Lancia Stratos Concept review

This Stratos’s playful agility is a satisfyingly dominant characteristic, at least on the Paul Ricard circuit where we got to try it. It turns in with high-precision zeal, the body instantly following your steering inputs, the throttle prompting equally sharp response from the V8 motor behind you.

Within a couple of laps the tight corners uncover a car that can be steered with the throttle and flung about with the abandon of an original, forest-rampaging rally Stratos as owner Stoschek, who slides its tail with some panache, demonstrates.

He reckons there’s too much understeer in the tight turns here, but reckons that can be dialled out with set-up changes. Because it will not be sold to the mainstream public, the Stratos has been set up to be more reactive – but it’ll be less forgiving if you get it wrong.

The nimble handling and eager speed make an immediate impact, but so does the structural integrity and hugely impressive, all-of-a-piece feel of this car which is completely free of rattles and creaks. That’s some achievement in a one-off.

Also superb is the standard of finish, from the flawless carbonfibre to the just-so stitching in the Alcantara dashboard and the beautifully milled aluminium door handles. The dash panel, which recalls the original Stratos brushed aluminium instrument surround, is a pleasure to survey.

And yes, the extraordinary helmet holders of the original car are integrated into the doors, though far more neatly than they were in 1974.

The result is a characterful and utterly exhilarating car that’s hugely entertaining, painstakingly constructed and as satisfying to pore over as it is to steer. It has cost a fortune, but it’s an extraordinary achievement.

The question is more, ‘can I buy one?’ Although the Stratos has been testing at Alfa Romeo Balocco and Ferrari’s Fiorano test tracks, and uses the Scuderia’s internals with Maranello’s approval, this is a private project, with no plans to cooperate with Fiat to commercialise it.

But the possibility of a limited run is there, the tooling for its constituent parts available and capable of producing small numbers. But right now, that decision has yet to be made.