Lancia Stratos will return
The wedge-shaped style of the Italian original has been reinvented by Pininfarina, and German car collector Michael Stoschek already has the first car – and plans to make a limited edition of 25 examples.
Stoschek is a big fan of the Stratos and has the original 1970s World Rally Championship package in his personal car collection, which includes many of the world's greatest cars. It has remained almost entirely faithful to the original Stratos - with the exception of the retractable headlights, which would not pass today's safety checks - to the point of using Ferrari as a donor car for the chassis and engine. The car of the seventies was twinned with a Ferrari Dino, and this time the work was done on a shortened Ferrari 430 Scuderia chassis.
The 21st century Stratos project actually began when Stoschek met young car designer Chris Chrabalek, who became another Stratos tragedy. The couple worked together on the Fenomenon Stratos project, which was unveiled at the 2005 Geneva Motor Show before the money man bought all rights to the Stratos trademark.
Work on Stoschek's car began in early 2008, first at Pininfarina in Turin, Italy. It has since been put to the test at the Alfa Romeo test track in Balocco, where its carbon fiber body and Ferrari chassis are combined in a super-rigid and very light vehicle that sits comfortably in the supercar class.
