Background
A limited production 'homologation special', the Lancia Stratos is historically significant as the first car from a major manufacturer conceived specifically for rallying.
The spearhead of Lancia's international rally campaign in the 1970s, the Stratos had its origins in a Fulvia-powered, mid-engined design exercise by Marcello Gandini first exhibited on Carrozzeria Bertone's stand at the 1970 Turin Motor Show.
Also the work of Gandini and Bertone, the production Stratos of 1972 retained the striking 'wedge' styling of its forbear but employed the powerful Ferrari Dino 2.4-litre V6 engine. The latter was housed in a robust steel monocoque body tub clad in fibreglass coachwork.
Although homologation required 500 cars to be built, it’s thought that only 492 were actually produced.
Buying an original example today will cost you a very great deal of money.
Thankfully, Gerry Hawkridge has spent several decades creating something rather more affordable.
In 1984 he founded the ‘Transformer’ kit-car company in East Sussex, England, together with Colin Artus and Gordon Cruickshank. Two years later, he founded Hawk cars.
His objective was to make faithful recreations of the Lancia Stratos with “…authentic interiors, brilliant handling, superb engineering quality, and great performance”.
The two-seater, mid-engined cars were available in two standard models, the HF2000 and HF3000. Both featured a folded steel and tube chassis, fibreglass bodies and a variety of Lancia and Fiat parts.
The panels were engineered so closely to the original specification that they were often supplied as replacement parts to owners of the genuine cars.
The HF2000 could be had with a variety of engines, principally variations on the 2-litre Beta / Thema / Delta engine, with either 8 or 16 valves, and atmospheric, turbo or Volumex compressor options.
The HF3000 could be optioned with the 164 3-litre V6 Alfa engine or, if you had rather deeper pockets, an original Ferrari Dino V6 or 308 V8 power unit.
