Born: 1972 Died: 1981
The first production sports car to be developed purely for rallying, the Stratos had its genesis in a concept car shown at Turin in 1971. The Bertone-designed concept was an extreme wedge, far ahead in time from the sharp lines of the Stealth Fighter of today, but very much in that aircraft's styling mode.
The driver's position of the mid-engined machine was directly from racing, lying back with his feet right up in the nose of the car. The 1.6-litre V4 engine was mounted ahead of the rear wheels, and was a power unit used at the time in a number of Lancia road cars.
When Lancia's racing team manager Cesare Fiorio saw the Stratos, he had it redeveloped to replace his very successful rallying Fulvias. Lancia was owned by Fiat by then, and that provided him with access to the 2.4-litre V6 engine then being used in the Ferrari Dino. Without this connection, the Stratos's power unit might well have been a 2-litre Abarth version of the V4.
In 1972, the Ferrari engine was the the power under the latest iteration of the show car at Turin. That autumn, the first outings of the Stratos on the rally circuit were not promising, the car having to retire with suspension problems on both occasions.
But a spring 1973 win in Spain's Firestone Rally as a prototype kick-started what was to become a string of motorsport successes over the next decade. A second in the Targa Florio and another win in the Tour de France copperfastened the Lancia as a rally car to be reckoned with before the end of the year. With full production of the car in full swing by Bertone -- responsible for the bodies -- and Lancia in 1974, the required 400 units for homologation was achieved before the winter of the same year.
Wins and podium places in Italy, Corsica and Britain during the 1974 season gave Lancia the 1974 World Rally Championship.
The benchmark Monte Carlo Rally was won by the Stratos in 1975 and were followed by Swedish Rally and San Remo victories, and a pair of Stratos drivers on the podium at the end of the Safari Rally. Once more, Lancia took the World Championship that year.
In 1976, a first and second at Monte Carlo and on the Portugal Rally, plus wins in Sicily, Italy and Corsica, and a points placing in the British RAC Rally secured the championship for the third year in succession. Privateer wins were also adding to the stature of the Stratos in France and Britain. These were to be very important for the continuing successes for the car after 1977 when Fiat merged the racing teams from its own and Lancia's brands and put its resources behind the Fiat 131. Stratos died at official level in 1981 when Lancia unveiled its Group B Rally 037. At the end of 1982 its homologation expired.
Two special Stratoses were produced to compete in 1976 in Group 5, with a 560hp turbocharged version of the Dino engine and designated Silhouette. One of them won the Giro D'Italia in the debut outing, and the Silhouette also won the same event the following year. By then it was the only surviving example, the other having burned out after an overheated engine while racing in Austria. The fact that the fuel tanks were in the doors probably didn't help.
After being "lost" in the collection of a Japanese businessman from 1977 until the turn of the millennium, it is now back in Europe in another private collection.
The number of Stratoses built is in some dispute, but is between 492-502. Last year a new Stratos concept by a British design house was shown at Geneva.