Still saving for that awesome three-door Lancia Delta restomod? We have some bad news

Is there more of a first-world problem than missing out on a product that you wanted? Er, possibly – after all, Weird Al Yankovic has a whole song dedicated to them – but we doubt there’s one we experience more often.

And it’s one we ran headlong into again today, with news coming in that Podium Advanced Technologies has now built the last of 20 Delta Futuristas for lucky customers of Automobili Amos. Wail, gnash teeth or invoke The Fox and the Grapes as you see fit. 

If you didn’t catch it the first time around – or if the gauntlet that is modern life has ejected it from your memory – you can check out our original rundown here. But if time is too brief for such asides, here’s the short version: Automobili Amos’ take on the Lancia Delta Integrale, while a touch on the pricey side of things at €350,000, did have several advantages over the original article.

The bodywork, for instance, was fashioned from carbonfibre and hand-beaten aluminium. The 2.0-litre turbocharged four was fettled until it made 330bhp, as opposed to the 200 and change it started with.

Oh, and the dashboard doesn’t squeak at you like an eisteddfod for field mice. It's the little things, really. 

Podium Advanced Technologies, in case you’re not familiar, is an automotive design, research, development and engineering company in Pont-Saint-Martin, about an hour north of Turin.

And if you were thinking that’s an awfully French name for a place in Italy, you’d be right.

Up in Italy’s Aosta region, there’s quite a bit of French influence for reasons that involve Charlemagne and more of a history lesson than either of us are likely interested in. So we’ll move on.

As well as developing and assembling the Delta Futurista, PAT has had a hand in James Glickenhaus’s road and racing efforts, developed a battery pack for trams so cities can remove overhead power lines in ‘architecturally sensitive areas’, and came up with a custom EV powertrain for powerboating legend Riva. 

And clearly they’ve done quite a job with the Delta Futuristas – Automobili Amos founder, Eugenio Amos, said that, “After the conclusion of the Futurista project, we have decided to continue the adventure with Podium Advanced Technologies with a new project".

Whether that’s the €570,000, rally-ready Delta ‘Safarista’ or something else entirely is probably moot; unless there are any multi-millionaires reading, we should all get ready to experience a particularly first-world problem...

STORY Craig Jamieson