Page 18 - Lancia Stratos Zero Sample pages

118 ON WATSON FINE BOOK
The Media Reacts to the Zero
DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS
LEFT: Emerson Fittipaldi
was given a replica
scale model of the
Lancia Stratos HF Zero
by none other than the
car’s designer, Marcello
Gandini. TP ARCHIVE
looking at a woman. It has to be love at first sight. In just thirty seconds we know if she walks
well, has good legs and is pretty. It’s the same thing with the car. If it’s beautiful, it’s half the
battle.” A statement that may not be taken all that well today.
But what Emerson Fittipaldi had to say about the Stratos Zero was most revealing: “When
you see the Stratos for the first time, with its clean lines and no fenders, you may have the
impression that you are seeing a spaceship and not an automobile. It is quite possible that
fifteen or twenty years from now it will be in production, because some of its approaches
are an example of what we could have on the streets in the future. It also shows Bertone’s
inventive capability and vision, with which he has managed to build such a revolutionary car.
“As soon as I saw the Stratos up close, I thought I was seeing a GT without a top, it’s so low.
Since the Stratos has a roof, I was impressed when Bertone told me that it measures just 84
centimeters tall. I’ve never seen a car this low. To give you a better idea, one of the smallest
cars currently is the Lamborghini Miura, which is more than one meter tall. And a Formula 1
car, from the ground to the top end of the seat, is taller than the Stratos. Another thing that
impressed me was its small size. From the photos, I had the impression that it was bigger than
it is. For all this and for the very advanced, very striking aerodynamic lines, some of which we
saw on the Carabo, I thought the Stratos looked spectacular.”
© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS
Most interestingly, Fittipaldi pointed out that “when you open the door, the steering wheel
rises with it, because the steering column is connected to the base through a universal joint,
like on the old Romi Isetta,” reminding naysayers that the idea was not new. Yes, ingress to
the Isetta of yore (as well as the Heinkel Kabine or the Zundapp Janus) was through the front
end and the steering wheel also moved out of the way.
After closing the door, Fittipaldi “felt, then, as if I was in a closed Formula car. Mainly because
I was almost completely lying down, a normal position for the driver in both Formula 1 cars
and the Stratos. Therefore, I felt as if I was in a racing prototype and not in a road car. Not only
because of the height and position I was in, but also because of the hard and sensitive racing
tires, which transmitted all the track’s irregularities to the car.
© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOK
DALTON WATSO