There was, of course, no servo assistance even in the road car version.Power was up to about 265 horsepower (just on 200kW, thanks to a small bore-out to take capacity to 2444cc), there were higher-compression slugs, a heat-treated crank, two-ring pistons, high lift camshafts, 48mm IDF Webers (up from the 40mm units of the road car), electronic ignition, bigger valves, a baffled sump, lightened flywheel and, of course, a big, blaring, flame-spitting exhaust.The five-speed gearbox remained in principle, but for the Group 4 cars (as the race cars were known), there was an interchangeable gearset that, without altering the ratio of the 40 percent-locked diff, could give a top speed of anything from 153km/h to 225km/h. Bertone used the running gear of a Fulvia Coupé which belonged to one of his friends and built a running model around it. In the 980kg Stratos, top speed was about the same, but the Lancia could get from rest to 100km/h in under five seconds.So tuneable was the V6 that, for racing purposes, engineers managed to extract up to 209kW from it (still 2.4 litres remember), turning the Stratos into a proper hot rod. The real gain, though, came with the calipers; four-pot grabbers on the front and rear, made from aluminium rather than the roadie’s cast-iron. Bernard Darniche claimed the model’s fourth Rallye Monte-Carlo in 1979, and the Tour de Corse as late as 1981.In all, it won 82 international rallies. Built to dominate world rallying, the Lancia Stratos has few equals as a road car.Visceral rather than cerebral, it’s the exotic poster child that conquered the world’s toughest rallies, a beguiling mix of supercar looks and pure-bred competition engineering.It’s also the sort of car that reminds you why you fell in love with cars.Throughout the 1970s, it defined its rapidly changing sport as precisely as the Mini had done the previous decade and the Audi quattro would do in the next.More than 40 years after it was introduced, the Stratos remains one of the most exhilarating ways to blow away life’s cobwebs.Its styling genesis can be traced to a time when Lancia was heavily in debt, recently rescued by Fiat, and in need of something spectacular.And Bertone came up with just the thing at the 1970 Turin Salon, in the extreme shape of the Zero concept car, which was powered by a Fulvia engine.Nuccio himself later drove the Zero to Lancia, where competitions manager Cesare Fiorio was instrumental in gaining approval to turn it into what must have seemed an unlikely rally weapon.Marcello Gandini had been responsible for the concept, and, in early 1971, set about transforming it into a more practical prototype.By the time it was shown at Turin later that year, the distinctive Stratos outline had been set, even if the materials hadn’t.Whereas the prototype was aluminium, ‘production’ cars would be made in glassfibre. The rear end consisted of MacPherson struts with a lower control arm, coil-overs and an anti-roll bar. Actually, they’re not allowed to.That it was a road car at all is purely because the racing rules of the day demanded that 500 road-going versions of a car needed to be built and sold to homologate the design for rallying. And win it did, with multiple World Rally Championships under its belt and a reputation for being unbeatable in the mid- and late-70s. Somehow, a Stratos is one of those cars that doesn’t look quite right when it’s pristine.Even in Stradale spec, there’s no getting away from its sole purpose in life.The long doors weigh only 6kg each, are finished with a hard panel rather than soft trim, and feature deep scallops that were designed to hold crash helmets.Don’t expect to find a window-winder, either – the glass is raised and lowered by means of a simple wheel that you just slide up and down within its channel.The pedals are slightly offset to the centre of the car, and there’s the odd sensation of having acres of elbow room but almost no headroom – especially laterally.The relationship between instrument pod and steering wheel also means that you can’t see the upper reaches of the rev counter – the yellow section on which starts at 7000rpm, with the redline at 8000rpm.The famous Dino V6 engine had always been first choice, but until Ferrari agreed to supply it in late 1972, Lancia made various contingency plans, including its own twin-cam ‘four’ and even Maserati’s V6 or V8.In the end, though, Maranello’s unit was installed transversely and in such a way that access to the drop-gears was good enough to allow for quick ratio changes.It is inconceivable now to consider the Stratos having anything other than this brilliant powerplant.In Stradale spec, it gives 190bhp – a 24-valve head was developed for the competition cars, upping power to 300bhp – which doesn’t sound like a huge amount, but then it’s pushing something that weighs well under 1000kg.Suffice to say that it’s plenty, and it sounds absolutely glorious, a low-rev growl turning into a bark as it zips through its range.If you haven’t already been seduced by the looks, you surely will be by the noise – as intoxicating as anything that has ever resonated through a forest stage, and no doubt a welcome antidote to the masses of Escort four-pots in period.The five-speed gearbox is slightly recalcitrant until the oil’s warm – particularly when you’re trying to involve second gear in proceedings – and the brakes seem a bit wooden, but nonetheless a Stratos has a feel unlike anything else.That is thanks in part to a driving position that makes it feel as if you’re positioned at the head of an arrow, and also to its combination of short wheelbase and wide track.The Stratos is fully 19in shorter than a Dino, with a wheelbase that is 6in less, but it’s about the same width.In the name of period correctness, the featured car is fitted with its original 14in Campagnolo magnesium wheels on 205/70 VR14 Michelin XWX tyres.Its current owner generally runs it on modern Compomotive alloys with Yokohama rubber, a combination that makes it more user-friendly on the road.Even the Stradale features fully adjustable suspension and, at modest speeds, it will turn on a sixpence with no fuss, and no inertia.With great visibility through the wraparound windscreen, it is supremely easy to place through corners, and the light steering very soon inspires the sort of confidence that makes you feel as if you could do absolutely anything with it.Which is deceptive, of course, because – with more than 60% of the weight resting over the rear wheels –.Peter Newton sat alongside Tom Pryce ahead of the F1 star’s one-off outing on the 1975 Tour of Epynt.‘The Stratos is not an easy car to drive near its limits on loose surfaces,’ he wrote in,Pictured is Sandro Munari with co-driver Silvio Maiga.It may have needed the talent of a Waldegård or a Munari to fully unlock its potential, but once Lancia had given the Stratos the reliability to match its obvious speed, it had a world-beater on its hands.A versatile one, too – Munari and Jean-Claude Andruet drove one to second place on the 1973 Targa Florio (pictured), before the former linked up with Mario Mannucci to win that year’s Tour de France.It claimed three World Rally Championships – in 1974, ’75 and ’76 – before a certain degree of in-house politics meant that parent company Fiat switched its attention from Lancia’s purpose-built rally car to its own 131 Abarth.The Stratos kept winning in the hands of privateers, though.

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