LANCIA STRATOS HF Concept BERTONE 1970 and Road and Rally versions 1973 1978

World Rally Championship Winner 1974-1975-76

The Lancia Stratos HF (Tipo 829), widely and more simply known as Lancia Stratos, is a sports car and rally car made by Italian car manufacturer Lancia. 492 cars have been produced between 1973 and 1978. The HF stands for High Fidelity. It was a very successful rally car, winning the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975 and 1976.

One extraordinary Lancia Stratos HF Zero concept car was unveiled in 1970 with a very low wedge shape body where driver and passenger were nearly lying in the seat with access through a pop up windscreen and tilting steering wheel.

Lancia Stratos HF Zero Concept 1970

The Lancia Stratos Zero (or 0) preceded the Lancia Stratos HF prototype by 12 months and was first shown to the public at the Turin Motor Show in 1970. The futuristic bodywork was designed by Marcello Gandini, head designer at Bertone, and featured a 1.6 L Lancia Fulvia V4 engine. The Lancia Stratos HF Zero was exhibited in Bertone's museum for many years. In 2011 it was sold during an auction in Italy for €761,600. It has been displayed in the exhibit "Sculpture in Motion: Masterpieces of Italian Design" at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. It was at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta at the "Dream Cars" exhibit in 2014, on loan from the XJ Wang Collection of New York City.

The car's body is wedge-shaped and finished in distinctive orange. It is unusually short in length (3.58 m (141 in)) and height (84 cm (33 in)), and it shares little with the production version.

The 1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero Concept was sold for Euros 761.600 at RM Auction Sale at Villa d'Este in 2011

Lancia Stratos HF Stradale and Rally car 1973 1978

Lancia presented the Bertone-designed Lancia Stratos HF prototype at the 1971 Turin Motor Show, a year after the announcement of the Stratos Zero concept car. The prototype Stratos HF (Chassis 1240) was fluorescent red in colour and featured a distinctive crescent-shaped wrap-around windshield providing maximum forward visibility with almost no rear visibility. The prototype had three different engines in its early development life: the Lancia Fulvia engine, the Lancia Beta engine and finally, for the 1971 public launch, the mid-mounted Dino Ferrari V6 producing 190 hp (142 kW) in road trim. The use of this engine had been planned from the beginning of the project, but Enzo Ferrari was reluctant to sign off the use of this engine in a car he saw as a competitor to his own Dino V6. After the production of the Dino had ended, the "Commendatore" (a popular nickname for Enzo Ferrari) agreed to deliver the engines for the Stratos, upon which Lancia suddenly received 500 units.

One 1974 Lancia Stratos HF Stradale was sold for US$ 429.000 at Gooding and Company Auction Sale at Pebble Beach, California in 2013.
One 1974 Lancia Stratos HF Stradale (Chassis N° 829ARO001527) was sold for US$ 660.000 at RM Auction Sale in Monterey California in 2014 while another model (Chassis N° 829ARO01571) wassold for Euros 431.200 at RM Auction Sale at Villa Erba in 2015.

Photos Damiens -Text Source-Wikipedia- RM Auction 2011,2014 and 2015 - Gooding and Company 2013