How Chequered Flag's Lancia Stratos beat the big boys. On Shell.

How Chequered Flag’s Lancia Stratos beat the big boys. On Shell.

When the Lancia Stratos won the Mintex International Rally, it was the first major rally win for a non-works entrant since the 1971 RAC Rally.

Graham Warner, Chequered Flag Managing Director:

“One Stratos, two V6 Ferrari engines, a difficult parts situation… the Stratos is anything but boring. And it was a great kick watching the big names follow it home in the Mintex Dales. “The Flag doesn’t have the luxury of a works team back-up, and we all too often have to run individual parts longer than we should. That’s the price we pay for running a one-off like the

Stratos. It’s hard enough getting the car to the starting line let alone the finish.”

Wet Sump

“The Stratos is a tiny car. So the layout gives us problems. Most of our competition have dry sump lubrication which allows a much greater volume of oil to be circulated throughout the engine. So the oil keeps cooler.

“The Stratos’ compact design means we’ve got to run on an ordinary wet sump, plus a heat exchanger, a set-up where the oil is both heated and cooled by the radiator. Not so effective as a dry sump system and damn hard on the oil when you’re running up to 8,600 revs over the 580 mile Mintex distance. We’re lucky to be working with Shell.”

Consistent

“We can’t arrange, or afford, a complete rebuild after every event so we need all the protection we can get. The Shell oil we use is straight Super Multigrade nothing added and Shell Spirax in the gearbox. We’ve worked with other oil companies but we came back to Shell, finding the quality of their oils have that edge over the rest.

“You can’t judge an oil by anythin& but experience. We’ve got 20 years of it and we recommend Shell.”