THIS idea doesn’t want to die. Here we are, about to drive the third attempt to revive one of the most startling cars of the 1970s. This time, its latest re-creators tell us, there will be 25 new cars, each costing €550 000 (or a cool R9,1 million).
First, some words about why the Stratos beguiled then and beguiles now. Mostly, it’s about the shape. An assertive wedge of glass-fibre-encased spaceframe, Lancia’s 1972 rally missile was capped with a visor-like wrap of glass; its scrabbling, darting, time-compacting mission underlined by an arrestingly cropped wheelbase and stunted overhangs.
Anorak-clad rallyists might glimpse the chisel-nose first as it came at them but a three-quarter front pose was more likely, the Lancia’s quicksilver scythings visible confirmation of its back-biased mass. At night, its…
