Some cars are built to win races, others to turn heads, and a few become part of the family. For Nathan Kennedy, a Lancia Stratos replica represents all of the above. He spent eight years working alongside his father, turning a childhood ambition into something they can finally drive.
The idea began when Nathan was a teenager watching Top Gear with his dad. After seeing the presenters assemble a Caterham Seven, he suggested they try building a kit car together.
What followed was a project far more complicated than either expected, beginning with little more than a bare spaceframe chassis. Even Nathan’s father, who had experience building and rallying cars, found the undertaking unusually demanding.
Now finished and wearing the unmistakable colors of a classic rally machine, their creation attracts attention wherever it goes. As Nathan explains in a video by the 9caars YouTube channel, however, the real value lies in everything that happened before its first drive.
Eight Years of Saturdays and Setbacks
Nathan and his father assembled the Stratos inside a shipping container, gradually transforming its skeletal chassis into a complete car. Almost everything required careful fitting, fabrication, and adjustment, with seemingly simple brackets sometimes consuming entire Saturdays.
Progress could be frustratingly slow, particularly when newly installed components had to come apart and be repositioned. It took approximately eight years before the car was running and ready for its first proper journey on public roads.
Italian Rally Looks With Alfa Romeo Power
The finished replica weighs in at roughly 950 kilograms (2,094 pounds) and uses a mid-mounted 3.0-liter Alfa Romeo Busso V6 driving the rear wheels through a limited-slip differential. It’s a fitting alternative to the Ferrari-derived V6 fitted to the original Stratos, although Nathan hasn’t disclosed a horsepower figure.
Its bright blue bodywork carries the number 10 and period-style sponsor decals inspired by Bernard Darniche and Alain Mahé’s 1981 Tour de Corse rally car. Yellow wheels, wide arches, auxiliary driving lights, and dramatic clamshell body panels complete the competition-inspired appearance.
Inside, the right-hand-drive cockpit is unapologetically functional and looks every bit the rally machine, with analog gauges, additional instruments, and an assortment of switches spread across the dashboard. There’s little attempt to disguise the car’s purpose or recreate the comforts of a modern sports car.
A First Drive Worth Waiting For
Nathan remembers being terrified during the Stratos’s first proper outing to Dalkey, worrying whether everything he had assembled would hold together. Even today, the lightweight chassis, immediate responses, and raw acceleration make every spirited drive an intense experience.
Despite the attention it attracts, Nathan has no intention of selling the car, regardless of the offer. The years spent learning, making mistakes, and working beside his father have given it a value that no auction estimate could capture.
His only plan is to keep driving it and sharing the experience with anyone who stops to admire it. After eight years of building memories in a shipping container, the father-and-son project is finally making new ones on the road.