[Wouter Melissen]

Dear Ultimatecarpage.com visitor,

One of Italy's great coachbuilders, Bertone, has been in financial turmoil for the last few years and at this time it is uncertain whether there is a future for the company. In the 'carrozzeria's' long history, they have built some fabulous machines like the Alfa Romeo B.A.T.s of the 1950s or the Lamborghini Miura. Today we take a closer look at perhaps one of their absolute finest works, which not only broke new ground stylistically, but also dominated the World Rally Championship for many seasons; the Lancia Stratos. An in-depth look into the history of the multi-talented machine taught us that we certainly do not have Lancia to thank for the legendary rally car. Instead it was Nuccio Bertone's persistence that finally convinced Lancia to further develop his amazing Stratos Zero Concept into a production car. Looking at the 1970 concept car, it is hard to imagine it formed the basis for the final version of the Stratos.
The reason for our Bertone tribute is our recent encounter with the pre-production prototype of the Stratos, which was built in just four months. At first glance it looks very similar to the production car, but the body is different in every detail and the Bertone built chassis features double wishbone rear suspension instead of the McPherson struts later used. Hopefully Bertone will survive and return with an another iconic vehicle like the Stratos.
Next up for us is the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, which is held this weekend. For those of you that can not make it out to the principality and also for those who do, we expect to have our well illustrated report online late on Monday.

1971 Lancia Stratos HF Prototype - Images, Specifications and Information

1970 Lancia Stratos Zero Concept - Images, Specifications and Information

Regards,
Wouter Melissen