfied Customers – that’s probably why Lancia made us Factory Appointed Integrale Specialists for the UK!

(If you still believe in 350bhp re-chipped Deltas and emails that guarantee to increase the size of your private parts by 25% for every pill you buy, then simply enter ‘gullible’ in your search engine – this isn’t the site for you!)

So what do we promise? Having been Lancia Main Dealers since 1989 and having prepared and rallied Integrale Deltas more successfully than ANY other UK concern, we claim to fully understand what makes this superb car tick and we believe we can make it into one of the fastest and most satisfying road going projectiles you’ll ever own!

But to grasp what qualifies an Integrale for such a title you have to come to terms with the concept of ‘Torque’. As concepts go, it may not be as sexy as ‘horse power’, but torque is the phenomenon that converts the Delta into a true Pocket Rocket! Once the penny drops that its the magical combination of torque and horse power that gives that ‘punch in the back acceleration’ that real drivers crave, you begin to appreciate that there’s more to this business than meets the eye – which is why the BBC chose to base their Top Gear Integrale investigation at Walkers Garage.

So let’s be sensible and examine what we can promise to do: Our ‘Stage One Package’ commences with an engine check – we don’t want to blow its brains out by just dropping in a fast chip and sending you on your way! We start by checking the compression pressures for cylinder leakage – this gives us confidence that your engine is capable of withstanding substantially more power.

We automatically examine the camshafts for profile wear and we enquire as to the last time the cam belt was changed. Once we are happy as to the engine’s basic health, we change the cylinder head bolts; replacing the standard Stretch Type with High Tensile Steel Bolts will ensure reliability and maintain cylinder head gasket integrity.

Then – and only then – we install our ‘Walkers Fast Road Eprom’, which inserts genuine high performance Italian technology into the ECU and allows the engine to operate in the manner that the designers originally intended.

But all that work would be in vain if the engine wasn’t fine tuned to extract maximum power and efficiency. To achieve this we put the car on a four-wheel drive rolling road where we can replicate every road condition whilst monitoring all the engine functions and the exhaust emission. In this way we can attain optimum performance in conjunction with the best possible fuel economy, checking continually for signs of detonation, pinking or pre-ignition.

Printouts of the power and torque curves are always handed to the owner; furthermore, these are accurate figures, we do not condone the production of ‘Joe Public Figures’ claiming astronomical improvements to pamper the driver’s ego!

We generally see the BHP figure rise from 210 to a genuine 250, and when allied to a 20% increase in torque, you can expect to ‘feel’ the improvement, not just read about it!

To compliment the smile that this conversion generates (every time you let out the clutch!) we are maintaining our special offer on this popular tuning package by pegging it to just £1000 including VAT.

What’s that, you want even more power?

Despite producing more ‘kick per horse’ than most chip upgrades, there are drivers who insist on even more grunt from their Deltas! To obtain still higher outputs we must enable the engine to ‘breath’ more effectively, we do this via the camshaft and exhaust system.

The camshafts offer a significant increase in power and are the key to getting the Integrale to mimic the performance of its rally-prepared cousin. The cams that we recommend are identical in profile to those used on the Works Abarth Rally Cars, so you can imagine the impact that they have on a road engine! (The lift has been reduced slightly to avoid contact with the pistons). The cams are machined from blanks in order to achieve the profile required to match those used to win Six World Rally Championships; simply re-profiling a standard cam could not achieve the correct shape and would compromise the power characteristics.

The new cams prolong the time that the valves are open to enable more combustible material to be drawn into and out of the cylinders. The timing of the inlet and outlet sequence is critical to ensure that the valves open and close at precisely the right moment and these are adjusted by means of a vernier mechanism on the camshaft pulleys. These tasks can be undertaken with the cylinder head in place, but it does necessitate fitting a new cam belt since existing belts should NEVER be re-tensioned.

Having facilitated better breathing via prolonged valve opening and timing we heartily recommend that anyone proceeding to our Stage Two Package fit a Free-Flow Exhaust System to reduce back pressure and encourage effective extraction.

The exhaust manifold can be changed for a branch type to allow the exhaust emission from each port to reach the turbo in the correct firing order; this is only possible where each individual pipe is exactly the correct length from exhaust port to turbo. Carefully balanced systems not only prevent the build up of out-of-sequence gas emissions, they encourage the complete extraction of waste gases from the combustion chamber by creating negative pressure within the manifold; hence the term ‘extractor manifold’. This is particularly important when coping with the increased valve overlap generated by high performance cams – if you leave some burnt gases present in the chamber you obviously can’t completely fill it with a fresh charge in time for the next detonation.

In addition to producing extra horse power and torque, a well designed system can reduce turbo lag.

Needless to say the re-timing of the engine brought about by the use of such camshafts necessitates the use of a different Eprom to that used with our Stage One Package.

Stage Three Package: For those who insist on the ultimate, the cylinder head is next in line for attention. The head is removed, stripped down and the valve guides taken out. The inlet and exhaust ports are gas-flowed (the galleries the air/fuel mix passes through are re-shaped to maximise the flow rate to and from the combustion chamber). New valve guides are fitted and the valve seats are re-cut to ensure a gas-tight seal. When the cylinder head is replaced a competition head gasket is fitted reduce the risk of blow-by.

You will note that power figures and costings have not been quoted for Stages Two and Three; Walkers prefer to discuss such matters direct with their prospective clients, thus the specific car can be taken into account and the reality of acclaimed power outputs put firmly in their place! So pick up the phone or call in person to speak with those who have proven beyond doubt that they know what they’re talking about… Lancia and Walkers.

The high performance staff at Walkers Garage would like to point out that whereas Lancia produced a superbly balanced road car in the Integrale, once you start to unleash the huge power potential of the Delta, you should give due consideration to upgrading the suspension and braking capability of the car. Kits are available to match whatever power increase you have in mind.