History is being revisited step-by-step in the New Stratos project (the brainchild of German car components magnate Michael Stoschek who also actually rallies a Stratos) as the original high performance sports car was conceived as a weapon by Lancia to fight it out for victory on the world's rally tracks and after massive success in the mud and gravel it quickly spawned a fearsome "Gp5" version which went straight into combat on the most famous and demanding of circuits.

The Stratos was first adapted for the race track in 1975, a glorious year for the Bertone-designed car which saw it dominate and win the World Rally Championship for Makes, and included victories on all the most prestigious events: Monte Carlo, Sweden, Tour de France, Tour de Corse and Sanremo. That year a semi-works Stratos turbo, prepared by Facetti for the race track, was entered in the European GT Championship; however it proved to be uncompetitive. The opportunity though was used for further development, and in 1976 as well as the Facetti cars, there appeared full factory-run Stratos turbo's in the new World Championship for Makes reserved for Group 5 cars. This version of the Stratos used a KKK turbo and Kugelfischer fuel injection system to produce 480 to 560 bhp with a 12V cylinder head and 0.8 bar of boost. These dramatic-looking racing cars featured a longer rear body which was designed by Bertone to improve the aerodynamics and a new chapter in the history of one of the world's most famous sports cars opened up.

Fast forward to today and the "New Stratos" project team propose that the legendary name could once more return to the race tracks: crushing its rivals in top-level competition has been the very DNA of the Lancia brand for a century, and it is simply the arena where anyone with an understanding of the famous Turinese brand must look, a fact that has obviously not been lost on Michael Stoschek, who through the realisation of this project has with each step show his adherence to history.

In a further development of the no expense spared New Stratos project a scale race version model has been developed in collaboration with Danisi Engineering of how the car could be taken on the track. Turin-based Danisi Engineering is one of the most respected niche road and race engineering firms in Italy. Danisi Engineering S.r.l. was in fact founded in 1995 has swiftly grown into a company that carries out important work for leading OEMs in the fields of chassis systems, providing engineering services, prototyping and low volume production. Danisi Engineering is also active in motorsport and racing. According to Danisi: "Most personnel have a racing background at top levels, coming from F1, sport-prototypes or world rally championship experience. We did develop race car’s components, sub-systems and complete rolling chassis for manufacturer’s race departments. In this field we offer a 'turn key service, from conceptual design to the complete racer fabrication and assembly. The company experience goes from formula to touring cars to rally-raid." These involvements include projects such as Alfa Romeo's 156 touring car racer, Fiat's GpA rally Punto and Iveco's Dakar rally-raid machines. In a neat synergy too, Danisi has previously worked alongside Pininfarina, the firm that designed and built the New Stratos, on several projects.