Stratos for sale - handbrake? dash layouts? love the wiggly accelerator

[DavidLaver]

https://www.classicdriver.com/en/car/lancia/stratos/1975/722271?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Classic%20Driver%20Daily%203542019&utm_content=Classic%20Driver%20Daily%203542019+CID_b545bed56ec9ef1dee2b10ef1f85c922&utm_source=newsletter


Love the huge wiggly accelerator peddle, and for all the real ones and pictures I've looked at for the last many decades its the first time I registered the under dash handbrake.

Do they all lack a "floor" in the front?  It looks like you can open the "bonnet" ("front clip"?) and see the ground.

How much to the dash board layouts vary?

[SanRemo78]

I think I can answer a few questions for you David! Yes, when you open the front clip it's all open between the inner wings, you can see the floor from above, especially if there's no spare wheel.
The dash layout on the group 4 cars is pretty standard. It looks odd in pictures but when you're sat behind the steering wheel you can see every gauge and switch clearly. The car pictured here does have an odd mix of gauges though. The majority are the correct ones being (left to right) the voltmeter, oil pressure, large rev counter, dual temperature gauge (oil & water) and speedometer (60mm gauges) but the ammeter and fuel gauges are 52mm ones are wrong. It looks like a VDO ammeter and a Stradale fuel gauge.
I also note that this car has a Halda Twinmaster fitted, a Tripmaster was more usual. Obviously these are cable driven but did you know that on the Stratos they ran them by running the drive cable through the front wheel's spindle to a square drive hole in the grease cap on the hub?
There's a gaping space on this cars dash too, usually filled with a pair of stop watches and a P light.
All the Group 4 cars I've seen (as far as I can remember) also have a brake bias adjustment knob under the dash, to the right of the handbrake and a radio too but those are absent from this one.
Group 4 cars also had a different brake master cylinder arrangement than a Stradale with twin master cylinders mounted on a bracket on the steering column assembly. This allowed a handbrake to be attached to the balance bar (with a piece of Bowden cable) to work on the rear circuit.

As you know, I've got a replica Stratos (Hawk Gp4 Square Arch, LHD in 1978 San Remo Pirelli livery) with a full Group 4 dash including the handbrake but on mine it doesn't work on the balance bar but has it's own inline master cylinder on the rear circuit. It's very effective. For the annual MOT test there is also an electro-mechanical set up with it's own dedicated spot callipers that's good but not as effective as the hydraulic one.

[DavidLaver]

Guy - thank you!   I love the detail of the trip meter drive from the front wheel.  I can imagine with wheel spin the rears did quite a few more turns than the fronts.   The details of the braking system was fascinating as well.

[SanRemo78]

You're welcome David! I'm also pondering the black switch (fari emerg) and the orange switch (with the non original? hazard warning triangle next to it....
Oh, and the three dimmer switches, two of which are labelled lights dimmer for the gauges.... More usually, the one left of the steering wheel dims the gauges and the other two (on the navigators side) control the stopwatch P light illumination and the map light independently.
Guy