It took four years for Girardo & Co. to get Markku Alén’s old Lancia 037 Evo 2 from America to its new owner in Europe, but the auction dealer is glad to finally make it happen.

As the name suggests, the Lancia 037 Rally Evo 2 was designed in 1984 to be the successor to its 1983 World Rally Championship winner. It has more engine power than its predecessor (2,111cc compared to the Evo 1’s 1,995cc) and a redesigned exhaust system that provides airflow to a new supercharger system.

However, the Evo 2 failed to live up to the original 037’s success. The rear-wheel-drive car couldn’t keep up with its AWD rival Audi Quattro, ultimately finishing runner-up in the 1984 constructors’ championship.

Alén scored its only victory—and ultimately the last for an RWD Group B car—at that year’s Tour de Corse. His car, chassis numbered 416, led a 1–2 finish for Lancia ahead of Miki Biasion.

#416 was retired after Alén’s runner-up finish at the 1000 Lakes Rally in his native Finland. It was used as a show car to promote Martini Rosso before being leased out to Mauro Pregliasco for the final four races of the 1985 European Rally Championship.

Works Jolly Club fielded the car in the ERC through 1989, then sold it to Alessandrini Racing. After various owners in Italy and some restorations by Lancia and Girardo & Co., it settled in the United States.

A European client hoped to get their hands on the 037, but Girardo struggled to complete the deal over the next couple of years before finally sealing it in December.

“While researching the fascinating history of this Lancia 037 Rally Evo 2, we spent what felt like hours hypnotised by the footage from the 1985 World Rally Championship, both from the official review coverage and spectators wielding camcorders beside the stages,” Girardo remarked. “For us, it’s peak Group B – enormous crowds boiling over with feverish excitement, wildly powerful cars being driven at speeds which defy physics by true titans, each with his or her own distinctive personality.

“It was simply magical, and this Lancia was right in the thick of it, prominently visible in all the videos, photographs and magazine reports, as you’d expect being driven by the team’s number one driver Markku Alén. Chassis 416’s significance as the final Lancia 037 to win a World Rally Championship event cannot be downplayed. That it’s the only ultimate-specification Evo 2 model and the final rear-wheel-drive Group B car to have won a world rally only bolsters this ex-Works car’s desirability.”

#416 really is all you need, huh?

Featured image credit: Girardo & Co.