When a Lancia Stratos still cost DM 45,000
07/10/2018
Today, the Lancia Stratos is one of the most sought-after sports cars from the innovative Turin-based car manufacturer. It was created to win in rally sport and it fulfilled this mission with flying colors. Uncompromisingly designed with a mid-engine, short wheelbase, short overhangs and minimal mass but sufficient power, it dominated the rally tracks for years.
To be able to compete in racing, at least 400 units had to be built. Not many more were built, even though the list price of DM 45,000 (equivalent to around EUR 23,000) or CHF 38,500 seems pretty cheap from today's perspective. And it is rumored that the last Stratos had to be sold off because there was no demand.
This is actually difficult to understand, as the Stratos received good marks from the motoring press. Gert Hack tested it for Auto Motor und Sport and noted impressive driving performance, including 6.8 seconds for the sprint from 0 to 100 km/h and a top speed of 236.8 km/h.
His test summary shows that the Stratos was a really good and surprisingly suitable car for everyday use:
"While much of the Stratos is reminiscent of an uncompromising driving machine, the suspension set-up proved to be surprisingly refined. The acceptable suspension, the maneuverability and the problem-free engine in everyday use are ultimately the reason why the Stratos is one of the few thoroughbred competition cars that can also be driven with pleasure in normal road traffic. This pleasure has already been worth around 45,000 marks to over 300 buyers. But the Lancia technicians' calculation also worked out: The Stratos is hard to beat on the rally track. "
No wonder the prices have climbed sky-high. Even reading the test report at the time is fun ...
