If a TR7 and Darth Vader's Tie Fighter had a child, this would be it... I still think it should be black, but the normal livery is white with green and red stripes.
Loads of power... rear wheel drive and sideways.
Nothin' say lovin' like Ferrari power and a bad attitude.
Too many enthusiasts have never even heard of these. I might not know about them if it hadn't been for a couple of chance encounters.
As a kid, my family went to Ecuador for vacation a couple of times. We had exchange students and went to visit with them. On one of the trips, there was a road race (rallye/raide) passing through Manta. We had the opportunity to view the cars up close after they came into town. I was in heaven. I was about 9 years old and loved cars...
The following morning we got up early and headed out of town on a bus. We hopped off about half an hour outside of Manta. We sat down at a little roadside stand, waiting for the cars and eating bananas. We had a couple of hours to wait. But, when the time came we could hear the cars... for MILES. These were full prepped race cars. And they were clipping.
The location that we were in had a couple of nice features. We were on a small rise over the road (literally only a couple dozen feet from the edge). The cars had a rise as they approached, which caused many of the cars to catch a little air. As they were calming down from the jump, they had a gentle left and a sharp right turn complex.
The cars were amazing. These were road prepped rally cars, and they were flying... I mean in the air. As they hit the ground, they rotated sideways and slid through the turns. Engines screamed, tires squealed and the crowd gasped and cheered.
One of the last cars to come by was a Stratos. It had an amazing sound. It was beautiful and menacing. I swear that it had anger in its voice and glee at the same time.
On our next trip a few years later, Angelo, our host, presented me with a model of the same car we saw racing. I knew the Lancia Stratos... I loved it, and would still love to own one of these evil, wonderful pieces of racing history.
For more, feel free to visit 101 Cars on my other blog...
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