The New
Lancia Stratos project hasn't even been officially
launched yet but one Japanese toy manufacturer has been
very quick to get out of the blocks and create a tiny scale model of the boldly
reinterpreted shape of the Italian icon that perfectly
fuses the timeless historic legend with the shape of
automotive thinking of today. In fact the New Stratos is
still a few weeks away from its official press launch at
the Paul Ricard Circuit in France.
Japan is a country that boasts an enormous passion for
rally Lancias, and the win-laden Stratos in particular,
so it is entirely appropriate that the rebirth of the
legend should command attention there and focus on the
perfectly reworked new Stratos project which has
involved much care and attention being lavished to take
the original's DNA and thoroughly update it while still
retaining the iconic proportions that Marcello Gandini
chiseled out four decades ago on Nuccio Bertone's
drawing boards that brought so many inspired ideas to
life.Bertone
was ahead of his time in that period, the Zero concept
was one of the most futuristic cars of its era and the
Stratos looks every bit as good today as it did at the
start of the 1970s. The brief to update the legend was
as tough as it gets. That task fell to Pininfarina and
their design team have demonstrated that they are right
at the top of their game, irrespective of the 80 year
old company's current financial travails, beating off a
rival design from Bertone in the process. Reworking
Ferrari's F430 Coupé as a basis and especially to
engineer the chassis keep the compact proportions of the
original was just one of the project's mammoth tasks.
The new Japanese kit, from KamQ Fineworks, which offers
a slightly humorously proportioned take (certainly its
'proportions' lag somewhat behind those skillfully
crafted by Luca Borgogno and his team of designers at
Pininfarina!) on the New Stratos is apparently now
available either in kit form (CKD?) or pre built and
comes in a variety of colours including with full body
length Italian flag 'stripes' as well as the famous red
and white Marlboro rally colours, the Japanese firm
closely reflecting the dream of all Lancisti to
see the new car take to the special stages - which is
simply its birthright - and complete the circle.
