Lancia Stratos
Euro · Lancia
Lancia Stratos: The First Car Built From Scratch to Win Rallies
The Lancia Stratos HF is a mid-engined sports car designed for rallying, with a Ferrari Dino V6 behind the seats and a wedge-shaped body from Bertone. It won the World Rally Championship three years running, in 1974, 1975, and 1976.
The Stratos began as a sales pitch. Lancia usually worked with Pininfarina and had never used Bertone, but Bertone knew Lancia needed a rally replacement for the aging Fulvia. So Bertone built the Stratos Zero concept on the running gear of a friend's Fulvia Coupé, showed up at the Lancia factory gates with it, and passed underneath the barrier to applause from the workers. Marcello Gandini, who had already designed the Lamborghini Miura, drew the rally car that followed. The prototype Stratos HF appeared at the 1971 Turin Motor Show.
Power came from the 2.4-liter Dino V6, mounted in the middle. Enzo Ferrari didn't want to supply it for a car he saw as a rival to his own Dino, and only agreed once Dino production had ended, at which point Lancia received 500 engines. Group 4 rules called for 500 cars, production started in 1973, and the Stratos was homologated for the 1974 season. The road car, sold as the Stratos HF Stradale, made 190 PS and reached 100 km/h (62 mph) in 6.8 seconds on its way to 232 km/h (144 mph). Its wedge is so short and wide that the nose drops below the tops of the front wheel arches. Production ended in 1975, when it was thought only 492 had been built.
The Stratos weighed 900 to 950 kg depending on configuration, and rally engines made about 275 hp with 12-valve heads or 320 hp with 24 valves. Sandro Munari and Björn Waldegård won the 1974, 1975, and 1976 titles, and Munari won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1975, 1976, and 1977. Fiat then moved its works effort to the Fiat 131 Abarth, but privateers kept the Stratos winning. The Chardonnet team took Monte Carlo in 1979, and Bernard Darniche scored its last WRC victory at the 1981 Tour de Corse. It also won the Tour de France Automobile a record five times.