After July’s big (and briefly broken) update threw the regular monthly content drops for Gran Turismo 7 out of whack for a month, we should soon be back to the regular schedule. We don’t currently know anything about what the next update might include, but it probably won’t feature this slice of pure wedginess – the 1970 Lancia Stratos Zero concept.
It could well make its way to the game in the future, though, because it just won the Gran Turismo Award at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. That’s a prize dished out every year by Gran Turismo series creator Kazunori Yamauchi. Since 2008, it’s been awarded to “the most significant car balancing both artistic beauty and performance at the highest level and most desired for inclusion in the Gran Turismo game series.”
Lancia Stratos Zero – front
This year, it was the Stratos Zero that caught Yamauchi’s eye. A show car designed by the late Marcello Gandini, working for the Bertone design house, it’s perhaps the purest expression ever of the wedge style that was very much in vogue for supercars at the time.
While the Stratos name would go on to be used for Lancia’s world-beating rally car a few years later, it’s only really a name, designer and mid-engined layout that the two cars share. Despite its wild looks, the Stratos Zero was based around relatively humble mechanicals – the 1.6-litre, 113bhp V4 from a Lancia Fulvia.
Lancia Stratos Zero – side
The snug-looking cabin is accessed by a canopy that hinges upwards, while the engine cover is a wonderfully bizarre side-hinged triangular arrangement.
Having been resprayed in silver in the early ’70s, it made an unlikely appearance in the 1988 Michael Jackson film Moonwalker. It was then fully restored and returned to its original bronze colour in 2000, before being sold off by Bertone in 2011 amid its financial difficulties. It’s been privately owned since then.
Lancia Stratos Zero (replica) – rear
It’s worth noting that getting the Gran Turismo gong at Pebble Beach is no guarantee of the car appearing in the game any time soon – if ever. So far, eight of the 16 award winners have appeared in the series, with the pick from as long ago as 2015 – a 1952 Cunningham C4-R sports racer – yet to show up. The most recent choice to appear in-game was 2017’s winner, a 1929 Mercedes-Benz S Barker Tourer.
