Lancia Stratos HF
In the 1970's, Lancia built a car that was solely planned and developed to win rally championships and this is what it did. The Lancia Stratos HF won four rallye championships from 1974 to 1979 before the race team got financially cut due to the ressources needed to launch the Fiat 131. In 2008, almost 40 years after the last official race of the Stratos HF, a former driver and car collector named Stoschek wanted to rebuild the Stratos as a one off.
Manifattura Automobili Torino
Together with Pinifarina in Italy, Michael Stoschek made his dream come true with the new Stratos in 2010, where it got unveiled at the race track Paul Ricard in France. That was the last time the world heard about the new Stratos until 2017, when the rights of the new Stratos got handed over to Manifattura Automobili Torino (MAT). They have worked on a few incredible projects such as the Glickenhaus SCG003, the Apollo IE and the Devel Sixteen and they announced a small production line of 25 Stratos on request only.
Traum Motorsport
I got the opportunity to see the new Stratos at Traum Motorsport in Uster near Zurich. The opening was earlier this year and I made a video of that day as well. The owner of Traum Motorsport, Claudio DiPaolo, has a long and impressive history with motorsports that goes from working for the Formula 1 Sauber Team to beeing the head of mechanics at the Glickenhaus SCG003 Team to now owning an own garage where they do restaurations of classics, support race car drivers and do regular reparations on various cars. His wife, Chiara Garella, is the daughter of the man who builds the new Stratos. During my visit at the shop, they worked on a Porsche 964 and they had some other cool cars in there as well. If you would like to know more about Traum Motorsport you can check their Website here: http://www.traummotorsport.com/
Ferrari 430 Scuderia
The new Stratos is based on a Ferrari F430 or a Ferrari F430 Scuderia. If a customer wishes to have a Stratos built, he will need to bring either a F430 or a F430 Scuderia to the engineers from MAT or they can find a car for the client as well. They will then shorten the chassis of the Ferrari by 20 centimeters and strongen it at the same time. The 430 Scuderia is the perfect base car as it already is a benchmark for supercars and has big potential because of its low weight and chassis design.
Iconic Design
Mr Stoschek highlightet the importance of the obtainment of key design features of the Lancia Stratos during the built of the first new Stratos and this is what they did. The front cooler, the front window, the roof spoiler, the iconic rear and the five star wheels are all parts that are still from the original Lancia Stratos. Other than that, the new Stratos has a few parts from Ferrari such as the climate system, the rear lights (from the 599), the 4.3 liter V8 engine and some parts on the interior.
Weight Savings
Another fascinating part about the new Stratos is the weight. They managed to save 150 kilograms of the 430 Scuderia (from 1400 kg. to 1250 kg.). They lost 80 kilograms with the entire body beeing made of Carbon fiber. They managed to achieve other weight savings with the thin front window (minus 18 kg.), super light seats (minus 14 kg.) or the battery beeing in a full carbon fiber case (minus 8 kg.). And that is not all; the new Stratos got a for this car developed exhaust system from Capristo in Germany (minus 20 kg.).
My Drive Experience
Now after reading about all the facts of the new Stratos you might wonder about the driving abilities. I got the opportunity to drive the new Stratos with the daughter of Paolo Garella, the builder of the new Stratos and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life so far. The car feels great and with the short wheel base and the mid-engine it is super agile. You feel every stone rolling under the carbon fiber body and the way the new Stratos changes gears is phenomenal.
Here I was then, driving a car worth over 500'000 euros with the daughter of the man who built the car, indescribable, truly honouring. Chiara talked me through some of her fathers projects and how the Stratos is built in Italy. She also informed me about clients from all around the world that have ordered a new Stratos for themselfs. The car I drove had the Chassis number 00X which stands for the presentation car and not a clients car.
So, that was my experience of the new Stratos. Let me know what you think about the story and make sure to ask questions if you're interested in more details!
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