Úvod »Motocykly»Morbidelli » Lancia Stratos
Stratos, it's one of those typically evocative Italian names that conjures up fantastic images of power and speed. And for good reason because the Lancia Stratos was both powerful and fast and won a whole string of international rallies during its career. That there were two cars bearing the name Stratos, both Lancias, is something that many enthusiasts do not realise and that there has been a recreated Stratos displayed at a major European motor show gives you some idea of the mystique of the name. The first Stratos was an amazing wedge-shaped concept car designed by Bertone that took the old Isetta idea of the access door being the front panel of the car to the extreme. The whole front windscreen (a massive sheet of glass) lifted on struts to allow access to the two seats. Naturally when displayed on the Bertone stand in 1970 at the Turin motor show it was accompanied by several long legged young ladies with short skirts! A year later, again at the Turin motor show, the definitive Lancia Stratos was shown, again a Bertone design (Marcello Gandini), but this one bore little resemblance to its predecessor. This one was still wedge-shaped but it was also more bulldog like insofar as its proportions were far more aggressive and was designed with small volume production in mind. Lancia’s competition director at the time, Cesare Fiorio, also saw in the Stratos a potential rally winner. Think about it for a moment: mounted transversely behind the driver (mid-engined) was a Ferrari-sourced 2.4 litre DOHC V6 developing between 240 and 300 bhp, 5-speed manual gearbox, fully independent wishbone suspension all round and four-wheel disc brakes, all in a package that weighed around 900 kgs! Performance was quick (very quick by the standards of 1974-75) with the 0-60 mph time being quoted at around 5 seconds (depending on engine tune) and top speed at 125 mph. It took Lancia until 1974 to produce enough cars to homologate the Stratos but from then on the company went hell-for-leather and was soon winning rallies all over Europe. In fact, the Stratos was crowned World Rally Champion in 1974, beating its corporate siblings from Fiat. Since then the Stratos has acquired legendary status and rightly so. It swept all before it in international rallying in the 70s, mainly with Italian ace Sandro Munari at the wheel. Bred for competition, the rules required that 500 be built for homologation purposes. According to the records at Bertone, 502 bodies were made between October 1973 and April 1976 for private buyers plus however many were built for the works racers. The Stratos is rare, beautiful in a brutish way, expensive to own and maintain and a challenge to drive at the limit. Sounds like fun. This is the story of a rare & desirable Italian car, the Lancia Stratos that dominated the World Rally Championship & rewrote the rules in the 1970s.
This is the story of a rare & desirable Italian car, the Lancia Stratos that dominated the World Rally Championship & rewrote the rules in the 1970s. Included are road tests with full performance details, rally reports & history articles. 120 pages. Over 200 illus.