1970 was 48 years ago. That's nearly half a century, and even though this Lancia is as old as your grandpa's record player, it still looks cutting-edge and futuristic.
They don't make them like they used to? That's one heck of an understatement if you ask us, especially when it comes to the Lancia brand. Fiat tried making dorky hatchbacks like the Ypsilon or re-badged American sedans when fans wanted wedge-shaped supercars.
The HF Zero is a precursor to the much-loved Stratos supercar and widely considered to be Marcello Gandini's masterpiece. It's a concept, but one powered by a V4 engine from the Fulvia.
The 115 horsepower concept was also fitted with an 11.8-gallon gas tank and disk brakes. It's not running as smoothly as we would have liked, but that's part of the character. As the announcer puts it "these cars were never designed to be driven slowly," which is why it has to be pushed into the show.
Visitors to this year's Villa dEste on the shores of Lake Como got one heck of a show. The spaceship of a car rolled around with is windshield-door wide open and at one point even popped its unique hood. With a total height of just 33 inches, the seats are more like lounge chairs. There's also a display that reminds everybody of the Tesla tablet systems.
The study was originally presented in 1970 at the Turin Motor Show and named the Stratoslimite, which is Italian for "limit of the stratosphere."
In 2011, RM Sotheby’s sold this very Lancia Stratos HF Zero at the same Villa D’Este for €761,600, even though it was estimated at double that. Also worth mentioning is the fact that Manifattura Automobili Torino showed a "New Stratos" in Geneva. It's based on the Ferrari 430 and doesn't look half as good.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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