AUTUMN 1999

The Turin Motor Show by then was becoming an annual fixture, a moment of encounter and cordiality with all the customers in the concept, master, cubing engineering and pre-production prototypes sectors.
For the April 2000 appointment, the Stolas rely on Marcello Gandini for the construction of an open door model in the autumn of 1999; his name will be Stola S.81.
An important theme, reviewing the Lancia Stratos, thirty years after the presentation by the same hand at the 1970 Turin Motor Show.
Gandini is immediately clear, not a restyling or a nostalgia style, but a contemporary interpretation of the Lancia Strato's HF shown at the Turin Motor Show in the Bertone stand in 1971 (the one with two windscreen wipers, and painted fluorescent orange) and with even a hint of " wedge-shaped side line, not to forget the first “Tipo Zero” presented in 1970 on the same stand.
Seeing it when the work is finished, it will be possible to identify at least four "His" technical and conceptual innovations that will set the tone for decades later, and which concern all the front and rear lights, the transparent instrument screen between the windshield and the steering wheel, and the absolutely minimalist instrument panel with out buttons.

2000 Almese: Marcello Gandini in his studio with the 1/4 scale S81 model and the original drawing.

Marcello Gandini and Pierfranco Gavina.Marcello Gandini had carte blanche, in four months the team of modellers created a formidable and yet feasible model.
Truly a very advanced opening door style model, for Stola S.p.A. given that the style is Gandini's, we will want to show our customers and hopefully new ones a real example at the Salon.
The front and rear LED lights are functional as are the electric door openings, the interiors and in particular the seats are comfortable, and the front wheels are steerable through the steering wheel, but most of all a steel box frame where all the body parts in epowood resin are applied on it with extreme precision.
In short, a summary between a style model, a show car and a master model; a manifesto on four wheels to illustrate the company's technical capabilities.

Rivoli May 2000: before the final painting of the fluorescent model, a photo with Alfredo Stola's Strato's Stradale. You can see that the Lancia brand appears perfectly inserted in its space on the bumper of the model

The top management of Fiat Auto had been informed months before that for the next Turin Motor Show we would be creating a Show Car designed by Marcello Gandini with the Lancia brand, but without providing any other information on what type of car.
Once the gray background painting activity was completed, Roberto Stola invited engineer Paolo Cantarella, CEO of Fiat Auto, to view the model in Rivoli.
The model is presented with Alfredo Stola's road Strato's nearby, he likes it, but "asks" not to use the Lancia brand but the one with the Stola rhombus, as proposing a Lancia Strato's in the year 2000 could have created confusion among their clients.
For the Stolas and the Gandinis it was a very difficult moment, less than six weeks before the start of the Show when the whole project was based on the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Strato's Zero.
It was therefore decided between us not to use the Stola brand, but instead the one with the initials MG or Marcello Gandini to make the link with the famous name Strato's clearer.

Gandini makes an attempt to insert the Stola s.p.a. rhombus.Gandini already had his own MG brand (Marcello Gandini)

The bumper and part of the bonnet were then immediately modified to eliminate the shield-shaped compartment of the Lancia brand, to insert the rectangular MG one, and obviously to build the new metal brand.
Gandini, having absolute freedom, given the new situation, changed the design of the wheels at the last minute and so they were milled with a very particular design, composed of three rings which intersecting geometrically in the center naturally create a triangle very close to the shape of the Lancia shield.
With wisdom in this space, Gandini will have a perfect unbranded Lancia shield modeled….
It was his gentle way of not giving up and demonstrating his art.

Rivoli mid-May 2000: in Stola S.p.A. it is Maurizio Dimaria of Team Vercarmodel who paints the S81 in the complicated fluorescent orange.

Turin June 2000, the S81 opening door model at the Stola s.p.a. stand

Cernobbio 2009. The Stola S81 owned by the collector Corrado Lopresto photographed in the park of the Hotel Villa d'Este.

In parallel with the work of the S 81 and given the great esteem of Stola for Marcello Gandini, once again he was asked for his own vision for a hypothetical new Iveco truck.
In July 2000, the drawings presented by Roberto and Alfredo Stola to Fiat to engineer Paolo Cantarella in his Lingotto office.

Turin 27 June 2000. the drawings of Marcello Gandini in his vision of a new Iveco engine.