This book describes the birth, development and rallying career of the Lancia Stratos, Europe’s very first purpose-built rally car, in the mid/late 1970s. It provides a compact and authoritative history of where, when and how it became so important to the sport, as well as telling the story of the team. The book is part of Graham Robson’s definitive “Rally Giants” series, published by Veloce.
By:
Graham Robson
Imprint: Veloce
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 195mm,
Width: 210mm,
Spine: 9mm
Weight: 385g
ISBN: 9781787115262
ISBN 10: 1787115267
Series: Rally Giants
Pages: 128
Publication Date: 07 June 2019
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword 5 Introduction & acknowledgements 7 Introduction 7 Acknowledgements 8 The car and the team 9 Inspiration 9 The Stratos' importance in rallying 12 The Stratos' home ground 14 Facing up to rival cars 14 Manufacturing - meeting the rules 16 Engineering features 19 Setting the layout 22 Launch and development 30 Homologation, and running changes 35 Building and maintaining the works cars 38 Personalities and star drivers 42 Competition story 50 The Stratos' career 50 Homologation achieved 55 Which new cars took over, and why 107 The Stratos' successor 110 Chequered Flag and Stratos - a long story 113 Four cars, one colour scheme 115 Stratos works rally cars - World Championship rallies (and when first used) 120 World/major European rally wins 121 Index 127
After a varied career in the automotive industry Graham Robson has gained a worldwide reputation as a motoring historian, and has more than 160 books to his credit. Born in 1936, and educated at Ermysteds Grammar School in Yorkshire, Graham then went on to study Engineering at Oxford University. He joined Jaguar Cars as a graduate trainee, becoming involved in design work on the Mk II, E-Type and Mark X. Beginning as a hobby, he became a rally co-driver, eventually joining the Sunbeam 'works' team in 1961, and took part in rallies up to International level (once with Roger Clark), but stopped rallying by 1968. During this time he joined Standard-Triumph in Coventry, in 1961, as a Development Engineer, mainly on sports car projects. He then ran the re-opened 'works' motorsport department from 1962 to 1965, this being the period of the birth of Spitfire Le Mans cars, TR4, Vitesse, Spitfire and 2000 rally car developments. Graham Robson’s writing began with rally reports for magazines which evolved into a job with Autocar from 1965-1969. He was recruited back to industry at Rootes to run the Product Proving department, then after a brief period in 1972 as technical director of a safety belt company, became an independent motoring writer. Graham has lived 'by the pen' and 'by the voice', not only writing but commentating, presenting and organising events of all types.