CarBrandLogos archive · Lancia · 1973

LanciaStratos

Purpose-built to win rallies, with a Ferrari engine and no other job to do.

Photo: Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Lancia history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Lancia Stratos, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Rally cars until the early 1970s were modified road cars, because homologation rules required a production basis and no manufacturer would design a car solely to compete. Lancia's competitions manager Cesare Fiorio reasoned the other way: build the rally car first, and produce the minimum number of road cars needed to homologate it.

Fenomenon Stratos · LSDSL · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

The starting point was a Bertone show car, the Stratos Zero of 1970, a wedge so low it had no doors and was entered through the hinged windscreen. Bertone is said to have driven it under the barrier at Lancia's factory gate to get the company's attention, which if true is the most efficient sales pitch in the industry's history. Marcello Gandini reworked the idea into something usable, and the production Stratos HF that emerged in 1973 was shaped entirely around the job. It had an extremely short wheelbase for rapid direction changes, a wraparound windscreen for visibility on narrow stages, a mid-mounted engine for weight distribution, and a body in three sections that could be removed quickly for servicing. Helmets could be stowed in pockets moulded into the doors.

Lancia Stratos HF - Goodwood 2008 · estoril · CC BY 2.0

In production

The engine came from Ferrari. Enzo Ferrari was reluctant, but with Fiat controlling both companies the 2.4-litre Dino V6 was supplied, mounted transversely behind the cockpit and driving the rear wheels through a five-speed gearbox. It was compact, it revved, and it made the Stratos comfortably faster than the modified saloons it faced.

Andy Bentza Stratos1983 · Eddi Laumanns aka RX-Guru · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

The results came immediately. Lancia won the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers in 1974, 1975 and 1976, and Sandro Munari took the Monte Carlo Rally three years running from 1975. The car was notoriously difficult at the limit, with the short wheelbase and mid engine punishing hesitation, and the drivers who mastered it are remembered largely for having done so.

Chapter 5

Around 492 were built between 1973 and 1978, enough for homologation and not many more. Selling even that many proved hard: a short, loud, impractical two-seater with a Ferrari engine and no boot was a difficult proposition at a dealership, and unsold cars sat around for years afterward at prices that now look absurd. Fiat eventually withdrew support in favour of the 131 Abarth, which sold in numbers the Stratos never would and which suited a corporate parent better than a homologation special ever could. The Rally 037 took up Lancia's competition programme afterward, followed by the Delta. The Stratos remains the clearest example of what happens when a manufacturer designs a competition car with no other obligations at all.

At a glance