Miki Biasion 2022 Calendar – Collector’s Limited Edition
Twelve months, twelve Lancia Delta rally cars. Twelve spectacular images chosen by Miki Biasion for his 2022 calendar from the best work of the Roman photographer Manrico Martella.
Here, then, is the saga of the legendary Italian hatchback, from the Delta S4 Group B to the Delta 16V Evolution Group A, immediately nicknamed by enthusiasts ‘Deltona’, which from 1987 to 1992 dominated the world rally championship.
Each month shows a Delta in action in a world championship rally that was held in that period: for example, the Swedish Rally in February or the gruelling Safari in April, or the fascinating Acropolis, the rally of the gods, in June. Out of the twelve photographs, one shot recalls the beginning of the epic Delta period: this image, associated with December, of the Lancia Delta S4 Group B in its debut event, the 1985 RAC Rally of Great Britain: a memorable victory which came at the hands of the unforgettable Finnish champion Henri Toivonen.
The Pictures
The choice of those images is also Miki Biasion wishing to pay homage to one of the drivers who wrote an important chapter in the history of the Delta rally car, and who tragically died a few months later during the Tour de Corse. Another significant photo, this time linked to August, shows the Delta 16V of Biasion and Tiziano Siviero accelerating hard during Rally Argentina in 1990, won by the Italian ace for the third time: a wall of spectators frames the car as it goes by.
A curious fact is that Miki Biasion is the driver who appears the least in the calendar. The author has in fact privileged the beauty of the image itself irrespective of the driver, because the idea was to tell the story of the Delta not the men who raced it. And so, in a carousel of white cars with the unmistakable Martini Racing livery, the ‘red’ Delta features at the 1989 Sanremo Rally, the subject of October.
This crimson hue was never used again: advertisers realized that with that colour the Martini writing simply did not have the same effect.
