It is virtually a given at PH that if there is a Lancia Stratos for sale in the classifieds, we’ll make a point of telling you about it. Yes, because they are very rare and expensive. And incredible to look at and to hear running. But also because they tend to evoke a certain sort of response from anyone who is even a little bit obsessive about cars. To paraphrase Seth in Superbad, staring at a Stratos, for long enough to appreciate the shape Marcello Gandini spirited into existence, is like the first time you heard the Beatles. Life-changing might be overstating it. Or it might not.
At any rate, looking at this one felt like a wonderful way to kick off a Monday - not least a Monday that followed an Italian team winning Le Mans in a privately entered Ferrari. Maranello, of course, was famously persuaded to provide the Dino V6 for use in the Stratos, which was built from the ground up to win rallies. Which it did, famously bagging three consecutive World Rally Championships from 1974 to 1976. The subsequent homologated road car production, itself the subject of more than a few fireside myths, barely numbered 500 cars. There are many fewer survivors now, none of them cheap.
Nor is this example, though behind its ‘1977 spec’ description is (we're guessing) a years-long build story that seems to have only been recently completed. Which is to say that its Historical Technical Passport - the FIA’s seal of approval - only appeared in February of this year. That would seem to be just reward for a car apparently assembled with fanatical attention to detail, using body panels reportedly crafted from the original Italian tooling. It's probably as close as you'll get to a Group 4 works car without a time machine and Cesare Fiorio's phone number.
Underneath, as you might expect, it reads like a middle-aged man’s letter to Santa. The 2.4-litre Dino is fitted with ported and gas-flowed cylinder heads featuring 45mm inlet valves and 39mm exhaust valves. High-compression pistons, an Arrow steel crankshaft, and connecting rods ensure this isn't merely for show. Breathing through a trio of Weber 44 IDF carburettors and fitted with a lightened flywheel, this is a V6 very much built to sing its operatic aria across special stages.
The chassis is equally serious. Fully rose-jointed suspension, Bilstein dampers with ride-height adjustment, and Eibach adjustable anti-roll bars front and rear are backed by strengthened lower arms and Group 4-spec track-control arms up front, alongside alloy hub carriers and beefed-up wishbones and radius arms at the rear. Throw in the kind of high-ratio steering you need to catch the pendulum-like oversteer and four-piston calipers to slow it down, and you’ve got everything you need for historic rallying.
Or just for staring at, frankly. The 15-inch Campagnolo-style magnesium wheels are hand-bitingly gorgeous, the nods to Jolly Club pitch-perfect, and probably we’d pay good money to just sit in the Recaro buckets, flipping switches, and fingering the integrated roll cage. But that would be wrong. Every Stratos was built to fulfil its God-given mission, and this one is certainly no different. Ultimately, you’ll need to find £385,000 to make it yours, and then locate the guts to put it sideways on gravel somewhere. That makes the buying audience fairly niche, if not its list of admirers. Happy Monday, everyone.
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