Project Stratos

SN 001559 is being auctioned, a deep pocket restoration is necessary (no affiliation):
https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/mo22/monterey/lots/r0050-1976-lancia-stratos-hf-by-bertone/1244705

 

Thanks for posting. Really cool car. It's tailor made for Kanan or Mulholland.

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

.

 

This was Toly Arutunoff's car. I saw him use it in anger way back when, on his Hallet track.

 

Glad to hear she was thoroughly enjoyed... Next?

The one interesting accouterment I noticed on her was the cross-ram intake manifold.
The discerning eye will notice the carbs are set at about a 45-degree angle to the crank, unlike a standard Stratos/Dino which has the carbs @ 90 degrees.
This is a competition manifold, with longer intakes, which cross from one side of the engine to the other. and can accommodate larger Webers.
(My old 001882 had the same) The throttle linkage is different, especially trick with the hand throttle.
This is only useful if one ports&polishes with larger valves and installs a larger exhaust manifold (which 001559 has.)

Back in the day, Toly made this a brutal beast, put a lot of money in her.
I'm not quite sure which way a restoration should be approached....
Thoughts?

 

My lord where did they garage this poor car ... at the beach?

 

Yes, there seems to be a fair amount of rust in all sort of places. Hard to tell if it's just surface rust...

 

Those pedals look atrocious, kind of sad. Rode hard and put away wet, perhaps last in the salty snow?

 

Daytona 1977 (© RacingSportsCars - Fred Lewis).

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Anatoly Arutunoff had a serious accident in 2011 :
https://www.news9.com/story/5e36642c2f69d76f62076cc1/founder-of-hallett-motor-speedway-seriously-injured-in-hitandrun

 

Here are a few pics of the cranked intake manifold. I think it was supposed to deliver a little more torque in the lower rpm range.
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Beautiful intake manifold photos!
This set-up obviously mandates using a non-stock air cleaner housing
Here is the solution on 001882, which still allows the stock rear clamshell and Muira vents.

GIOTTO, thanks for the period photos! She still looks unmolested in 1977.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

At Sebring in 1977.

Image Unavailable, Please Login

Watkins-Glen :

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Apparently the engine currently in the car is from a Fiat Dino 2400 (spotted by my eagle-eyed go-to Stratos expert). He gave me a long list of other non-original (in many cases non Lancia) bits based on the photos on the RM site. Will be interesting to see the full catalog description once it's out. He also said that there was another Stratos competing in IMSA in period, driven by a Frank Bonfiglio (he did some work on it back then).

 

The louvered vents on the GR4 cars were hinged so they could be raised and used stand-offs to set the height to clear the air cleaner.

 

The old girl got $566k. Not bad for a project that needs another $200 to $300k.
Thank you to whoever bought her!

 

Yeah, I was the underbidder so a bit bitter. It’s going to the right home, though, to someone who’ll do right by it…

 

Girardo & Co. ended up with this project Stratos. Very brave!
https://girardo.com/features/

 

Yes, I guessed that much a couple of days after the auction and confirmed with them.

 

Now you can buy it when they finish and save yourself the headache.