Lancia Stratos

Stratos HF Stradale technical data

From the Stratos Zero to a rally homologation special

Lancia had won rallies with the front-wheel-drive Fulvia, but by 1970 the car was outclassed. Bertone answered with a show car: the Stratos Zero, a wedge barely a metre tall, shown at the 1970 Turin Motor Show with a 1.6-litre Fulvia V4. Marcello Gandini drew it, and its shape later sold at auction in 2011 for €761,600. You can read more about his work in the profile of Marcello Gandini.

A year later, at the 1971 Turin show, Bertone and Lancia presented the Stratos HF prototype. This time it had a Ferrari Dino V6 behind the seats. Lancia's team manager Cesare Fiorio pushed the project, the racing driver and engineer Mike Parkes helped develop it, and the works driver Sandro Munari tested it. The prototypes raced in 1972 and 1973 before the car was homologated.

Group 4 rules demanded 500 road cars. Bertone built the bodies at Grugliasco, and Lancia completed the cars at its Chivasso plant about 40 km away. The best estimate is 492 cars, plus spare bodyshells, all with left-hand drive. Homologation came on 1 October 1974, and most production took place between July 1973 and 1975. For the story of the company behind it, see the history of Lancia.

Dino V6, spaceframe and short wheelbase

The Stratos is built around a semi-monocoque steel spaceframe with an integral roll cage. The glass-fibre body has huge front and rear clamshells that lift off for service. Suspension is by double wishbones at the front and MacPherson struts with lower wishbones at the rear.

The engine sits across the car. It is the 2,418 cc Dino V6 with a cast-iron block, light-alloy heads and three twin-choke Weber carburettors. Ferrari also supplied the five-speed gearbox. Brakes are 271 mm ventilated discs on all four wheels, with no servo, and the car runs on 14-inch Campagnolo magnesium wheels.

The key number is the wheelbase: 2,180 mm. That is very short for a car of 1.75 m width, and it makes the Stratos turn in sharply and react fast to the throttle. Rally drivers loved it on tight tarmac. Ordinary drivers found the road car nervous at the limit.

By our calculation, the road car carries 7.0 kg per kW and a Group 4 rally car about 4.3 kg per kW with roughly 205 kW. Check how that compares with modern cars in the 1cars power-to-weight calculator.

World rally titles from 1974 to 1976

The Stratos is often called the first car designed purely to win rallies, and it did exactly that. In 1974 it won three World Rally Championship rounds: Sanremo and the Rideau Lakes Rally with Munari, and the Tour de Corse with Jean-Claude Andruet. Lancia took the manufacturers' title with 96 points against Fiat's 69.

Works rally engines were tuned to about 205 kW (275 hp) with 12 valves and about 235 kW (320 hp) with 24 valves. The 24-valve heads were banned from Group 4 from 1978. By then Fiat, which owned Lancia, had moved its works effort to the Fiat 131 Abarth, so the Stratos carried on in private hands. It also won the Tour de France Automobile five times and the 1976 European Rallycross title.

Group 5 Turbo and endurance racing

Lancia also built two turbocharged Group 5 "silhouette" cars for circuit racing, engineered by Nicola Materazzi. A Stratos finished 20th overall at the 1976 Le Mans 24 Hours, driven by Christine Dacremont and Lella Lombardi. These cars were rare side projects, but they showed how adaptable the short chassis was.

Cabin, practicality and ownership

The cockpit is tight and simple. There is a deep, curved windscreen and almost no rear visibility. The two fuel tanks hold 80 litres in total, and there is no real boot.

Original cars are expensive collector pieces today, and many were rebuilt after rally damage. A buyer should check chassis history with a marque specialist before anything else. The spaceframe can rust, the glass-fibre panels crack, and genuine Dino parts are costly. Several companies build replicas, so documented provenance matters. If you want the period atmosphere at lower cost, a well-made replica is the realistic choice.

New Stratos: the 2010 Ferrari F430 Scuderia revival

The New Stratos is the car the old 1cars article described. It was commissioned by the German businessman Michael Stoschek and his son Maximilian. Pininfarina designed and developed it, and it was shown in 2010. It was never an official Lancia production model.

The base is a Ferrari F430 Scuderia. Its chassis was shortened by 200 mm to a 2,400 mm wheelbase. The body uses carbon-fibre panels on the aluminium chassis, and a steel roll cage is built in. The car is 4,181 mm long, 1,971 mm wide and 1,240 mm tall. According to the old 1cars text, it is about 33 cm shorter and 80 kg lighter than its donor car.

The old article quoted 0–200 km/h in 9.7 seconds, carbon-ceramic Brembo brakes and a 90-litre tank; those figures come from the builder's launch data. On 10 February 2018, Manifattura Automobili Torino announced it would build the 25 cars originally planned. By our calculation, the New Stratos carries about 3.1 kg per kW, less than half the figure of the 1974 road car.

Stratos against its 1970s rally rivals

The rivals were road saloons or sports cars adapted for rallying. The Stratos reversed that order. Later, Lancia went back to four-door hatchbacks and won six more titles with the Lancia Delta. For other cars from the same decade, browse 1970s classics on 1cars, or set two of them side by side with the 1cars comparison tool.