Wild Fenomenon Stratos Concept Brings Back Glory Days of Lancia Rally Domination

Would Enough Buyers Want a Reincarnated Stratos to Make Production Feasible?

Theres hardly a more outrageous vehicle than the Lancia Stratos. The Bertone design, commissioned by Fiat-owned Lancia, was destined from day one to be a true rally weapon with no compromises.

The original was never intended for production, but Lancia was forced by homologation rules to offer 493 examples of the vehicle to the public. Strangely enough, by the time production ended in 1980, after a seven-year run, the public finally became aware of it and ever since, hardcore rally enthusiasts with bulging wallets have wanted a piece of the action.

Theres one minor problem, mind you, as Lancia wont build another Stratos. In fact, it cant build another Stratos simply because the name doesnt belong to them any more. The owner of the legendary title, including the original slanted script and badging, is now property of a London, England-based automotive design firm called Fenomenon, which showed its own variant of the Stratos in concept-car form at this years Geneva Motor Show.

Fenomenons Stratos started out life no different than any other design-house prototype. The project was led by 27 year-old Austrian Stratos enthusiast Christian Hrabalec, owner of no fewer than nine pristine examples, including the original, fluorescent red Bertone prototype. Talk about a hardcore fan! This is a dream come true for Hrabalec, who is currently studying for a degree in automotive design at the Royal College in London, England. The concepts design was penned by a group of ten professional stylists, which include the likes of Serve Porsche (credited for the Citroen C3 Pluriel).

While the original Stratos was engineered to cross the globe, stocking Lancias mantle with rally trophies, the new prototype has been designed to fill the growing demand for supercars in developing nations. By incorporating this factor into the design, the finished product will be remarkably similar to the original Stratos; it will deliver sublime performance on patchy roads, smooth tarmac, or dirt and gravel. Needless to say, itll go where others would fear to tread.

Hrabalec likens Fenomenons Stratos to the many Ford Living Legend production cars that are on the roads today. He insists that nothing from the original car was directly copied, yet the car has unmistakable presence and the full-bodied flavor of the original Lancia machine, just like Fords new GT supercar mirrors the original GT40. This tactic in design is probably a good thing, as the matte-black louvers and spoilers of the production model were a styling fad that truly passed in the 80s!

True to the original, the reincarnated Stratos is a stubby wedge that looks to be almost as wide as it is long. Fenomenon shouldnt take any offense to the new Stratos being called a junior-sized supercar, as it really is puny at 154.8 inches long! Thats more than 11.8 inches shorter than other compact supercars such as the Lamborghini Gallardo and Ferrari F430. But the cars additional dimensions tell other stories: at 76.4 inches wide, and 49.3 inches tall, the Stratos is wider and slightly taller than similar machines, giving it the ability to inure to the road like red lipstick to a white collar, with added ground clearance to allow it to traverse pothole-ravaged pavement or rain-dampened dirt with ease.

With apple-green paint, and comically oversized fenders that house 18-inch alloy wheels in front and 19-inchers in back, the Stratos is certainly a sight. But theres even more originality to the concept than what initially meets the eye. In the original, Lancia used a conically-shaped windshield to help form the guidelines to the Stratos cabin with standard twin A-pillars. If you look carefully at the new car, youll see that the windshield and side windows are one piece, divided in the center by a single A-pillar. The cars two doors are hinged on this point, providing easy access to the cabin by butterfly-like openings.

Should the Stratos ever reach production, Fenomenon intends to utilize entry-level Ferrari power, much like the original. The concept is fitted with a 425-horsepower 40-valve V8 engine borrowed from the now-defunct Ferrari F360 Challenge Stradale racer. Matched to a gearbox of unknown origin (most likely Ferraris F1 six-speed sequential unit), and bearing a curb weight thats estimated at 2,094 pounds, its quite possible that the estimated 3.7-second dash to 60 mph is feasible, as is the 210+ mph top speed.

With an engine, exterior design, and chassis structure crafted from aluminum and carbon fiber, Fenomenon worked in collaboration with the French prototype firm, D3 (part of the Pininfarina coachwork group) to produce the milled model from computer-generated data. D3, which was also commissioned by the likes of BMW for the original Z8 and MINI prototypes, claims that the design is entirely production-feasible - good news for investors and fans alike. The show car uses blacked-out windows as development of the cars interior has not been completed.

Considering that this 21st-century Stratos was designed and developed completely independently from Fiat Group, it makes you wonder where the money has come from. Fenomenon, a relatively new design firm, has been able to get this far thanks to the funding of wealthy private investors.

Judging by the positive response at its Geneva showing, whether the concept get the green light to production all hinges on how many Stratos fans are itching to get their hands on a completely modernized version of one of the worlds wildest, and most successful production rally cars.