Lancia Stratos

First car ever to be designed and manufactured specifically for rally.

The Lancia Stratos HF, widely known as Lancia Stratos was an automobile made by Italian car manufacturer Lancia.

The Stratos was a very successful rally racing car during the 1970s and early 1980s. It started a new era in rally racing as it was the first car designed from scratch for this kind of competition.

The bodywork was designed by Bertone and the technical layout was loosely based on a (Lancia Fulvia V4 powered) concept car called Stratos Zero first shown at the Turin Motor Show in 1970. The body was wedge-shaped, and unusually short and wide, providing maximum traction.

In 1971 Lancia presented the Lancia Stratos HF prototype. The Stratos prototype (Chassis 1240) was flourescent red in colour and featured a distinctive crescent-shaped-wrap-around windshield providing maximum forward visibility with almost no rear visibility (which was unnecessary for rallying anyway). The prototype had three different engines in its early development life: the Lancia Fulvia engine, the Lancia Beta engine and finally the mid-mounted 190 bhp (140 kW) 2418 cc Dino Ferrari V6.

Lancia did extensive testing with the Stratos and raced the car in several racing events where Group 5 prototypes were allowed during the 1972 and 1973 seasons. Production of the 400 cars required for homologation in Group 4 were launched in 1973 and the car was homologated for the 1974 World Championship. The Dino V6 was phased out in 1974, but 500 engines among the last built were delivered to Lancia.

For racing, the engine was tuned up to 280hp and even to 560hp with a single KKK turbocharger. However, turbocharged versions were only allowed to compete in Group 5 and were never as reliable as their naturally aspirated counterparts.

The car won the 1974, 1975 and 1976 championships in the hands of Sandro Munari, and might have gone on to win more had not internal politics within the Fiat group placed rallying responsibility on the Fiat 131 Abarths. The Stratos won the Monte Carlo Rally with the private Chardonnet Team as late as 1979.

Without support from Fiat, and despite new regulations that restricted engine power, the car would remain a serious competitor and proved able to beat works cars in several occasions when entered by an experienced private team with a talented driver. The final point to the Stratos’s racing career at international level took place as late as 1981, at the Tour de Corse Automobile, a World championship event, with a victory of Bernard Darniche.