Marcello Gandini, the designer responsible for rolling sculptures such as the Lamborghini Miura and the Countach, is also the one who penned the just-as-eye-catching Lancia Stratos back in the early 70s, a machine whose racing version grabbed three World Rally Championship titles between 1974 and 1976. And while Lancia isn’t doing too well as part of Fiat Chrysler these days, keep in mind that Italia design house Pininfarina has resurrected this as the New Stratos.
We’re looking at a design that strongly resembles the original (you can check this out in the pair of images above), albeit packing the obvious modern touches – this is based on the Ferrari F430 Scuderia and while it’s smaller than the Prancing Horse, the contraption still casts a larger shadow than the original.
Manifattura Automobili Torino (MAT), which is the company that actually builds the New Stratos, announced a production run of just 25 units, with each set to retail for $564,000 (on top of the Fezza donor car, of course). And while we were promised two additional versions, namely a jacked-up Safari and a GT track special, these have yet to show up.
So, what could we do to pass the time? Well, for one thing, there’s a New Stratos review at the bottom of the page, but, on top of that, we can stare at the rendering below, which brings a different kind of modern twist to the original Stratos.
This pixel work follows social media trends, which involve both renderings and builds. As such, we’re talking about a widebody approach, one that ironically doesn’t try to interfere with the original styling cues too much.
Then we have the aero work found on the lower side of the Lancia, which reminds us of the New Stratos. Oh, and let’s not forget the microscopic ground clearance – this could be the result of an air suspension, in which case the driver could easily lift the machine.
In case you’re wondering, Karan Adivi is the digital artist responsible for the opinion splitter that is this Stratos. And the Pistachio finish of the Lancia is on the house.
