The Lancia Stratos brought rallying out of the Dark Ages. John Davenport talks to those who helped make the legend
What is the sound sweetest to your ears? The call of the first cuckoo, real ale being pumped into a glass, the thud of leather on willow? Well, to rally fans over 30, the aural onslaught of a Lancia Stratos at full chat along a special stage, its Ferrari-based V6 playing a barely silenced symphony equal to anything by Vivaldi, is as good as it gets.
The Stratos was new, it was supersonic, it was downright sexy. Driven by superstars such as Sandro Munari, Jean-Claude Andruet, Björn Waldegård, Walter Röhrl and Bernard Damiche, it transformed the sport. During the 1960s, rallying was enjoyed by few and watched by less. If you saw a rally, it was probably by accident. This began to change as the sport moved into the '70s, nowhere more so than in Italy. Lancia successes and a phalanx of local drivers — Munari, Raffaele Pinto and Amilcare Ballestieri — meant that Italian rallying had overtaken its European rivals by the middle of the decade...
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