Looking at these recent photos of this Group IV Lancia Stratos as it’s been painstakingly brought back to life, it’s difficult to recall the acute state of disrepair in which we originally found the car in America, having languished untouched for many, many years. That condition has only made restoring this veteran of American endurance motorsport – this Daytona 24 Hours and 12 Hours of Sebring veteran – back to its former glory all the more satisfying.

Admittedly, a lot has happened since our last update, not least the reinstallation of the car’s soul-stirring V6 engine, the priming and painting of the chassis and the body, and the assembly of all the systems and componentry. It’s important to note the brief for this project was not to restore ‘The Duck’ to ‘as-new’ condition. This Lancia’s storied racing history is so fundamental to its identity that to wipe all signs of its use would, we feel, have been misjudged. As such, the plan was to maintain these benign signs of use while comprehensively overhauling the mechanical condition of the car, safeguarding its future for years to come.

Because this Stratos’ story was written not on European rally stages like most of its competition counterparts, but rather on the United States’ most famous road-racing circuits, there were so many charming yet uniquely challenging details to establish along the way and get absolutely right. Take the headlights, for example, which were not pop-ups as found on the Stratos HF Stradale but rather recessed on the leading edge bonnet and crudely covered with clear Perspex. Or the plethora of retrofitted dials and gauges spanning the width of the dashboard. Or the chunky singular studded bucket seat, which we had restored by the same local saddler in Modena who trims the interiors for Pagani.

We couldn’t help think of ‘Toly’ Arutunoff when we fired up ‘The Duck’ for the first time and took our first tentative laps of Cremona Circuit. He poured so much time and energy into this Lancia, not only transforming it from a ‘standard’ road car to a Group IV road-racer, but also racing it extensively across the United States. Satisfyingly, the maiden shakedown only threw up a handful of small issues to be rectified – not at all bad for a car that has been restored so thoroughly. Those issues have been sorted back at the workshop, before another sign-off test. So, what stands in the way between now and our ultimate plan for ‘The Duck’, which is to return it to the Daytona International Speedway for the HSR Classic Daytona in 2025? Not a lot, just some minor fettling to the suspension and a comprehensive detail. We can’t wait to share the end result with you and pay a proper tribute to the hundreds of hours invested by a small yet fiercely passionate band of artisans in Emilia-Romagna.

Photos: Gabriele Natalini for Girardo & Co.