Lancia only made 492 street-going versions of their wild Stratos Group 4 rally car. In two days, the hammer will fall on Stratos HF Stradale number 44 via Bring a Trailer.
And this one is in extremely good condition according to Bring a Trailer: "This particular car has had just two owners from new, and stayed in Italy for nearly …
If I hit the lottery before the bidding ends, it will be mine.
I'm going to need more kidneys.
Nice car, but for that price I'd have any Stratos replica of my choice built by professionals and $100k+ of change instead!
Awesome car but at 2X the value of my house probably by the time the hammer falls, I'll have to pass. Live my MR rally fantasies in something like PimpM3's V6 MR2.
I mean, I would love to have one and I didn't realize there are so few of them, but I could buy several Deltas for that price and still be in the Lancia rally family.
Perhaps my favorite car of all time. If you ever see one in the flesh the first thing you notice is how tiny it actually is. Photos make it look bigger than it actually is. It's not much larger than a X1/9, only with a Ferrari V6 stuffed behind your head. If only I had someone else's kidneys to sell!
This reminds me, I need to buy a lottery ticket. 
Er .....no at 360K I'll calmly walk to the marina and sip a nice meritage pretending someone I ain't....
True story: My earliest automotive memory is watching the Stratos in FIA rally on Wide World of Sports. I would have been around 3 at the time, and I distinctly remember my hands and face pressed against the screen(remember, console TV) excitedly pointing and telling my dad that I wanted to do THAT!!! He just laughed and told me I needed to wait until I was 16 to drive - that was the most dejected I think I've ever felt in my life.
Of course I had no idea what the Stratos was, but I had a general memory of it's form. It wasn't until post-internet that I discovered it by name.
I'd definitely build a Hawk replica(VR6 is my powerplant of choice) and not bother with the real thing, but then again I'm a driver not a collector.
I have been told that these things have positively evil handling. And will kill you if you are not a skilled driver and you want to play at the limits.
dean1484 said:I have been told that these things have positively evil handling. And will kill you if you are not a skilled driver and you want to play at the limits.
From simulator experience, I wouldn't say evil, just tricky and different. Any older rear-engined Porsche is more "evil" than a Stratos IMO.
Like an S2 Elise, you can initiate a surprisingly sharp turn with a hint of oversteer by giving the car a heads-up on which way you want to turn with the steering wheel and quickly transferring weight to the front wheels. Unlike an Elise, that turn will quickly become a slide, and you have to dial in countersteer QUICKLY. Like predict rather than react to the slide. Don't do it fast enough and the slide turns into a spin. Lifting off the gas in a slide is a good way to quickly transition from sliding in one direction to the other, so you should avoid doing so otherwise. It won't whip the car into a violent spin toward the outside of the corner like an older 911 unless you're fairly aggressive with it.
They're really good on dirt, it's like you're surfing the corners with the rear wheels, more gas in a slide just seems to make them go faster. Very unique-handling car but I would recommend getting plenty of practice somewhere with lots of runoff room.
I remember in Gran Turismo 2, after getting bored with the Mitsubishi GTO (3000GT) with a 1000 hp/AWD, finding this little Lancia Stratos and thinking it was kind of cool looking. Then dumping all the options on it to go fast, it was a rocket ship!
What an awesome car. But that price! The Launcha Splatos is more in my price range:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/04/fiat-x19-alfa-romeo-164-plywood-launcha-splatos/
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