1975 Lancia Stratos HF Stradale

heroldius (65)in #cars • 5 years ago

During the Essen Sale (11-12 April), a rally legend, the iconic 1975 Lancia Stratos HF Stradale with a Bertone's coachwork will be heading to auction through RM Sotheby's for about € 500,000.

History of the Lancia Stratos

The Lancia Stratos HF was presented in 1971 at the Turin Motor Show in order to replace the Fulvia (just for information, HF for High Fidelity). It was a collaboration between Lancia and Bertone, the Italian coachbuilder, to produce a new rally car for FIA Group 4. Bertone's designer Marcello Gandini (the creator of the Lamborghini Miura) proposed to Lancia the prototype Stratos Zero based on the chassis of the Fluvia.

For Group 4 homologation, Lancia needed to built 500 examples in two years. The production started in 1972 and only 183 examples were built in 1974. But FIA confirmed the homologation in 1974. Success was fast, the Stratos won the WRC championship 3 years in a row (1974, 1975 and 1976). The production stopped in 1975 with 492 examples completed.

It was the first purpose-built rally car, before it was modified production cars that raced during the WRC championship.

Specification

The Lancia Stratos has an 2.4 litre Ferrari Dino V6 producing 190 hp. First, Enzo Ferrari was reluctant to supply Lancia with this engine. But the end of Dino 246 production, 500 engines was delivered to Lancia.

The Bertone's body were built at Grugliasco Works (Turin) then shipped to Lancia's factory at Via San Paolo. This example remains in its original condition (with no restoration), finished in Azzurro with Sereno carpets and black Alcantara seating. Beautiful example of this rally legend... I love this design, especially in this color scheme.