Japan has a way of rewarding people who walk. In Fukuoka, on Kyushu, we picked up a tiny die-cast Lancia Stratos in its plastic capsule, white with the green and red Alitalia stripes. We walked outside, turned the corner, and there it was again, only this time at full size, with yellow wheels, the number 10 on its door and its nose pointed out of a garage.
The car that was built to win
The Stratos was Lancia's answer to a simple question: what if a rally car were designed from scratch to win, instead of being adapted from a road car? Marcello Gandini at Bertone drew the wedge, inspired by the 1970 Stratos Zero concept. Behind the driver sits the Ferrari Dino 2.4-litre V6, which made 190 PS in road form. Lancia needed road cars to homologate it, and built them from 1973 to 1975; around 492 Stradale cars are thought to have been made.
It worked. The Stratos won the World Rally Championship for manufacturers in 1974, 1975 and 1976, and from the 1975 season it wore the livery everyone remembers: Alitalia's white, green and red.
Sources: Wikipedia: Lancia Stratos and Stellantis: 50 years since the Stratos' first international win.
The one we found
The car in the garage is dressed exactly like the toy: Alitalia stripes over the bonnet, a red roof, a bank of four driving lamps on the nose, yellow wheels and the big number 10 on the door. It shares the space with a white Ferrari and a workshop's worth of tools. We didn't get to ask the owner whether it's an original Stratos or one of the well-built tributes, so we won't guess. Either way, standing next to it after holding the toy in your hand is a very strange feeling.
Why it stays with us
Some car spots are about rarity. This one was about timing: two Stratoses, one in the palm of your hand and one in a garage, five minutes apart. If you like finding cars like this, start with our eleven frames of Tokyo and our Tokyo night walk for more street spotting.
Photos and video: One Breath Pictures.
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