1993 Litton Corse I - Strato's Replica

Or for me - I cannot get a link to work to direct to it - But trying.

And giving up as no matter what I do it links to some such nonsense - thread 880297 page 10 - links above removed until I figure why Piston heads links are messing about.

no sorry
dosnt work for me same as before maybe its piston heads

That's weird it was a direct copy and past from the browser, I even tried it in the post preview and have tried it now and it works OK.

Many thanks - for the link. - ETA it worked for me once and now does what it did when I posted the link ! most odd - anyway the info on the thread is there for those to find with any interest in this.

Q. Is that the actual car on the magazine cover ?
A. Yes you can see that the wing mirror matches

So how does a Lancia Strato's replica get from being a Cover Girl to a - well a - eerr - less than a cover girl and best leave it at that.

Short version of a not very long story is that I built a Fisher Fury with a mate of mine and when completed we had a conversation about what we would build next. Came down to two cars - Strato's and a D Type, I figured the Fury was 60's style and we had done that so went looking for a Strato's project and found this. Tracked the owner down and a while later he agreed to sell - price agreed - and car was mine. My mate thought I was bonkers and decided that the best option for him was to buy me out of the Fury thereby providing the funds to feed my utter madness in taking on this.... less than a cover girl.

After a bit of research the car - known as SiD - Stormtrooper in Drag - was found to be a Litton Corse i Strato's replica - The cars had a fully MSA motorsport compliant chassis and on the i version independent rear suspension, this is fully adjustable to allow for geometry changes. Early on the car attended a few shows and really was not a car you would miss.








Image above you can just make out the Stormtrooper script.


These cars were available with a choice of powerplants - 4 in-line Lancia, 6 in-vee Honda, Alfa and Ferrari and 8 in-vee Ferrari and this was one is using the 2.7L V6 from the Rover 827 / Honda Legend C27A engine.

Like many kit car manufacturers Litton cars was born of Allora which was later CAE and then Napiersport and then some. To add to the mystery this car was not 100% Litton as after placing his order and taking delivery of the chassis Litton went pop before the builder could get his hands on the body. As these were not cheap cars I can imagine that quite a lot of unhappiness was expressed. Thankfully there was/is more than one Stratos replica manufacturer and our builder managed to purchase a full body from Hawk cars. Again, as anyone who has been involved with kit cars it was not straightforward as the two makes are not 100% interchangeable and some work on the chassis was required which will become apparent a little later in this thread.

Summary

Litton Corse i Chassis - Hawk HF3000 body - wide body Group 4 round arches body -lots of work, show paint job and front page billing on a mag. Fast Forward twenty years and it's looking a little worse for wear.

Try this link:
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=30&t=880927&mid=0&i=180&nmt=Hawk%20Stratos%20prices&mid=0

The timeline for this is quite easy to follow from the Pistonheads thread and I have now had the car coming up two years in a few months. It's been slow progress as I am also one of the RR majority that ends up with more than one project on the go at once - the inevitable result being that nothing gets completed particularly quickly.

Having had its 15 minutes of fame



The inevitable decline set in with loss of looks and stature




Cosmetic surgery was clearly attempted to give a more up to date look - Firstly with some work around the eye's and more fashionable ( for the time) footwear
The result, as always, is with debate.

Such was that call of the surgeons knife that the habit really took hold and what clearly started as a attempt to keeping up with the fashions of the day turned into something more - drastic and ultimately life threatening.

There are few sounds that really stir the blood of a true petrol head like that of a V6 with little silencing at full chat - A Matra V12 gives it a good run for its money though.

If I recall correctly Ian Stent built a Transformer Strato's HF2000 - either way it's not this one as its a two owner car - the Builder one Mr. Castle, and me. I had the mag as well at the time and I also have in the back of my mind that the paint job was the prize in a competition in the same magazine but I may be incorrect.

On the day of collection and digging the car out of the garage we got the final chapter of the story on how the reconstructive surgery was started but was actually never really started.

My mate James who I built the Fury with is standing in the background of this picture and it took about a year before his thoughts and expression changed from the " WTF are you thinking"



Oh and that's the good side - And that should satisfy the doubters that it's the same car as the magazine article.

The other side



And the side my mate was pondering.




So there she is now in my ownership - time to put a plan together.


Plan A - Repair the centre tub and buy some new panels. Second hand panels and parts do come up from time to time but all of the various types are subtly different and it would add to the work. Then again if I were afraid of a bit of work I would not have been strapping SiD onto my trailer. Hawk panels that would fit are very expensive and I would have to make a compromise in the vision for the car as the centre tub is a group 4 round arch and not a group 4 square arch as the red car above.

Plan B - Replace the whole lot - very very expensive.

Not being made of money I started down the route of trying to find panels whilst stripping the car down to see what foundation I had to build from.