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First Look: The New Stratos
The Bad Boy Rides Again
When the first grainy, murky images went viral back in the summer, the story had all the credibility of "Shark Attacks Helicopter." But every now and then there's actually something behind those Internet urban legends, and so the New Stratos has appeared at Circuit Paul Ricard in southern France and we've driven it.
We remember the Lancia Stratos HF as the mind-blowing, shock-and-awe bad boy of 1970s rallying, a pocket-size midengine monster with a Ferrari V6 in a wicked fiberglass body. Since 2005, car designer and Stratos collector Chris Hrabalek has tried to stir up interest in a new Stratos built in the same spirit, and now automotive industrialist Michael Stoschek and his son Maximilian have brought the idea to life.
The New Stratos is just as outrageous as the first. Built by Pininfarina, the hardware comes from a 540-horsepower Ferrari 430 Scuderia and the bodywork comes from the wind tunnel. The New Stratos is not just a self-indulgent retro car; it's a wild Ferrari-powered sports car in its own right.
Wild at Heart
Pininfarina has been working on this car since 2008, and it's clear from the Web site devoted to the New Stratos that the project began in the right place — a Ferrari 430 Scuderia.. We've been following the project, doing our best to sift through the rumors and find the facts. And now it sits in front of us at Paul Ricard.
What the specifications don't tell you, though, is what a tiny, tough little punk the car is in person. Just like the original Lancia Stratos HF, this car has the same kickass and very un-Ferrari-like attitude.
Thanks to shorter overhangs front and rear and a 7.9-inch section chopped out of the center, the New Stratos is about a foot shorter than the Ferrari 430 Scuderia with which it shares a chassis and driveline. This gives it very similar overall dimensions to its squat, stubby ancestor. Meanwhile, the sculptured wedgelike styling, derived from designer Chris Hrabalek's 2005 Fenomenon Stratos concept car, has been evolved by Pininfarina into an almost eerily updated reflection of the concept's angry edginess.
Insert Driver Here
The New Stratos carries a bit of the old car's minimalist approach to personal luxuries. True, it does have electric windows and, yes, even air-conditioning, neither of which would have been remotely conceivable on the race-bred Lancia. Of course, 5 minutes in the sun under the new car's wraparound Jetsons-style windshield without decent ventilation and you'd forgive those indulgences immediately. After all, it wasn't just the styling of the original Lancia Stratos HF that was brutal.
Inside the cabin, the new car is all about analog gauges, retro-style Fiat rocker switches and carbon-fiber trim, with the proper overtones of racing thanks to the rollover cage, six-point seatbelt harnesses and a pair of race buckets so snug you might have to shave a few hidden private areas to be entirely comfortable.
It might have a few creature comforts and a slick standard of fit and finish thanks to being hand-crafted by Olde Worlde Masters, but the New Stratos will never be accused of being metrosexual soft.
Contemporary Chassis
Retro-styling charm aside, it's nonetheless the contemporary technology that makes the New Stratos so completely satisfying.
The DOHC 4,308cc V8 of the 430 Scuderia has been tuned to give 40 more horsepower and it's matched with the Scuderia's quick-shifting, single-clutch automated manual gearbox. Ferrari's traction and stability control systems remain in place, while the suspension has been given a makeover by Sachs.
Aerodynamics was also a key element in the development process, with extensive testing in the full-scale rolling-road Pininfarina wind tunnel. Static weight distribution is 44 percent front/56 percent rear, but by the time the car reaches 140 km/h (87 mph), the aero balance is an even 50/50.
Braking is by Brembo carbon-ceramic discs all around, with six-piston calipers front and four-piston calipers in the rear. The steering system has been converted to an electric-assist rack-and-pinion, while the neat little carbon-fiber steering wheel carries the Ferrari-style "Manettino" dial for suspension settings.
Modern Speed
With all this, it's no surprise this machine hammers through corners with the confidence and assertiveness you expect of the latest machinery, even as the car manages to convey the notoriously demanding personality of the original Stratos.
Turn-in is commendably sharp, as is to be expected from a car with such a short wheelbase and minimal overhangs, yet any sudden lift of the throttle in the middle of the corner doesn't provoke the wild movement at the tail that normally goes along with such a layout. Impressive amounts of urge can also be added very early in a corner without your suddenly being passed by your own rear bumper swinging around and trying to pass. Any idea of dialing out the electronic driving aids is probably something most of us should work up to gradually — like maybe over the course of several years.
This car weighs 2,743 pounds (about 175 pounds less than the 430 Scuderia), and the combination of extra power and a shorter final-drive ratio delivers a special urgency. The new Stratos is capable of 186 mph, which means it gives up about 10 mph in top speed to the Ferrari, but the Pininfarina engineers claim the car more than makes up for it with the ability to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.2 seconds, while 9.7 seconds sees you at double that figure.
Driven by Personality
The overall sensation from the driver seat is of an extremely eager and nimble car, much more at home on mountain roads and the racetrack than in any top-gear shoot-out. Project leader and financial backer Michael Stoschek — who with son Maximilian has shepherded the New Stratos project from the Fenomenon concept to the finished vehicle — is a successful race and rally driver in his own right. And much of his experience has come from behind the steering wheel of his own Group 4-spec Lancia Stratos HF.
What Stoschek has done here is a really super job of transferring the principles and excitement of the original Stratos into a modern, more roadable context. The New Stratos is a great spin-off of the Lancia model without being just a direct copy. Which is especially cool because the original Stratos wasn't a copy of any damn thing.
Stoschek never really had any intention of going into the carmaking business when he began the New Stratos project, yet the issue of production is something still being discussed long and hard with Pininfarina. The bottom line is that if enough potential customers show up cash-in-fist and ready to buy, we're likely to see a limited series of New Stratos, probably fewer than a hundred (probably way fewer). Think of the New Stratos as a Bugatti Veyron for people who prefer their exclusive machinery with a rather angrier attitude. Pricing will be in the range of $650,000.
Geez, after a story as unlikely as the rebirth of the Stratos, maybe we should go back and have another look at those pictures of a shark attacking a helicopter; there might be something to that after all.
First Look: The New Stratos
The Bad Boy Rides Again
When the first grainy, murky images went viral back in the summer, the story had all the credibility of "Shark Attacks Helicopter." But every now and then there's actually something behind those Internet urban legends, and so the New Stratos has appeared at Circuit Paul Ricard in southern France and we've driven it.
We remember the Lancia Stratos HF as the mind-blowing, shock-and-awe bad boy of 1970s rallying, a pocket-size midengine monster with a Ferrari V6 in a wicked fiberglass body. Since 2005, car designer and Stratos collector Chris Hrabalek has tried to stir up interest in a new Stratos built in the same spirit, and now automotive industrialist Michael Stoschek and his son Maximilian have brought the idea to life.
The New Stratos is just as outrageous as the first. Built by Pininfarina, the hardware comes from a 540-horsepower Ferrari 430 Scuderia and the bodywork comes from the wind tunnel. The New Stratos is not just a self-indulgent retro car; it's a wild Ferrari-powered sports car in its own right.
Wild at Heart
Pininfarina has been working on this car since 2008, and it's clear from the Web site devoted to the New Stratos that the project began in the right place — a Ferrari 430 Scuderia.. We've been following the project, doing our best to sift through the rumors and find the facts. And now it sits in front of us at Paul Ricard.
What the specifications don't tell you, though, is what a tiny, tough little punk the car is in person. Just like the original Lancia Stratos HF, this car has the same kickass and very un-Ferrari-like attitude.
Thanks to shorter overhangs front and rear and a 7.9-inch section chopped out of the center, the New Stratos is about a foot shorter than the Ferrari 430 Scuderia with which it shares a chassis and driveline. This gives it very similar overall dimensions to its squat, stubby ancestor. Meanwhile, the sculptured wedgelike styling, derived from designer Chris Hrabalek's 2005 Fenomenon Stratos concept car, has been evolved by Pininfarina into an almost eerily updated reflection of the concept's angry edginess.
Insert Driver Here
The New Stratos carries a bit of the old car's minimalist approach to personal luxuries. True, it does have electric windows and, yes, even air-conditioning, neither of which would have been remotely conceivable on the race-bred Lancia. Of course, 5 minutes in the sun under the new car's wraparound Jetsons-style windshield without decent ventilation and you'd forgive those indulgences immediately. After all, it wasn't just the styling of the original Lancia Stratos HF that was brutal.
Inside the cabin, the new car is all about analog gauges, retro-style Fiat rocker switches and carbon-fiber trim, with the proper overtones of racing thanks to the rollover cage, six-point seatbelt harnesses and a pair of race buckets so snug you might have to shave a few hidden private areas to be entirely comfortable.
It might have a few creature comforts and a slick standard of fit and finish thanks to being hand-crafted by Olde Worlde Masters, but the New Stratos will never be accused of being metrosexual soft.
Contemporary Chassis
Retro-styling charm aside, it's nonetheless the contemporary technology that makes the New Stratos so completely satisfying.
The DOHC 4,308cc V8 of the 430 Scuderia has been tuned to give 40 more horsepower and it's matched with the Scuderia's quick-shifting, single-clutch automated manual gearbox. Ferrari's traction and stability control systems remain in place, while the suspension has been given a makeover by Sachs.
Aerodynamics was also a key element in the development process, with extensive testing in the full-scale rolling-road Pininfarina wind tunnel. Static weight distribution is 44 percent front/56 percent rear, but by the time the car reaches 140 km/h (87 mph), the aero balance is an even 50/50.
Braking is by Brembo carbon-ceramic discs all around, with six-piston calipers front and four-piston calipers in the rear. The steering system has been converted to an electric-assist rack-and-pinion, while the neat little carbon-fiber steering wheel carries the Ferrari-style "Manettino" dial for suspension settings.
Modern Speed
With all this, it's no surprise this machine hammers through corners with the confidence and assertiveness you expect of the latest machinery, even as the car manages to convey the notoriously demanding personality of the original Stratos.
Turn-in is commendably sharp, as is to be expected from a car with such a short wheelbase and minimal overhangs, yet any sudden lift of the throttle in the middle of the corner doesn't provoke the wild movement at the tail that normally goes along with such a layout. Impressive amounts of urge can also be added very early in a corner without your suddenly being passed by your own rear bumper swinging around and trying to pass. Any idea of dialing out the electronic driving aids is probably something most of us should work up to gradually — like maybe over the course of several years.
This car weighs 2,743 pounds (about 175 pounds less than the 430 Scuderia), and the combination of extra power and a shorter final-drive ratio delivers a special urgency. The new Stratos is capable of 186 mph, which means it gives up about 10 mph in top speed to the Ferrari, but the Pininfarina engineers claim the car more than makes up for it with the ability to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.2 seconds, while 9.7 seconds sees you at double that figure.
Driven by Personality
The overall sensation from the driver seat is of an extremely eager and nimble car, much more at home on mountain roads and the racetrack than in any top-gear shoot-out. Project leader and financial backer Michael Stoschek — who with son Maximilian has shepherded the New Stratos project from the Fenomenon concept to the finished vehicle — is a successful race and rally driver in his own right. And much of his experience has come from behind the steering wheel of his own Group 4-spec Lancia Stratos HF.
What Stoschek has done here is a really super job of transferring the principles and excitement of the original Stratos into a modern, more roadable context. The New Stratos is a great spin-off of the Lancia model without being just a direct copy. Which is especially cool because the original Stratos wasn't a copy of any damn thing.
Stoschek never really had any intention of going into the carmaking business when he began the New Stratos project, yet the issue of production is something still being discussed long and hard with Pininfarina. The bottom line is that if enough potential customers show up cash-in-fist and ready to buy, we're likely to see a limited series of New Stratos, probably fewer than a hundred (probably way fewer). Think of the New Stratos as a Bugatti Veyron for people who prefer their exclusive machinery with a rather angrier attitude. Pricing will be in the range of $650,000.
Geez, after a story as unlikely as the rebirth of the Stratos, maybe we should go back and have another look at those pictures of a shark attacking a helicopter; there might be something to that after all.
