The Lancia Stratos of old should require no introduction to you. It was a Ferrari-engined, rally-crushing doorstop with all the calm and collected serenity of a pissed off Tasmanian devil. It is one of the most legendary rally cars ever created, the first scratch-built model expressly designed for the sport with a body by Bertone that echoed the wedge-shape that was all the rage. The Dino V6 is a flat-plane crank screamer that is related to the twin-turbo unit found in the Ferrari 288GTO…enough said there. It is a car so legendary that in 2010, a German man got Pininfarina to build a “new Stratos” out of a Ferrari 430 Scuderia. That particular car is the one in the lead photo, and it’s about as good as you can get for a reborn classic. It had good proportions, proper touches, and a Ferrari mill in the back, as it should be. 

But there was a problem with the “new Stratos”: Ferrari themselves. Even though then-president Luca di Montezemolo praised the New Stratos after getting a crack behind the wheel, the planned run of forty cars was aborted when Ferrari made it clear that in no way would they allow Pininfarina to go through with the plan. So one New Stratos existed and that was that…right? Well, leave it to a loophole: so long as the company who was building it didn’t depend on Ferrari’s support, the project could be undertaken once more. And that’s exactly what has happened. Manifattura Automobili Torino, a company ran by Paulo Garella (the leader of the team that built New Stratos) has taken on the project. They will build twenty-five carbon-fiber bodied examples in one of three setups: GT Racer, Safari (rally spec) or road-going. While the first car was based on the 430, a 360 Modena or a 458 Italia could be used as a potential donor car. If you’ve got the cash and the desire, they become available for order in the spring…which probably means that you need to move your hind end now if you want an order slot. For those of us on beer budgets, the first of the new production run will be on display at the 2018 Geneva Auto Show.

Yeah, it’s a supercar, and yeah, it will be stratosphere money. But this is BangShift-worthy from a blue-blood standpoint, and we hope that at least a couple of the buyers actually go have some fun with their new toy. Bonus points if it hits an actual rally stage!