Luxury problem - headroom in the Lancia Stratos
02/09/2014
Anyone who was born tall and has ever tried to drive a Lancia Stratos will usually talk about how they had to drive with their head tilted.
In fact, the standard Lancia Stratos only offers enough headroom for people under 1.8 meters. This naturally makes you wonder how the "tall one", i.e. Walter Röhrl, managed to drive this car despite being 1.96 meters tall. Röhrl used a Stratos in the 1978 German Rally Championship and finished in first place four times.
In fact, the Group 4 rally version offered considerably more space for people with long torsos than the standard version. The seat was lowered and flatter, giving more headroom even with a helmet. Röhrl would hardly have been able to clinch rally victories with his head tilted at an angle.
Despite his victories, Röhrl was not enthusiastic about the Statos; in retrospect, he preferred the later 037 Rallye to the wedge-shaped Bertone design.
Incidentally, the original white Group 4 Stratos pictured is/was on the Lukas Hüni stand at the 2014 Rétromobile.
