This car sold for $1,084,290, including buyer’s premium, at RM Auctions’ Villa d’Este auction in Cernobbio, Italy, on May 21, 2011.
At auto shows over the years, we’ve encountered two types of “display only” vehicles. Common today are concept cars, which are thinly-disguised production models on the eve of introduction which are given a few un-producible details, such as single-point woodshelled seats resting on a floor of recycled AstroTurf to separate them from the derivative final version soon to appear in your local showroom.
Back in the day, there were dream cars—static, fullsized models built of fiberglass or wood. While these models were finished to an impressive standard, many 1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero That windshield does tilt up, and once inside, a turn of the key starts the engine, and you can drive off across town. It’s the future come to vivid life by Donald Osborne Photos: Tom Wood ©2011 Courtesy of RM Auctions August 2011 61 times they lacked an actual interior and certainly had no means of motive power. These models provided glimpses into futuristic travel using solar/hydrogen/plant waste/nuclear power—and boasted humidity-sensing automatic four-place bubble tops and multi-function steering stalk/ gearshift/ in-car entertainment centers.
Marcello Gandini’s Stratos HF Zero at first glance looks to be clearly the latter, with its ultra-low, extreme shape, tilt-up windshield for entry and sidesaddle instrument panel. But, that windshield actually does tilt up, and once inside the Zero, a turn of the key fires up the DOHC V4 engine, and you can drive off across town. It’s the future come to vivid life.
A shining light
While the Stratos Zero is considered the progenitor of the multi-championship winning Stratos HF rally and road car which followed, it’s obvious that they share naught save for the name, mid-engine configuration and designer. But what the running prototype did do was to shine a spotlight on the Lancia brand at a time when Fiat management was giving a very wary eye to its recent acquisition and looking to determine its direction.
Pierugo Gobbato, appointed head of Lancia after Fiat’s purchase, was not hopeful about much he observed in the company. Slow sales, an over-assorted, well-designed— but aging—line of products and hardly anything in the development pipeline. Another, less imaginative executive would probably have advised management to cut their losses and fold the brand. Instead, Gobbato did something few of us would do in the situation. He looked at what was going right with the company, which was the competition department. Lancia was winning regularly with the Fulvia in rallies, but it was also the time when rally cars began to move away from modified production models to specially designed and built creations.
When Gobbato saw the Stratos Zero, he knew at once that this ultra-low, compact, mid-engined car was an avenue to be explored. Bertone’s visit to the Lancia Corse facility and the examination and driving of the Zero done that day quickly established that a less-radical solution than the Zero needed to be found, but it also convinced the team that unconventional thinking would be necessary in developing the car which would become the Stratos HF.
An icon of the 1970s
The Zero is very much a period artifact. After the voluptuous curves of the 1960s, the drama of the Wedge Era at the start of the 1970s was striking. Suddenly, every stylist had burned his set of French curves and taken a graduate course in origami.
Among the motor show and magazine cover stars of the era, such as the Maserati Boomerang, Lamborghini Marzal and Countach, the Stratos Zero is a leading player— a true piece of unique motorized fine art. I encountered this spaceship on wheels in 2006, when attending the 100th anniversary celebration for Lancia in Turin, Italy. An evening reception was held in the courtyard of Italy’s equivalent to West Point in the heart of the city. In the center of the courtyard—copper paint glowing under spotlights—was the Stratos Zero. Nothing prepared me for the presence this very small and very low car had. It was effortlessly evil, beautiful and strong all at once.
Bertone bankruptcy forces sale
So, how did this icon of the time come to the open market for the first time in its life? Those of us in the appraisal trade find much of our business in the area of “transitions,” which is the lovely euphemism for the “Three D” speed bumps which punctuate our lives: Death, Divorce, and Debt. It’s usually not a happy time for the client, but it is also more than occasionally an opportunity for someone to obtain property which has long been out of the market. The dramas, both business- and family-related which have sadly surrounded the onceproud design and manufacturing company Bertone are not worth recounting here. Just do a Google search for “Bertone, fights, bankruptcy” and you’ll get the facts— if not the uniquely Italian flavor and color of the soap opera which has led to the end of the company founded by Giovanni Bertone and built by his son Nuccio.
The most dramatic fallout of this unfortunate situation was the forced liquidation of cars and automobilia from the Bertone Collection.
In an unusually astute and rarely seen move, the bankruptcy administrator simply didn’t put an ad in the back pages of the newspaper “La Stampa” announcing a tent sale to be held at the Turin airport. While a sealed-bid auction tender was put out for a number of cars and the automobilia of the collection, the top cars were plucked from the gloom in advance to be offered by RM Auctions at their inaugural sale at the prestigious Concorso d’Eleganza Ville d’Este on Italy’s Lake Como.
For maximizing value, a better decision can scarcely be imagined. Every creditor looking to find blood in stones would give their warehouse padlocks for an opportunity such as this. And the results didn’t disappoint. Spectacular one-off jewels, such as the Lamborghini Marzal, Athon and Bravo were among the cars that realized nearly $4.5m.
One quarter of that total was the 1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero. As someone who seeks to determine value in rare objects, I keenly feel the challenge which faced RM in establishing the auction estimates for this car, for the comparables exist only in theory. The Zero sale result, even at a bit over half the low estimate, is one of the highest ever obtained at auction for a Lancia-badged vehicle. At that, I would absolutely call this car well bought; it has importance to a storied marque, is a style icon of its time from the pen of a legendary designer—and it is a functioning vehicle, sold for the first time from its creator. ?
(Vehicle description courtesy of RM Auctions.)
