Designed by Bertone’s designer Marcello Gandini, the Lancia Stratos HF (Tipo 829), widely known as Lancia Stratos, is a competition rally car made by Italian car manufacturer Lancia. The HF stands for High Fidelity. Powered by a 2418 cc 65° DOHC Dino V6 producing 280 bhp. The Stratos was a very successful rally car during the 1970s and early 1980s. It started a new era in rallying as it was the first car designed from scratch for this kind of competition. About 50 units were made.
A Bertone-designed concept car, the Lancia Stratos Zero, was shown to the public in 1970, but shares little but the name and mid-engined layout with the Stratos HF version.
Lancia presented the Bertone-designed Lancia Stratos HF Prototype at the 1971 Turin Motor Show. The prototype Stratos HF (Chassis 1240) was fluorescent red in colour and featured a distinctive crescent-shaped-wrap-around windshield providing maximum forward visibility with almost no rear visibility.
492 examples of the Stratos were produced for Group 4 homologation into the 1974 World Rally Championship. Powered by the Dino 2.4 L V6 engine that was also fitted to the rallying versions, but in a lower state of tune, it resulted in a power output of 190 PS (140 kW), giving the road car a 0-60 mph time of just under five seconds, and a top speed of 144 mph (232 km/h). The car was sold as the Lancia Stratos Stradale.
A new car called the New Stratos, designed by Pininfarina, was announced in 2010 which was heavily influenced by the design of the original Stratos, but was based on a Ferrari chassis and engine. (wikipedia)
