Lancia, an Italian car brand, although our fans in Chinese mainland do not have many opportunities to contact the models launched by the brand, but I believe that all fans are familiar with the brand. After all, Lancia's achievements in the rally field are obvious to all, and there are also quite well-known models such as Stratos HF, 037, Fulvia HF, Delta HF Integrale and so on. Today, let's start with Stratos HF, an extremely rare pop up headlight rally car.
Pictured: The Lancia Stratos is a very professional rally car with a local RMR (rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive) rally car, in addition to being a rare rally car with a jump light.
Pictured: Stratos was made possible by the support of two "fathers", one was the driver of the HF team at the time, Sandro Munari (left), and the other was the manager of the HF team, Cesare Fiorio.
In the 70s, Lancia began planning to develop a new generation of rally cars to replace the Fulvia HF in order to be competitive in the rally arena. It should be added that the Stratos HF was one of the most successful rally cars of the 70s and early 80s (before the birth of Group B) because it was built specifically for rallying, and for the civilian side, it was enough to produce FIA certification and be able to drive, which is completely different from those rally cars that were based on the production cars of civilian cars. Let's start with the styling, because before the Stratos HF, Lancia's production cars had only been designed in collaboration with Pininfarina (Bentley Farenna). Gruppo Bertone, also a well-known Italian car manufacturer, learned that Lancia had this need, and has always wanted to establish a cooperative relationship with Lancia through Stratos HF. Broadcom decided to impress Lancia with a body design that would impress them, and soon Broadcom designed a prototype shell on the chassis of the Fulvia Coupé, which was driven to Lancia by Giovanni Bertone, the founder of Broadcom.
Pictured: This is the prototype that Giovanni Bertone drove to the Lancia headquarters, called the Stratos Zero.
Pictured: The Fulvia Coupé is a rally car that Lancia used for many years before the birth of Stratos (the rally car version is called Fulvia HF).
Cesare Fiorio, then manager of the Quadra Corse HF Lancia, saw the prototype and talked to the team's engineers to set the following benchmarks: short wheelbase, two-seater, mid-engine layout, and good aerodynamics. After deciding on the basic requirements, the body design of the Stratos was basically finalized and handed over to Marcello Gandini, then Broadcom designer.
Pictured: A prototype version of the Stratos HF, which was unveiled at the 1971 Turin Motor Show, and you can see that the prototype is largely identical to the later production model.
Photo: Marcello Gandini (Marcelo Gandini), who also designed the Lamborghini Miura before designing the Stratos HF, and later designed well-known sports cars such as the Countach and Diablo.
In terms of body size, the wheelbase of the Stratos is 2180mm, the length, width and height are 3710 1750 1080mm, and the front and rear tracks are 1430mm and 1460mm, which shows that this is a very short and capable two-seater MR sports car. This short body was one of the reasons why Stratos HF was able to dominate the rally arena in the future. In addition, the final version of the Stratos HF is made of fiberglass for the front and rear hatches and side doors, and is equipped with a quick-release device to ensure the ease of repair and the cost of parts. The car is also designed with three fixed spoilers in the front, middle and rear to provide better aerodynamic performance.
Pictured: The quick release devices for the front and rear hatches and doors are still retained in civilian vehicles.
In terms of power, this was interesting, as Lancia had been planning to equip the Stratos with a Dino 2 from Ferrari4-liter V6 engine, but Enzo Ferrari has been delaying signing a contract with Lancia to supply the engine on the pretext that it will affect the production of its own Dino 246 model. The problem was that Stratos could not produce the vehicle without an engine, which ultimately prevented the FIA certification of 500 production cars and the timely participation in Group 4 in the target class (the prototype unveiled at the 1971 Turin Motor Show was just an empty shell). For almost the whole year of 1972, Lancia and Enzo Ferrari were at odds over the engine, first on February 2 Enzo offered to supply 500 engines to Stratos, but in March he said that the schedule was delayed due to engine parts problems, and it was not until May that Ferrari delivered 10 Dino V6 engines to Lancia. With only 10 engines available, Stratos was still unable to meet the certification requirements, so Stratos had no choice but to participate in the Group 5 event, which did not require production car certification. In November 1972, at the Group 5 International Rally, the Stratos HF made its debut on the track.
Picture: Group 5 can be regarded as a nuclear bomb class racing car that is relatively detached from the masses, that is, it is the kind that is not popular.
At the end of 1972, Pier Ugo Gobbato, then CEO of Lancia, was really "not like" Enzo Ferrari's style, so he went to negotiate with Maserati to get its 3The 0L V6 engine is used by Stratos. As a result, in December, Enzo Ferrari immediately approached Lancia and offered to sign a contract and supply the engine, considering that his Dino model was discontinued. But at this time, a new problem came, that is, the engine was available, but the progress of the body manufacturer Broadcom was still slow, and the number of bodies was insufficient, so Stratos was still unable to meet the certification of 500 production cars, and Stratos had no choice but to continue to participate in Group 5 class events.
Pictured: Broadcom, founder Giovanni Bertone and Stratos, a well-known Italian body manufacturing company.
In terms of performance, the civilian version of the Dino V6 engine with a 65° angle is equipped with three 40 DDF dual-choke inverted carburettors supplied by Weber, with a compression ratio of 9, a maximum torque of 225 Nm at 4,000 rpm, and a maximum torque output of 190 hp at 7,000 rpm. The road version weighs 980kg, so you get 52kg hp thrust-to-weight ratio. On the racing version, the engine is equipped with three inverted twin chokes supplied by Weber, 48 DCF carburetors, with a maximum torque output of 362 Nm at 5,300 rpm and a maximum horsepower of 280 hp at 8,000 rpm.
Picture: Figure 1 is the civilian version of the Dino V6 engine, Figure 2 is the racing version of the engine, and in the later stage Lancia also developed a 24 Wah version, but it was banned in 1978 due to the update of the competition rules.
For the frame, the Lancia Stratos features a steel one-piece half-pipe array frame and subframe. The suspension uses front double wishbones and rear MacPherson four-wheel independent suspension, and the advantage of using independent suspension is very significant, that is, the suspension parameters can be quickly adjusted according to the track conditions to get the best tire grip, and at the same time, it will not affect the driving stability of the vehicle due to potholes. In addition, the suspension spring group used is integrated front and rear, and the integrated suspension spring group will be separated more quickly than the spring to ensure the dynamic follow-up of the body.
Pictured: The Stratos HF Edition is equipped with alloy wheels manufactured by Campagnolo with 205 50 R15 front and rear tyre sizes and 295 35 R15. For the braking part, a brake kit (without ABS) provided by a well-known brake parts manufacturer**ATE is used.
Pictured: The front shock can be seen mounted at a fairly inclined angle, mainly to accommodate the mounting position of the front frame. Because the front suspension is in the form of double wishbone suspension, the installation position of the suspension does not affect the suspension positioning parameters.
Pictured: The Stratos can be seen to have a roll cage design in both the passenger compartment and the "C-pillar" position to enhance the rolling safety of the passenger compartment. The existence of the "C-pillar" is mainly to increase the rigidity of the rear of the car, to ensure that the rear of the car can still have good enough followability during intense driving.
On July 23, 1974, Stratos finally completed the production certification of 500 production cars and began racing in Group 4 classes in the same year. In the 1974 season, Stratos HF won the Lake Rideau Rally in Canada, the RAC Rally in Great Britain and the Tour de Corsica. Stratos HF, which is competing in Group 4 for the first time, has earned Lancia the title of Best Manufacturer.
In the nine years between 1974 and 1983, Stratos HF won three overall rallies for Lancia, with a total of 19 victories.
Pictured: Before achieving Group 4 certification, Lancia also took the Stratos to a track race based on the Group 5 and converted it into a turbocharged version called the Stratos Turbo Silhouette.
Stratos HF is certainly good in the rally arena, but its performance in the civilian market is quite bad. It stands to reason that this kind of "homologation car" made for racing certification should be very popular, and it is basically the kind that can be sold out in less than 5 minutes after it is launched, but the civilian version of the Stratos is not. The 70s of the last century coincided with the time of the oil crisis, and it was during this period that the civilian version of Stratos was launched, 2The 4-liter Dino V6 engine combined with a whopping 10,725,000 ITL makes the civilian version of the Stratos largely unpopular with the exception of some collectors who love to drive. Coupled with the fact that Lancia required every dealer to buy at least one civilian version of the Stratos to sell, these cars were basically squeezed into the hands of dealers. Later, these dealers were forced to sell the stratos that had been backlogged for several years at a significant discount. So, at the time of the final count, the total production of the Lancia Stratos was only 492 units.
During her nine-year rally career, the Lancia Stratos lived up to its mission, as it was designed to be used as a rally. As for the civilian sector, WELL is FIA certified.
As for the New Stratos that was originally wanted to be resurrected in 2010 and used the Ferrari 430 Scuteria chassis, it was originally intended to be 25 units, but Ferrari did not agree to this plan, and even banned other ** companies from participating in the project and finally gave up.