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Bring A Trailer And Make This Lancia Stratos HF Stradale Your Weekend Warrior

Ah, Lancia! From zero to hero then zero again, the esteemed automaker has been reduced to a one-model manufacturer that lives on with what little cash the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles group has in its coffer. During a time when Lancia was a little more independent, however, the Turin-based company used to offer cars like the Stratos, not a reskinned Fiat Panda.
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Photo: Bring A Trailer
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Though it’s not the first Lancia to win the International Rally Championship (1972 with the Fulvia), the Stratos is the first purpose-built rally car and the second to win the World Rally Championship (1974, 1975, and 1976). And to this day, the Marcello Gandini-penned two-seater fascinates grown men and younger auto enthusiasts like a dancing cobra.

Seriously, just look at this thing! Even in HF Stradale form, the Stratos is out of this world, and nothing comes close to its wedge-shaped design, not even the Lamborghini Countach that was also penciled by Gandini. The pictured vehicle is chassis number 001544, making it the 44th of 492 examples ever built as a homologation special for WRC Group 4 rallying.

The car, listed on Bring A Trailer with five days to go until the auction ends, spent most of its life in Italy. With two owners from new and now located in the United States, #001544 shows a little more than 71,000 kilometers on the odometer and presents itself in unadulterated condition, inside and out.

Comprehensively serviced in 2017 and offered in perfect working condition, the Rosso Arancio Rally-painted Stratos HF Stradale is provided with copies of every owner’s, user’s, parts, and technical data booklets.

“There is a crack in the top left-hand portion of the windshield,” but that hasn’t stopped the seller from being offered $360,000 by the highest bidder up to this point. Tipping the scales at 2,161 pounds, powered by Ferrari’s 2.4-liter Dino V6, and offered with a clean Texas title, this blast from the not so distant past begs to be driven in anger as a middle finger salute to what Fiat Chrysler allowed Lancia to become today.

LATER EDIT

$475,000 later, the Stratos is now sold.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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