Photo: MAT
With all that’s going on in the world, and given the fact more than a year passed since we heard anything about it, we all but forgot about the revival of one of the most thrill-giving nameplates in European car history.
That nameplate is the Stratos, once a product of Italian brand Lancia and more recently a car to be made by a group called Manifattura Automobili Torino (MAT). Shown in the flesh at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show (about nine years after the first prototype was first unveiled), the New Stratos as it’s called has pretty much sunk into oblivion since.
That changed this week, when a fresh piece of news was made public by MAT: the New Stratos is alive and kicking, and will be attending the Blenheim Palace Salon Prive in September. In an industry devoid of auto shows big and small this year, that’s big news.
In case you forgot what the New Stratos is all about, here’s a quick reminder; we’re not talking about a car built from the ground up, but rather a conversion of a Ferrari F430 – even if officially MAT calls it “an independent sports car that integrates several components from the Fiat Group’s production vehicles.”
That means the hardware that powers it is also of Ferrari make, in this case the 4.3-liter V8 engine usually deployed on F430, developing 540 hp and a maximum torque of 519 Nm here. Paired to either a manual or a sequential transmission, it delivers a 0-62 mph (100 kph) acceleration time of 3.3 seconds and a top speed limited at 170 mph (274 kph).
MAT will be making just 25 units of the New Stratos – two of them have already been made and showed at last year’s Swiss auto show, but we have no info on the status of the others.
We are not told when deliveries of the New Stratos are expected to begin. Prices are said to be well over $600,000 (yes, it sells in the U.S. as well), base Ferrari F430 not included.
That changed this week, when a fresh piece of news was made public by MAT: the New Stratos is alive and kicking, and will be attending the Blenheim Palace Salon Prive in September. In an industry devoid of auto shows big and small this year, that’s big news.
In case you forgot what the New Stratos is all about, here’s a quick reminder; we’re not talking about a car built from the ground up, but rather a conversion of a Ferrari F430 – even if officially MAT calls it “an independent sports car that integrates several components from the Fiat Group’s production vehicles.”
That means the hardware that powers it is also of Ferrari make, in this case the 4.3-liter V8 engine usually deployed on F430, developing 540 hp and a maximum torque of 519 Nm here. Paired to either a manual or a sequential transmission, it delivers a 0-62 mph (100 kph) acceleration time of 3.3 seconds and a top speed limited at 170 mph (274 kph).
MAT will be making just 25 units of the New Stratos – two of them have already been made and showed at last year’s Swiss auto show, but we have no info on the status of the others.
We are not told when deliveries of the New Stratos are expected to begin. Prices are said to be well over $600,000 (yes, it sells in the U.S. as well), base Ferrari F430 not included.
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