A Crazy Concept from The Wedge Era

Pininfarina and Bertone ended up two of Italy’s very best recognized and most profitable postwar coachbuilders. Each Milanese carrozzerie competed for commissions and they debuted outrageous concept cars to impress the general public and to entice automakers into picking just one of them in excess of the other. In 1970, at the Turin Vehicle Display, Bertone unveiled the Lancia Stratos HF, which quickly became commonly known by its inside nickname: Zero.

h/t: fristartmuseum

To obstacle Pininfarina, whose styles tended to be alluringly curvaceous, Bertone generated a extremely reduced, sharply chiseled coupe that appeared to have been carved out of a solid block of bronze. At only 33 inches high, it was arguably very low plenty of to be pushed correct underneath a semitrailer. Structure specialists have commented that the Stratos HF Zero was a sizeable action among the 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo and the generation Lamborghini Countach.

Even right after a lot more than thirty a long time, the Stratos remains really futuristic on the lookout. Absolutely nothing about it was typical, preserve for the wheels in all 4 corners. The steering column could be moved ahead to permit a lot more home to enter the vehicle. Simultaneously, a hydraulic system opened the broad Perspex windscreen, which served as the car’s single door. Occupants could see directly in advance and above—and minimal else.

The expense of making the Zero was reportedly forty million lire (about $450,000 in 1970). Nuccio Bertone drove the Stratos on community streets to Lancia’s offices, stunning all who observed the impossibly very low coupe, and marveling at it himself when he drove it under the closed entrance barriers at Lancia’s racing office.

The outcome of that meeting was the radical Lancia Stratos rally car or truck. Although the production Lancia Stratos, with its midmounted Fiat/Ferrari V-6 engine, did not carefully resemble the Zero, the edgy, all-wheel-drive race motor vehicle would in all probability not have been developed had it not been for the influence of the inimitable Zero.

(Visited 1 periods, 1 visits currently)