“The machine of a dream
Such a clean machine
With the pistons a pumpin’
Аnd the hubcaps all gleam”
Queen, I’m in love with my car, A night at the opera, 1975
Lancia Stratos HF
A missing Stratos is found
A few days ago, I found a story about the recovery of a Lancia Stratos HF rally car that had been abandoned in a little farm located in Kenya. During the 1976 Rally Safari, it had been left behind after some unknown problems had made it impossible for the car to continue. The car was painted in the white and green scheme used by the sponsor Alitalia. And below the side windows appeared the names of Sandro Munari and Silvio Maga.
Who was Sandro Munari
Sandro Munari started racing in rallies in 1965 and had won the Italian Rally Championship in 1967 and 1969. Although he had won the Targa Florio sports car endurance race in 1972, he became a star after winning the Monte Carlo Rally that same year driving a tuned Lancia Fulvia.
A decision is taken
That year, Lancia took the decision to design and build, for the first time in history, a car specifically designed for rally racing. The inspiration for the car body design came from a concept car presented by Gruppo Bertone’s design team in 1966. Bertone’s design leader Marcelo Gandini had created the Lamborghini Miura, which was followed by the futuristic Alfa Romeo Carabo, which had an unforgettable wedge type shape
Gandini was at his peak in creativity in the 70s and his next design was another wedge-shaped car, the Lancia Stratos Zero, presented in the Turin Motor show (Salone dell ‘Automobile di Torino).The Stratos Zero was low, short, and wide and had a noticeably short wheelbase. It was basically an aluminum stamped monocoque body with a tubular framework attached to the four-wheel independent suspension. The bodywork was made of fiberglass to minimize weight.
A young Italian executive saw the Stratos Zero concept car and suddenly had a revelation. The man was Cesare Fiorio, who was managing Lancia’s rally team called HF Squadra Corse and had great success using modified versions of the Lancia Flavia and later the Fulvia.
But Lancia was a small company and was under pressure to keep its edge in the Rally Championship, where both Alpine Renault and Porsche were making significant advances.
An unexpected visit to Turin
Cesare Fiorio imagined a rally car based on the Stratos Zero concept done by Gandini. He would have to convince Lancia and its parent company Fiat to build 500 units of the car to homologate it for the Group 4, as defined by the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FIA or International Sports Car Federation).
What comes next enters the realm of legends: Fiat executives could not find any reason to build 500 special cars that would demand a huge investment in money, time, and resources without a feasible return of the investment. Nuncio Bertone, (the owner of the Gruppo Bertone design studio) had fell under the spell of the Stratos and demanded a meeting with Fiat’s directory. But he was forbidden to enter in the Fiat HQs in Turin.
He finally bypassed the barriers of the Turin factory installations and forced a reunion.
After several hours of arguing, Nuncio Bertone and Cesare Fiorio got what they wanted: the Stratos project was approved.
The Birth of the Stratos, and an unexpected gift
Not only that, but the car was going to be built by Lancia, helping the ailing company with a necessary cash infusion.
And finally, they got something else. Ferrari had been offering the Ferrari Dino sports car, as a low-cost entry-level alternative to its more expensive V12 sports and GT cars. But the Dino became too expensive to manufacture and could not improve its performance against Porsche’s 911. So, Ferrari shelved the Dino, but ended up with a surplus of this car’s engine in its warehouses.
This 2.4-liter Ferrari V6 was going to be the heart of the Stratos. And it’s one of the best sounding car engines ever created.
If you have any doubts, just listen to this recording: Lancia Stratos HF Rally engine sounds.
Form follows function
Since the car was going to be designed specifically for rally racing, everything was created for this purpose. Its short wheelbase enabled small turn radius. The huge curved panoramic windshield gave the driver and navigator a clear view of the road ahead. Rear visibility was nonexistent, but if the car was going to be so good, this would be unnecessary. The door windows can be barely rotated to let air enter into the cockpit, but they are usually closed or dismounted. The doors have a storage place specially designed to fit a racing helmet. They had no air conditioning, no audio system and no noise isolation.
The tubular steel framework supported the Ferrari built, 2,4 liter V6. It had double overhead cams and 2 valves per cylinder. Equipped with three Weber carburetors and a 5-speed manual transmission, the engine produced 190 HP at 7000 rpm in standard trim. It redlined at 7800 rpm.
Production starts
Production started in 1973 and ended in 1974. Bodies were built at Bertone’s facilities, then were transported to the Lancia plant where they were mounted over the chassis. Nobody knows how many Stratos were built, the numbers vary from 450 to 492 units. Berton affirms that they built 502 bodies. Eventually the FIA lowered the number of cars required to homologate to 400.
The homologation cars were sold to the public as the Lancia Stratos HF Stradale, with a 17000 USD sticker price. You would be lucky to get one of them for less than 400.000 USD today. The Stradales were fast, with a quick response and exemplary handling. 190 hp seems to be too little nowadays, but the Stradale weight was just 980 kg.
It was a tricky car to handle, due to its short wheelbase, but in the right hands it was a killing machine, especially in the typically twisty European roads. Btw, Stradale means road in Italian, when used in a car’s name it means that is the road legal version of a race car.
It was made for racing
But the true ultimate purpose of the Stratos was racing. In competition trim, the V6 engine produced 275 hp, and the Group 5 version received a turbocharger that elevated that number to 475 hp. A special 24 valve version was presented in 1977, it produced 320 hp.
Although the Stradale could reach a max speed of 232 km/h (144 mph), rally tuned Stratos had gearboxes optimized for a lower range of speeds and a better response to the throttle. Rally tuned Stratos could go from 0 to 100 km/h (0-60 mph) in less than 7 seconds, in gravel roads. The Group 4 Stratos weighed 880 kg, that made them incredibly responsive machines.
Success is a temporary status
The Stratos took over the World Rally Championship like a storm and won the 1974, 1975 and 1976 seasons, with Sandro Munari and Björn Waldegárd at the wheel. It also won the famous Monte Carlo Rally in 1975, 1976 and 1977 with Sandro Munari as driver.
But in 1977, Fiat took the decision that although the Stratos was unbeatable in any rally circuit, its performance did not translate in more sales. So, the company abandoned its support for the car and focused on the creation of a rally version of the Fiat 131 Abarth.
There is nothing more depressing than to put a Lancia Stratos HF next to a Fiat 131 Abarth rally, the low, wide, wedge shaped Stratos looks like it just landed after going to space, the 131 looks like three cardboard boxes glued together.
Without direct factory support, racing Stratos were driven by private teams. The car was so good at his purpose hat it was considered a serious contender until 1980. The last
WRC race that this car won was the 1981 Tour de Corse Automobile, run in Corsica with privateer driver Bernard Darniche at the wheel.
Special versions
There were special versions created for Group 5 racing (GT sports cars), the 1977 Safari Rally version and the 3.0-liter, 24 valve version created for the European Rallycross series which it won in 1978.
A profitable investment
Today, the Stratos is a matter of legend and myth, but it also is a great business. The rally versions, when they appear at classic car auctions, have a base price of 450000 USD, the typical price of a well preserved and maintained unit is above 680000 USD.
Original version that won races are much more expensive, on the order of more than 900000 USD. The last racing Stratos sale was made in 2018, when a rally version Stratos was sold at 915000 USD, the last time one of them was available for sale.
That is why I started this post with the story of the discovery of an actual Safari Rally Stratos found in Kenya, where it had been used as a dog’s house for 20 years.
This car has been carefully restored by a British enthusiast named David Hanman, who has declared that his car is absolutely not for sale.
What to do if you really want a Stratos but do not have the money:
Since, in the extremely rare event of an Stratos available for sale, it will make a nearly half a million USD hole in your pockets, many replica makers have created Stratos look alike versions.
They may have the looks, but there are no true Stratos. Be prepared to spend about 90000 USD for a good replica.
And if you have lots of money?
Finally, there is the New Stratos. It is a unique model made by and for its owner, German billionaire Michael Stoschek. He acquired a new Ferrari 430, hired the Pininfarina design studio to modify it and, under his supervision, a team of Pininfarina engineers and mechanics cut the Ferrari in two, shortened it in 20 cm, and the two resulting halves were soldered to a FIA certified, custom made steel roll cage, the cockpit was rebuilt using aluminum and carbon fiber and the engine was modified with a new control system. It has a 4.3-liter V8 that produces 540 hp. Coupled with a Ferrari 6 speed manual transmission, its reported to go from 0 to 100 km/h (0-60 mph) in 3.3 seconds, and from 0 to 200 km/h (0 -125mph) in 9,7 seconds. The maximum speed achieved was 274 km/h (170 mph). The car shape really looks like a XXI century Stratos and has been proven in a wind tunnel.
After a long legal battle with both Lancia and Ferrari, Stoscheck seems to have obtained the permission to build 25 units of this vehicle, all of them being already presold. Price is unknown, but if you take into account that you need a donor Ferrari 430 (it will cost you about 95000 USD) that will be cut in two and hand rebuilt by top Pininfarina employees… Well sometimes it is good to be filthy rich.
Mirko Torrez Contreras is a Freelance Process Automation Consultant that fell in love with the Stratos in his early teens, while watching a rally documentary on TV. He managed to gather as much info about this car story, but the closest he’s ever been to a real Stratos is this:
