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REBIRTH OF A LEGEND

One of the most legendary cars from the rich pages of automotive history is al set to be reborn, as a prototype, that closely mirrors a modern day reinterpretation of the fearsome Lancia Stratos, has been caught testing in secret at Fiat's Balocco test track.

When it was first shown as a radical prototype at the Turin Motor Show in 1970 the Stratos stunned and shocked onlookers in equal measure and the rallying exploits of the production version saw it go on to enter automotive folk law. The Stratos immediately won on its rally debut following homologation and it sealed world championship titles as the Ferrari-powered sports car embarked on a half decade long winning spree and it played a key role in building the modern-day reputation of Lancia that was won on the world's most important rally tracks.

Now exactly four decades later the Stratos is set to be reborn, the original Bertone lines and thinking clearly visible and still the focal point of the project but now sharpened and updated to reflect the passage of time and the onset of a new generation of design language. All the emotive design cues that turned the Stratos into a genuine automotive icon can be clearly seen: the wheelarches cutting into the bonnet, the curved windshield and wrap-around side glass, the engine cover and features and the flip-up rear spoiler. The flush-fit new headlights are new reflecting the end of the era of pop-up units and the turn signal indicators are the latest fashion in LEDs.

The two 'spy' photographs were taken at the Fiat Group test track at Balocco near Milan on June 21 when this prototype was undergoing secret testing. Very little is known about the ambitious project but Italiaspeed has learnt that it has in fact been privately funded by a European industrialist. The trademark sloping bonnet betrays a badge recess that is of a very similar shape to Lancia's traditional emblem meaning this new sports car could well be set to carry the famous marque's name once again, which will raise the hope of Lancisti across the world, as is the fact that it has been in test action at Balocco.




(vir: http://www.italiaspeed.com/2010/cars/la ... /0308.html)

lenivec je napisal/-a:jbeš statos. hočemo fulvio



bi bil pomojem bolj "uspešn" avto

peroRS je napisal/-a:Kdor hoče imeti novega Stratosa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtH9tU0kE5c

(vir: http://blogautomobile.fr/nuova-lancia-s ... ages-74851)

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF AS BERTONE IS REVEALED TO HAVE STYLED THE NEW-GENERATION STRATOS

Last week the story broke that a new-generation Lancia Stratos appeared to be in the development stage, and two grainy photographs showed a pre-production prototype in action at the Fiat Group’s Balocco test track near Milan; now more detail of this ambitious project is emerging, including the news in recent days that Bertone and Pininfarina both presented designs.

The Stratos was one of Lancia's most iconic cars, no mean feat from a century-old brand with a history littered with masterpieces, and it was a model that typified the firm's historic values of cutting-edge innovation and technology as well as setting styling trends. In designing the Stratos for Lancia, Bertone was well ahead of the curve at that time, Marcello Gandini penning a car that was so futuristic that it still looks fresh and sharp today. To reinterpret the legend of the Stratos is a very difficult and tricky task, and Italiaspeed understands that in the unrelenting quest to create the right successor, no less than three Italian design houses fought tooth-and-nail over the brief, each submitting detailed proposals. Hinting at a project which appears to have significant funding as well as production aspirations, all the proposals were developed to full-size models before a choice was made.

We believe that the design that was eventually chosen to go forward was the work penned by Jason Castriota during his stint as Design Director of Stile Bertone last year. New York-born Castriota has emerged over the last half-decade as one of the most creative designers of his generation, but importantly, he is probably the leading light in the world today in creating low-volume and exclusive one-off cars, where achieving the highest possible standard rather than being compromised by financial constraints are the benchmarks to be adhered to.

During his successful career at Pininfarina, Castriota rose from an intern to become Head Designer of Special Projects. During that tenure he created a number of special exclusive cars that spanned a wide spectrum of briefs: the eye-catching Maserati Birdcage 75th was a futuristic prototype built on the underpinnings of the Maserati MC12 supercar to celebrate the design house's seventy-fifth anniversary. Pininfarina also took the whole design idea forward from being just an extravagant one-off show car and explored the potential of turning out a limited production run, although this in the end wasn't given the green light.

While the Trident-badged prototype reinterpreted that marque's historically significant ‘Birdcage’ racer, the Italo-American designer also brought to the fore a modern take on another famous track legend, this time Ferrari's P3/4, in a project commissioned by an American collector. From race track-inspiration to the serene and elegant, the Rolls-Royce Hyperion coachbuilt project created an opulent ‘tourer’ that looked to revive a long-forgotten era of opulent motoring glamour. Castriota also crafted the unique 612 ‘Kappa’ for another American collector.

Along the way Castriota, turned his well honed styling skills to the Maserati's GranTurismo and Ferrari's 599 GTB Fiorano, both which have become definitive sports car designs of their generation. Castriota quit Pininfarina in the autumn of 2008 to make the short hop across the city of Turin to Stile Bertone on December 1, the studio then being revived under the direction of Lilli Bertone's daughter Marie-Jeanne. During his stint at Bertone Castriota created the highly distinctive – and highly futuristic – Mantide, another one-off sports car, this time a project that used underpinnings evolved from the Corvette.

For the Stratos project, Castriota has drawn on his considerable knowledge bank to create a new-generation design that retains the original Stratos' DNA but reinterprets it four decades on. The whole project has apparently taken around four years to bring to the stage of a pre-production prototype and we understand Castriota designed the car during his tenure at Bertone last year, which will neatly mean that the famous Italian design firm's name is associated with the evocative sports car once again – a fact that will hold great poignancy to Lancisti. In 1970 Bertone shocked the auto industry with the prototype ‘Stratos Zero’, and stunned all over again a year later, with the luridly-coloured Stratos HF which Lancia proudly announced would head straight for production. History has now come full circle with the new model being once again penned by the world-renowned design house.

It would appear that Castriota isn't involved with the final stages of the project, as in June he was appointed Design Director at Saab, which was recently bought by niche Dutch sports car maker Spyker. Reporting directly to Saab Automobile CEO Jan Åke Jonsson, he has a mammoth task in hand as the Swedish company unpicks itself from former owner General Motors and attempts to arrest its collapsing sales.

The images in circulation of the new Stratos are of a car very much in the traditional Bertone styling mould and also betray many of Castriota’s trademark cues in the finer details. Most notably, these appear in the hints of the sharp, futuristic, but carefully-integrated lines of the Mantide, which he was penning at around the same time, while the wheels are reminiscent of the rim design he created for the Ferrari P4/5. The use of LEDs in the lighting is another cutting-edge detail that Castriota is noted for.

Further linking Castriota to the Stratos project is his design sketch of the Lancia sports car that was recently published by Japan’s ‘Rosso’ magazine. Italiaspeed has also acquired a thumbnail-sized image of the full scale model developed by Bertone as it bid to get the brief, although the poor resolution makes it difficult to draw to many conclusions. It is also worth noting that this year is the fortieth anniversary of the unveiling of the Stratos Zero making it an appropriate milestone to unveil a successor.




(vir: http://www.italiaspeed.com/2010/cars/la ... /0908.html)

LEGEND IS UNCOVERED

Less than a fortnight after the story first broke, the dramatic new Lancia Stratos project is revealled today, totally undisguised, the images taken during a testing session at the Balocco circuit, portraying a truly stunning supercar that is every bit in the mould of the iconic and hugely admired original. The three new photos come from German magazine Auto Bild which has also published some further information as more details of this ambitious project, coming almost exactly on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the unveiling of the Stratos "Zero" concept, gradually drip out.

Forty years ago the Marcello Gandini-penned, Bertone-stamped "Zero" concept shocked the automotive industry and over the last week-and-a-half this new project has drawn global attention like few Lancias have during the intervening period. We understand that the three images were also taken during this prototype's test session at the Fiat Group's Balocco test track near Milan on June 21 (as were the two grainy shots we published last week) but more information on that test has now emerged, including that the test driver on the day was former F1 pilot Tiago Monteiro, and that the test was adjudged a huge success.

From that "Zero" show car of 1970, and then the new-from-the-ground-up Stratos HF Prototipo (1971), the legendary production Stratos was born, again crafted by Bertone, and with the supercar destined primarily for competition use, 500 examples had to be built to satisfy homologation requirements. Lancia never kept accurate build records but 492 units is the accepted production figure.

Now it is fast forward four decades. More detailed information on the new project has been revealled today, most sensationally that the new Stratos is powered by a production Ferrari V8 engine and this provides one of the biggest pointers yet to the keen adherence to history of this project as the original Stratos was fitted for production with the Ferrari "Dino" V6 engine. The apparent use of Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano-drawn rear light units on the prototype at Balocco adds to the sourcing of Maranello components along with the CCM brake units that may well also be a Ferrari item.

For the first time the rear of the car has been glimpsed and here the design language is once again firmly in the Stratos mould with the single round light units, a body-moulded jutting spoiler, moulded registration plate recess, and twin exhaust outlets that now exit on either side of a modern-day integrated rear aerodynamic-inducing splitter section. The rear end of the supercar also gets an integrated high-level brake light and a neatly-executed design around the fitting of the rear window which is part of the enveloping clamshell.

This careful adherence to Lancia tradition complements other similarly inspired cues on the car such as the distinct curves of the side windows' outline shape, the large front radiator grille and positioning of the indicators (although they are now LED units). The passing of time has seen the original's "pop-up" headlights outlawed but the new units have been well thought out and almost mimic that "flap" cue and at the base very slightly dig into the bodywork. The prototype's wheels are also a distinct reinterpretation of the original Stratos' rally wheels (they were most famously finished in "yellow" on the factory rally cars) most notably they are now twin spoked whereas the spokes were solid on the original which had to withstand the constant crushing impact of tough rally stages. The wheels' single central locking hub nut arrangement can be seen on the prototype and is yet another thoroughly modern feature that has been crafted in. More modernity can be seen in the aerodynamic front spoiler which separates the car from the original and the interesting positioning of the fog lamp units. The prototype also shows a clear front cover recess for the "Lancia" badge.

All the "visible" bodywork components of the car are in carbon-fibre, the "clamshells" (which appear from the images to open exactly as they did on the original model), doors and other body panels, while the extremely-high level of finish implies that these have been taken directly from moulds, lending weight to information that the car is destined for a limited production run. Italiaspeed also understands that this is one of several prototypes that have been completed so far, possibly as many as five have been built, and this ties in with a project that has seen at least three full-size mock-up models created as three Italian design houses fought over the brief.

Apparently the Stratos prototype was "sensational" during this test programme at the demanding Balocco proving ground, considerably exceeding the benchmarks put down for the day's test in every area, not least the handling of this lightweight and short wheel base car. The adherence to the original Stratos' philosophy of being designed as a competition car first and foremost, and therefore minimalism and weight saving were key objectives of Bertone's design team four decades ago, can be seen in the very clean and simple door catch design while the lock barrel is located several inches away.

Italiaspeed also understands that the original car's legendary "helmet pocket" feature has been carried over to the new car, so a crisp, racing-style cockpit can also be expected. The results of the test and the information so far all adds weight to a project that appears to have been in the development stage for around four years, and by the parameters involved, has been firmly in the "money no object" category.

The rebirth of the Stratos comes after many major milestones in the forty-year history of the much-loved sports car, which kicked off in 1970 with the development of the Stratos HF Prototipo, a car that made its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show in 1971, while the Lancia Stratos HF Stradale arrived in 1975. That car came, saw, stunned and conquered before being consigned to the pages of history. Then there was more than a two decade gap before, and almost fittingly, eccentric and outrageous Swiss stylist Franco Sbarro reinterpreted the iconic sports car with his "Ionos" concept which debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in 1997. Italian design and engineering company Stola unveiled its "S81", a thoroughly modern reinterpretation of the Stratos, at the Turin Motor Show in 2000. Five years later leading Stratos collector Chris Hrabalek unveiled the "New Stratos" concept, developed by his Fenomenon design company, at the 2005 Geneva Motor Show. 2010 is the 40th anniversary of the Stratos.

We can also clarify our story earlier this week that former Pininfarina and Bertone designer, and now design chief at newly revitalised Saab, Jason Castriota, one of the world's top automotive designers responsible for the Maserati Birdcage 75th and Maserati GranTurismo amongst others, was responsible for the design of the new Stratos. In fact we can confirm that Castriota was involved during the earlier gestation stages of the project but that involvement has long since ceased.







(vir: http://www.italiaspeed.com/2010/cars/la ... /1308.html)

lizard je napisal/-a:Ste opazili kolko vijakov majo platišča?

Avto izgleda fenomenalno, ampak to predvsem zaradi tega ker se naslanja na starega Stratosa, niso pogruntali skorja nič novega, ampak je še vedno zelo zelo lep in hiter, sploh ker je lahek in ima Ferrarijev V8 na sredi. Kot kaže je tudi filozofija razvoja podobna kot pri starem Stratosu.