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The Lancia Stratos was the first purpose-built car specifically for rally competitions since its first ever draft, introducing a new era in the rally world where cars are purposely thought of and built for competition only. This car actually went on to win a few World Rally Championships and a Monte Carlo Rally race.
Christian Hrabalek, who is a very well-known collector of Lancia Stratos cars, is currently the owner of the biggest ‘fleet’ of said car, with 11 units. Among those, one can even find the fluorescent red factory prototype of 1971 and also the 1977 Safari Rally unit.
Lancia ended the production of the Stratos in 1974 with a sum of 492 cars built.
topLancia started producing its model Stratos, which is officially identified as Stratos HF, in 1972, although the company had already unveiled the Stratos HF prototype in 1971.
The “HF” in the car’s name stands for “High Fidelity” and it was actually a quite successful car on the rally tracks for the 1970’s and 1980’s decades.
The base-car for what would be the Lancia Stratos was first seen in October 1970 at the Turin Motor Show, as the Stratos Zero prototype. Then, in the following year, the Stratos HF prototype was also shown to the public. In 1972, Lancia finally set off the production of the actual Stratos HF.
The Stratos is mostly renowned for have been a mark in the world of rally as the first ever car that was intentionally thought of and drawn to compete in rallying. The idea of building a specific rally-oriented car came from three men, who worked for that project to come true: Lancia team manager Cesare Fiorio, factory rally driver Sandro Munari and British engineer and racer Mike Parkes.
Homologation in the World Rally Championship’s Group 4 required that 400 units of each competing model had to be built, so Lancia produced those 400 plus nearly one hundred units more (492 overall).
topThe Lancia Stratos comes with a 2418 cc (2.0 L) mid-mounted V6 engine, which produces up to 188 hp if regarding the roadgoing version of the car. The racing variants of the Stratos could produce from 280 to 560 hp, the latter aimed by a KKK turbocharger.
The road version’s top speed is estimated to be around 143 mi/h (230 km/h).
The Stratos is driven by its rear wheels and by a 5-speed manual transmission.
topUnitary steel frame.
Platform (no data) Suspension All-round independent suspension: double wishbones with coil springs, telescopic dampers and an anti-roll bar at the front and McPherson struts with lower wishbone, coil springs, telescopic dampers and an anti-roll bar at the rear. Steering Rack-and-pinion. Brakes Four-wheel ventilated disc brakes.
topBertone coachbuilding company’s head, Marcello Gandini, is the designer behind the conception of the Lancia Stratos. Gandini is the same man who designed Lamborghini’s models Miura and Countach.
The Stratos’ bodywork was characteristically wedge-shaped and fairly sharpened, resulting on a rather low and wide vehicle with high traction level. The car also stood out for its poor visibility through the rear window – which wasn’t really important for a rally car.
The body shell was mostly made of steel and light-weight fibreglass was also applied whenever viable.
topThe Stratos HF created a significant success for Lancia in the Rally scene in the decades of 1970 and 1980, especially for being a purpose-built rally car.
Lancia began competing with this model in the World Rally Championship from 1974 onwards, with specially tuned versions of 280 hp and later 560 hp (turbocharged, competing in Group 5).
At the wheels of the Stratos HF, racer Sandro Munari won the champion titles for the 1974, 1975 and 1976 seasons of the World Championship.
The Lancia car was only taken away from the competition because Fiat (group from which Lancia was already a subsidiary) decided to replace it with the Fiat 131 Abarth.
Nevertheless, private Chardonnet Team ran a Lancia Stratos to victory at the 1979 Monte Carlo Rally.
In 1981, the Stratos won its last World Championship event at the Tour de Corse Automobile (Italian race), driven by Bernard Darniche, and an end was put to its rallying career.
topLancia
The Italian company started producing its first ever model in 1908, known as the “12 HP”, powered by 58 hp and exposed at the VIII Turin Auto Show. The “Tipo 51”, which was the 12 HP’s project name, would be re-baptized in 1919 as the Lancia Alfa.
Vincenzo Lancia’s brother, Giovanni – who as a classical language student –, was the one that ... more
