Hard on the heels of the discovery that the striking car used on the cover of “Moving forward: new directions in vehicle design” was not imaginary, but a real car, came the news that it is likely to end up being manufactured in China.
Christian Hrabalek, director of Fenomenon, graduated from the Royal College of Art where the book was being launched and brought his concept Lancia New Stratos along to the book launch. He told us that, he conceived it, “As an evolution of a rally car, extrovert but very rugged – a Learjet on wheels. A traditional sports car would break going over rough ground. We normally create concepts for large companies, but this was a self initiated project to showcase the company. First we produced manual sketches then designed it using Alias. We are currently in talks with two parties about producing the car, one in China, the other in Europe”. He explained that manufacture in China was quite possible or even probable, because he saw the car being especially suited to running on the roads there, which are not as good as in Europe.
Hrabalek is a Stratos enthusiast, owning no less than 11 of them.
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