Thanks for the comments! So, Stratos.
First memories are seeing them on the Lombard in '77 and '78 but they disappeared for a few years as careers and uni took over but interest was rekindled in 84 at the LMC AGM in Birkenhead where there were two. The idea of building a kit car arose after rebuilding the Beta and I fell for the shape of the Nova. I saw one of those at a Southport show and when I found out the underpinnings were a Beetle. Enough said. Come 1985 and Transformer Cars & Allora Cars launched their versions of the Stratos. Three years later I'd managed to save enough for the deposit on a Transformer which I collected from Frant in 1988 and three years later it hit the road in it's first iteration and, over the years it's developed roughly along these lines:
Firstly, a red Stradale in RHD with a Volumex engine/box. Which I blew up at Aintree racecourse in 1995 in spectacular style whilst playing tag with a Ferrari. It was only an oil seal on the crankshaft but the clouds of smoke it produced when it burned off the exhaust was amazing! It got me a lot of sympathy from the Ferrari driver which was great because I managed to blag a 20 minute session as a passenger in a 1963 250GTO.
So, sitting at home was a 1991 Alfa 164 with a 3.0V6 that had cost £1400 due to a heavy rear end shunt. Drivetrain and a few bits removed and the remains sold to Ireland for £1100 was a result. so out with the Volumex (sold to another Stratos owner) and in with the V6 with a fitting kit from Hawk Cars. At the same time the bodywork was converted to square arch Group 4 bodywork.
A couple of years later I converted from the 4 stud hubs to 5 studs so I could fit the coffin spoke wheels that the Group 4 car is known for.
Then, when the windscreen was broken at a club do (no idea how!) it was time to ditch the Stradale interior and replace the dash with a Group 4 style one. And whilst the screen was out a repaint was called for and it reappeared in Pirelli livery.
Roll on a couple of years and the engine was shagged. And a nice Cloverleaf one appeared for a good price so it was swapped out with a Q2 limited slip diff fitted at the same time.
I managed to get involved with a fellow replica owner when he managed to buy an ex works Stratos that needed a full restoration and we went out to Italy together to bring it back to the UK to finish it off properly. Here's a linky to a 15 minute video about the car. It's a special one worth watching and I even get a credit in the titles at the end!
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1753772791598144Whilst we were in Italy I managed to buy the components to allow me to build up a set of Group 4 gauges. That saved me about £8,000. Yes, really! So, having got that and the rest of the components (like 7 Bosch pull switches at about £80 each) I set about building the best replica Group4 Stratos dash I could. And there's no point doing that as RHD so it involved converting the car from RHD to LHD. Not a simple job but doable on the earlier chassis! So, that's where it stands at the moment. But it's not finished yet.
In the pipeline is yet another motor, probably a 3.2 (although if Stratos 2 sells well) I may take that out to 3.8 with a set of vertical throttle bodies on a Group 4 airbox.
Guy
