A LESSON IN MATURITY

What I like most about Maturo Competition Cars is where the company came from. Most restomodding W outfits - yes, this is another one set out to make a car look old. To make it go better too, but in doing so, most turn up the classic appeal. This one, though, a Dutch company based near Eindhoven, founded by entrepreneur Marco Geeratz and engineer Frank van Ganzewinkel, has its roots firmly set in motorsport.
Van Ganzewinkel owned a company making Group A Lancia Deltas for classic rallying, including redesigning and making thousands of its own components for greater performance and, crucially, durability than original 1980s World Rally Championship cars. Those were fast, sure, but in the high-cost, highly competitive Group A era of the WRC, they were used, abused and built to be thrown away after just a couple of rallies.
Geeratz bought one of van Ganzewinkel's cars and started competing in it. Only then did the pair begin restoring road cars, and only after doing some of those did they wonder what they could do if they applied their rally experience to a road-going Delta. The Maturo Stradale you see here is the result: like a Group A Delta Integrale but built for the road and made better.
"People see the icon from their youth, and they buy it and they drive it and it's disappointing," says Geeratz. "That's where restomods come in. [We said] 'let's take a Group A rally car and use it as the technical basis for a street car and let's give it an interior that goes with this price tag - the Lancia Delta for street use as it should be."
Which is how I come to be standing in a wet car park in the home counties admiring the Stradale's detailing, alongside Richard Lane, who has brought along his own late 8v Delta Integrale, a model that preceded the even more famous Evo. With us too is Zion Geeratz, Marko's son and Stradale project manager.
Denne historien er fra August 23, 2023-utgaven av Autocar UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9500+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra August 23, 2023-utgaven av Autocar UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9500+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på

AYGO X HYBRID SETS NEW EMISSIONS BENCHMARK
Electrified city car claims tiny CO2 output and more than 74mpg

Matt Prior
It’s taking awhile, like closing an ill-fitting lid on a plastic kitchen container.

HOT TESLAS UP ANTE TO TAKE ON EUROPE'S FASTEST EVS
New ‘Ring-honed Model S Plaid and Model Y Performance are imminent

MG CYBERSTER
Intriguing Chinese-built electric roadster joins the fleet

Appetite for production
Hyundai's Ulsan plant is the world's largest car-making facility, with five separate factories and an on-site port. WILL RIMELL is awestruck

AUDI A3 SPORTBACK 40 TFSIe
Perennially popular premium hatchback returns in plug-in hybrid form

Steve Cropley
“Its makers deserve a way of boasting. At present, they can’t”

Damien Smith
Marcus Ericsson looked sick and ashen.

NEW AUDI RS6 TO KEEP V8 AS 730BHP PHEV ALONGSIDE EV
Both hybrid and electric performance A6s are being readied for 2026
BMW 2 SERIES COUPE
Updated two-door still offers six cylinders and RWD – but not together