LANCIA STRATOS HF – WORLD RALLY LEGEND

Italy has been responsible for many of the motoring world’s greatest icons, but few can rival the speed with which the Lancia Stratos HF passed into legend.

Although most often linked to Pininfarina throughout its history, Lancia decided to explore designs for the Fulvia replacement with Bertone instead. Keen to cultivate this new relationship, Bertone designed the striking ‘Stratos Zero’ concept around the running gear of a Fulvia Coupe, and showed it off to Lancia workers by appearing at the factory gates and driving under the barrier, to rapturous applause.

A year later, Lancia revealed the Lancia Stratos HF prototype with its iconic crescent-shaped wraparound windscreen at the 1971 Turin Motor Show where it stunned crowds with its rakish supercar looks, compact wheelbase, and overall length shorter than a supermini.

But motorsport fans were drawn to something else: it weighed under a ton, was highly manoeuvrable, and was powered by a mid-mounted 190hp Dino V6. Ferrari were initially reluctant to supply engines to what they saw as a potential competitor, but when production of the Ferrari Dino ended, Lancia found themselves suddenly on the receiving end of 500 units.

Rally homologation rules meant that 500 road-going examples had to be built, although when production ended in 1975, only 492 had been made. A Stratos is a much-worshipped icon today, but back then they were a hard sell: Lancia dealers were forced to shift at least one unit each, but struggled due to poor publicity, high price – around £80,000 in today’s money – and the occasional fuel crisis.

Where the Lancia shone, however, was on the rally stage. 1972 and 1973 saw the Stratos HF take to Group 5 rallying as a prototype, followed in 1974 by its acceptance into the 1974 World Rally Championship. With Sandro Munari and Björn Waldegård at the wheel, Lancia claimed the titles in 1974, 1975 and 1976. This rather upset parent company Fiat, who favoured their own Fiat 131 Abarth, and internal politics led to the withdrawal of support.

That wasn’t enough to stop the Stratos, however. Munari went on to win the Monte Carlo Rally in 1975, 1976 and 1977, as well as with the private Chardonnet Team in 1979. Lancia upped the ante with two turbocharged 'silhouette' Stratos for endurance racing and was victorious a record-breaking five times in the Tour de France Automobile between 1973 and 1980, as well as the Italian Giro d'Italia automobilistico in 1974, 1976 and 1978. The final WRC win came in 1981 at the Tour de Corse Automobile.

Although the future belonged to the unhinged fire-spitting Group B cars of the 1980s, by then the Lancia Stratos had long-since cemented its place in history.

What makes the Stratos a legend in your mind – was it its rally success, iconic wedge-shaped design, or its premature demise at the hand of internal politics? Let us know in the comments.