Zenith & Lancia Stratos World Meeting

The last weekend of June 2016 offered an extraordinary blast for the petrolheads amongst us: Zenith teamed up with its ambassador, Éric Comas, to organise the Lancia Stratos World Meeting, in Biella (Piedmont, Italy) to celebrate the 40 years anniversary of the legendary car's equally legendary World Rally Championship Title in 1976. The meeting was set to coincide with the Rally della Lana Storico 2016, adding extra thrill to the event. Surely, Zenith also presented a commemorative watch!



Biella - commonly known as the 'captial of wool' (and famous for its risotto rice agriculture as well) was also the home to the Lancia Stratos development team around Claudio Maglioli - and thus an apt choice for the meeting venue.



Besides, isn't the Piazza Duomo just a natural place for displaying classic cars?



Altogether, 40 Lancia Stratos from all over the world (including one from California!) found their way to Biella, that is roughly 10% of the entire production. One after the other arrived, and were prepared for the meeting:



A father and daughter team preparing their car...

The view was just spectacular!

Such an amassment of pureblooded rally-cars is rare, and thus it come to no surprise that the local population was thrilled and flocked and made the event a true, lively family affair:

Special vehicles inluded ;-)



And even the dogs!



The car above is btw a unique piece: The New Lancia Stratos, commissioned by Michael Stoschek,  a German billionaire businessman, chairman of Brose Fahrzeugteile,

A few words on the Lancia Stratos: Derived from the Bertone designed prototype Stratos HF which was presented at the Torino Motor Show 1971, Lanica's Sports Director Cesare Fiorio commissioned the production of the rally car according to a simple concept: mid engine, easily changeable gear ratios, short wheel base.

The 6-cylinder engine was derived from the Ferrari Dino, with official support of Enzo Ferrari.



The result was a superb and almost unconquerable racing machine, up there with other legends such as the Porsche 917 or the Ford GT 40.



Its purpose-driven shape is recognised even decades after the production stopped (here one of the examples sporting the legendary Alitalia livery).

Key to the success of the event was Zenith Ambassador Éric Comas who himself is an avid Lancia Stratos racer and participated with his own (and Zenith-sponsored) Lancia Stratos HF:





Thumbs up with Gabriele Bodo, organiser of the Rally della Lana Storico, Éric Comas and Zenith CEO Aldo Magada.

The second day offered us some pure adrenaline shots - being directly, quite physically exposed to the rally progress of the della Lana Storico. First of course, Èric Comas in his Zenith Lancia Stratos HF:

A fantastic Ford Escort, these cars are the most entertaining for the observer - thanks to its famous tail spin!

Once more a Lancia Stratos (one of the three participating in the rally), here in Alitalia livery - and actually piloted by an Alitalia pilot!



No rally is complete without a Renault Alpine, first series!

More rally images in a separate post!

We concluded the visit together with the Lancia Stratos owner at the Oasi Zegna, a natural area dedicated to environmental education, created by the entrepreneur Ermenegildo Zegna, founder of the namesake haute couture maison.

Spectacular view, particularly that day. But this is not all...

As there was a special treat waiting for us: a fanfare of the 40 Ferrari engines powering all those Lancia Stratos cars /turn up the volume!):



That closes the day for us. In the reply I would finally present the Zenith El Primero Chronomaster Lancia Stratos World Meeting LE, and share some insights into how the partnership came to fruitition.




This message has been edited by Ornatus-Mundi on 2016-07-06 14:14:31 This message has been edited by MTF on 2016-07-06 14:28:47