Lancia Stratos

Lancia Stratos History

The Betone designed Stratos was built for one purpose, to win the World Rally Championship. Two prototype versions of the Stratos were shown, one during the 1970 Turin Motor Show and another one year later. The road going versions of this car were built only to satisfy the homologation rules. As a result, the road version had a very noisy cockpit, was uncomfortable, and did not have good cabin air circulation(just as you would expect from a rally car). The front part of the car housed cooling fans and a spare tyre. So it was not very practical when it came to luggage.

In 1973, the Stratos won its first rally it participated in. In 1974 through 1976 it dominated the rally scene by capturing the World Championship each year.

Since Lancia was owned by Fiat, who also owned Ferrari, there was a wealth of resources to draw from. And such, a Ferrari Dino V6 quad cam engine was used and placed in the rear of the car. The engine was capable of producing almost 200 horsepower which could propel the car from zero to sixty mph in just 7 seconds. A five speed manual gear box and 9.9 inch vented disc brakes were also used.

The body was built by Bertone and light-weight fiberglass was used whenever possible. The rear spoiler provided down force and channeled air into the engine ducts it also channeled the dust on some safari stages which was not all that good and caused a few problems. If the vehicle rolled-over the spoiler was actually strong enough to take the impact of the tumble.

The Lancia Stratos was the first car to be designed specifically for international rallies, in which it enjoyed extraordinary success, and because 400 examples had to be built, it allowed some lucky people to buy a competition machine for the road . It was a revolutionary design of timeless beauty which was among the first of the modern "supercars." With a top speed (in production form) of 143 mph (o-60 mph in 6.8 seconds) allied to superb handling and brakes, there are still few cars which can match it in real motoring conditions: driving from A to B along twisting roads.

The Stratos first appeared in 1970 as a styling exercise by Bertone on Lancia Fulvia running gear and was taken up by Cesare Fiorio who then was Lancia's competition manager. Before long a prototype was built using a Lancia engine, but the car's potential was so great the a 2.4 liter Ferrari Dino unit was substituted and a legend was born. When it was run by the works in international rallies, the Stratos became possibly the first car in history which was expected to win. It was that good, and it took the World Championships in 1975 and 1976. Fiat, the parent company, then changed its competition policy and decided to win rallies with a different car, but that did not stop the Stratos. As late as 1979 a privately entered Stratos won the Monte Carlo Rally which is one of the most remarkable feats in modern competition history.