LANCIA STRATOS
Before the Lancia Stratos appeared, rally cars were no more than bog standard vehicles in flared trousers. The Fords, Minis, Saabs, and Fiats that won exotic events like the Rallye Automoble Monte-Carlo were your basic rep mobiles with beefy wheel arches.
This was all part of the plan of course. As a manufacturer, one embarked on a rallying program with one specific purpose in mind – to sell more cars. If one’s Ford Escort won a rally on Sunday, one could be sure the punters would be lining up outside one’s dealership on Monday.
Which is why the Stratos pissed everyone off. Lancia not only went and designed a supercar, but at the hands of Sandro Muntari and then Bjorn Waldegard, the bladdy thing won the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975 and 1976. In fact it would probably have cleaned up for a few more years had FIAT’s (who owned Lancia) bean counters not intervened and insisted a FIAT 131 be rallied instead.
Too bad – at least the world witnessed three glorious years of this Ferrari V6-powered, Alitalia-liveried rocket ship sliding sideways around any bit of road that deviated from the dead straight
A modern take on the Stratos was shown at the 2005 Geneva motor show – sadly the concept never made it to production…
No comments:
Post a Comment