Most of us have done it, bought a good looking car, and travelled a long way to collect it.

The seller 'forgets' to let us know the car's problems, and the journey home is an unexpected and stressful adventure. My own furthest was bringing an Evo2 back from the Netherlands, the trip home to the UK was a catalogue of problems the vendor had forgotten to mention.

It's not that you won't buy the car, it would just be nice to know what to expect.

Anyway, Peter bought this sharp looking Delta, and travelled from Scotland all the way down to the very south of England to pick the car up. Quite reasonably expecting to drive the car home, his journey to Scotland was long and stressful. A shiny car doesn't mean it's reliable! I'll hand over to Pete recording his journey home.

It's a long way home!

Any excuse to play a top tune!

Try this one, the Little River Band, 'It's a long way there'

This is an Audi B5 RS4 for your reference!

Peter says...

Anyway, onto my new car. Basically after selling the first Evo in 2011 (for a B5 RS4)

I yearned for another, only to watch prices soar, I`m sure the piece Topgear did on Lancias

had a lot to do with that. So I saved and saved and finally after persuading the wife that it was a good idea!

I eventually saw the Evo 1 I`ve got now. Phoned the chap who seemed very pleasant and told me the story of the car. That following weekend I flew down from Inverness to Gatwick to meet the guy. He picked me up in a very nice Merc and we then drove to his place, out in the countryside about 10 miles from Dover (it was going to be a long drive home!) We pulled in beside a big shed in the middle of a field. Lined up was a nice UR Quattro, very nice old Sierra Cosworth, Sapphire Cosworth, a split screen VW camper vans and a very famous yellow 3 wheeled van! and of course my new Evo 1 gleaming in the sun. To say I was excited would be an understatement (I hadn`t slept a wink all week!)

We did the deal and I prepared myself for a long trek home. About an hour after leaving, I got my first ever puncture, near the M25 I think, on with the space saver and went to find a Kwikfit. Got that changed, then further up the road near Birmingham I was stuck in stop start traffic for nearly three hours, not good fun with the paddle clutch fitted to the car! I`d hoped to get home on the same day but was getting very sleepy so pulled into a lodge near Carlisle for the night. (Oh tried my lights, no side lights front or rear, new switch required, just like your video!) Woke up in the morning to find torrential rain pouring down on my nice shiny paintwork, no bother I thought and off I went, only to discover I`d just one wiper working, and yes it was the passenger side! Oh and the horn didn`t work either.

Eventually the rain stopped and I set off. Oh, forgot to mention the straight through 3" exhaust by now was really giving me a headache, maybe when I was 21 I could have put up with it, but not now. Finally made it home, put the car in the garage and fell into bed, finding it still hard to believe I`d actually got another Integrale. So thats the story of the purchase.

A lovely looking exhaust, but noisy for a long trip!

With the Delta now safely back home, Peter set about fixing the problems. The first was to fix the lights, Peter assessed the problem was caused by a faulty light switch, he was correct. The story continues...

Now to fix the car. First the light switch, which was easy to fit after I`d watched your very good video on that subject.

Next the exhaust. There is a very good local chap in Fort-William (Lochaber Stainless) who does a lot of custom made systems for Jaguars, he gets great reviews, so I booked the car into his place and he custom made me a system which keeps the 3" downpipe, then goes to 2,3/4 inch for the rest plus two small silencers. The old exhaust had been touching the body in places which would explain the noise. Also most of the heat shields were done, so he replaced them all as well. The car sounds much better now although they said it's blowing a tiny bit where the turbo connects to the downpipe, they managed to tighten a couple of bolts but couldnt reach the others and they were a bit wary of breaking a stud. So that looks like another job to do! Is it a DIY ? I`m guessing its bumper and radiator off to gain access. Next change the black grille to an original stainless, bit pricey for a bit of stainless steel but I prefer it to the black surround. Got a new HF badge as well as new Lancia shields for the grille and tailgate. I always found the seats lacked a bit of support, so fitted a nice pair of Recaro speeds.

Every year at Grantown on Spey they hold an event called motormania, anyone with a nice car can enter, they close off the high street and fill it with the nice cars and you just walk up and down chatting to folk about cars all day! I had the Lancia entered and was really looking forward to it, my car would have been the only Evo there but, it let me down the night before the event.

I went to start it and it just kept turning over and over not even trying to fire. When I would turn the ignition on I couldn`t hear the pump priming. No fuel I thought, so check fuel pump fuse - ok, fuel pump relay I thought was clicking. I removed fuel pump from the tank, again made much easier after watching your video. Connected pump (uprated Thema 8.32) to battery, working fine. So refitted pump and went back to the relay to discover that it and the fuel injection relay thats sits next to it were both not working. Got two new relays of the same type fitted them but now when I turn on the ignition the pump primes but doesn`t stop it just keeps buzzing and the car still wouldn`t start.

Anyway I then tried to see if I was getting a spark, so did the plug test and it would spark once when you turned the car over but just one spark then nothing as you continue to turn it over. Ignition coil perhaps? Baffled I decided to ask for help, so phoned Walkers Garage, I`d always found them helpful in the past. They said they`d had the problem before and think its either the phase sensor in the distributor cap or the more likely crankshaft position sensor. So I`ve ordered them and thats the job for this weekend, not too sure where the the crank sensor is though, wheel and arch liner off I`d suspect.

Peter did renew the crank sensor, he found, as we all have! that feeding the wire up the back of the engine is harder than fitting the new CPS itself. The new Delta now starts on the button and runs well,

so this dramatic looking Integrale is ready for the road.

Pete is a well known Lancia Delta owner, and we wish him well with this project.

Lots of technical questions are answered by the knowledgable members of the Evo forum,

there are some serious Integrale experts on there!

As written at the start of this page, Peter has owned a Delta before, so here's some information

on that car and living with a Delta in Scotland....

This is Peter's first Integrale, a very tidy Evo1, Pete's report is below. Looking at the high standard of workmanship on this car, there won't be any trouble in knocking his new Evo into shape!

Peter continues...

This will be my second Evo 1, the one in the YouTube video here I had back in 2001 was a great car, had it for ten years, then sold it to a very nice chap from Denmark who said it was going to keep his Ferrari 430 company! I fitted the Ferrari F40 front brake kit from Scara73 to the car, it made a huge difference. I also put on the front under brace to tighten up the front end also from Scara73, again this made the a big difference to the car, the front was much more stable and turn in much quicker. Unfortunately the x piece of the kit sat just too low for some of the single track roads up here (Scottish Highlands), it kept bottoming out on the raised part of the centre of the road so I had to take it off. Also a lot of the switches were broken, so I made up my own bank of switches (have included pics) not to everyones taste, but I liked them.

I couldn't find any garage I really trusted, so I used to take it down to Howard at Allitalia near Wrexham, Id leave the car with him, jump on the train to Manchester and fly home. Howard fixed up the front and rear crossmembers which had both a lot of rust in them. It was only after I sold the car I found a garage called Carcraft near Edinburgh who have done a lot of work on Integrales, so that's where I`ll be taking my new car for anything I can't do. Also there was a motorsport garage in Nairn near Inverness www.bitzmotorsport.com they did a bit of work on the car, they ran a Delta in the Scottish rally championship, you should check out their website, it has all the pics from the whole build, alot of manhours must have gone into it.

Perfect Recaro seats

Custom made control switches

We thank Peter for sharing his experiences, we're sure he'll knock his new Evo into shape!

I guess the main thing about the new car is it seems to be a rust-free vehicle,

we'll keep in touch with Peter and report on his progress. Good luck Pete!