The Stratos de Lancia is an incredibly special car, but more than its special, it is at the forefront of simplicity. In an effort to design the car for the benefits of light racing cars, Bertone and Lancia have created what must be the simplest and yet most effective window mechanism that I’ve seen before. With little more than a wing nut, Stratos’ unorthodox window operation is infinitely adjustable and totally foolproof.
Because of Stratos’ strange shape, there isn’t much of a door for the window to enter, so a traditional vertical window channel just wouldn’t do. With a traditional window operation, he would have been left immovable an inch or two from the top. So, to get more from the window down on the door, enough to reach out for a rally Stage time slip or something, he mounted the back of the window glass on a pivot, and made a curved channel in the door that the front of the glass could hold. It is literally a moving part, the glass.
Although there are so many interesting things about the Lancia Stratos, from its rally history to its Dino-derived engine, I am standing admiring the windows. Maybe because I have been in love with this strange car and its incredible shape since I was very young, I am even more impressed by the things that many would consider quite mundane. Taking a simple problem like lowering the window and turning it upside down to do something as simple as that is just a testament to the creativity and genius of the designers and engineers who worked on this project.
In everything that is mechanical, I always look for simplicity and lightness in design. In all these years, I have never seen anything as simple and light as the Lancia Stratos window mechanism. Until this my light weight peak the engineering story was that Porsche made the Bergspyder 909 brake rotors from toxic materials Berílio. Sorry, German engineers, you were usurped by the Italians.