Making children cry’s not really the done thing. Certainly, it was never Seb Perez’s intention. But heading up the hill out of Sweet Lamb, it happened.
Hairpin left executed perfectly, Perez opened the taps and let the six cylinders sing their song. It was music to the ears of thousands. Except a couple of children who didn’t cover their ears quickly enough and clearly thought the noise telegraphed the beginning of the end of the world.
Much as Oliver Solberg and Kris Meeke were the stars of the Roger Albert Clark, the cars weren’t far out of Carmarthen before the realization dawned that it was the stunning Amigos-liveried Lancia that was going to steal the show.
And it did.
That noise. I’m all for a properly driven BDA – and there was no shortage of those – but that Ferrari-engined Stratos was quite exquisite. Undoubtedly, there’s the rarity of the thing to consider (pretty much every other car came with a Blue Oval up front) but the Stratos was different.
It was the same 50 years ago. Right around this time, northern Italy was brought to a standstill when Nuccio Bertone drove the prototype Stratos across Turin and under the barrier at the Lancia factory.
Even better, Cesare Fiorio had persuaded Enzo Ferrari to supply that glorious 2.4-liter V6 engines to power them.
Remembering that moment, Fiorio told DirtFish: “Ferrari never gave his engines to anybody outside of Ferrari. But I had a good relationship with him. I was telling him about the problem we had with the [Lancia] Fulvia.
“I told Enzo we have to compete against the Alpine Renault and with the 911 Porsches and we have no chance if it doesn’t rain or snow or there’s no fog. But, we have this idea…”
“I explained to him the idea about Stratos, but I said: ‘There is no proper engine in the Fiat group…’ Finally, he accepted this plan and we started with the engine.”
Where’s the one place that Fiorio best remembers that noise, that note? At the time of writing, it’s where Perez is doing his thing right now.
“Kielder forest,” said Fiorio. “I never forget. You could hear the car from miles away, it was very, very special. That engine was fantastic.”
There’s another Italian who has similarly strong memories of the Stratos in Kielder. This Italian comes with a Finnish passport and the name Markku Alén.
“Most beautiful car ever,” Alén told DirtFish. “You see this car, you never forget it. But, hey, car was not easy to drive. Hey, hey, you taking this in Kielder forest with all the time rain and dark, dark, dark. You see nothing and all the time car is so nervous, big nervous. In gravel and rain, not so easy.
“And you, know, I am big guy, Stratos is small car, no room and five days in RAC, not so easy. Always raining. Nervous car, hey, but beautiful…”
Soon enough, we’ll capture Perez’s verdict on Alén’s five-day theory, but for now let’s just be eternally grateful to Steve and Seb Perez for bringing that beautiful car back for more.
