One family's Lancia Stratos: back to the British stages

Seb Perez and Dale Bowen finished fourth overall in the Historic event at Rali Ceredigion in September 2026, driving the Lancia Stratos previously campaigned by Seb’s father Steve. Their Welsh finish followed two unsuccessful Roger Albert Clark Rally campaigns in a car the family has repeatedly repaired rather than retired.

The Amigos-liveried Stratos has been fast as well as loud. Steve took it into the top ten on the RAC, and Seb later reached the final stage of the event in second place. Keeping a car like that on the stages has also meant a lot of rebuilding.

A car chosen to be used

Steve’s first Stratos was a road-going Stradale. He bought it unseen with rallying in mind, but decided on its arrival that it was too good to modify. He kept it for the road and bought Udo Sparwald’s hill-climb car instead.

Steve Perez, the 2003 British Historic Rally Champion, recalled in 2021: “It made more sense to rally a car that wasn’t perfect.”

The rally car wears an Alitalia-style livery in the colours of Amigos, one of Steve’s drinks brands. Its 2.4-litre Ferrari Dino V6 sounds nothing like the Escorts it runs against. The engine has been developed as well as maintained: in 2020 Swindon Powertrain built a 24-valve Dino capable of 10,500rpm for a Stratos rally car, and Steve’s account the following year had his car waiting for its Swindon cylinder head.

Forest results, repairs and a fire

The car had already shown real forest pace with Steve driving. He and John Millington finished eighth overall on the 2014 Roger Albert Clark Rally, 22 seconds off a top-six place, with the fourth-fastest time on Ogre Hill and top-five times over the closing three stages.

An electrical fault and misfire had held them up on the Saturday, but Dansport got the Stratos running again. Afterwards Steve talked mostly about the handling and the crew’s work.

“We’ve been sorting the engine out and sorting the handling out and we’ve now got the handling absolutely spot on and I’m so pleased because the guys have worked so hard to get the car ready,” Steve said.

A refuelling fire on the 2018 Ypres Rally in Belgium brought more serious consequences. Fuel ignited on the hot exhaust in the service area, Steve took the brunt of it, and he was treated for burns at Ghent University Hospital; the car was destroyed and rebuilt by Dansport. The family’s involvement with the car continued after the accident.

By 2021, Steve was describing three complete rebuilds, along with an engine failure, rolls, crashes and a reshell. Keeping it in competition had meant tracking down individual replacement parts in Italy.

Seb takes the Stratos to the RAC

Seb and Gary McElhinney had finished second on the 2021 Roger Albert Clark Rally in a Ford Escort Mk2. They completed that event 4m04s behind Ryan Champion and Craig Thorley’s Porsche 911. When the pair contested the 2023 edition in the family Stratos, they were therefore returning with a podium result behind them, but in a different car.

The Perez Lancia Stratos on a forest stage. Photo: Alex Thomas Photography.

The 2023 RAC ran for five days across the forests of Wales, Scotland and England. Its closing test, the 39-mile Kielder stage called The Big One, would decide whether the Stratos could turn its pace into a finish.

The car had already drawn attention in the Welsh stages, and not only for standing out in a field of Escorts. By the final morning, Perez and McElhinney were in contention for another RAC podium.

For former Lancia driver Markku Alén, seeing a Stratos back in those forests brought back the harder memories: rain, darkness, a cramped cockpit and nervous handling.

Alén recalled: “In gravel and rain, not so easy.”

Former Lancia team boss Cesare Fiorio remembered the sound carrying through Kielder.

Fiorio said: “You could hear the car from miles away, it was very, very special. That engine was fantastic.”

Perez’s own run ended on that final Kielder test. He and McElhinney started SS33 second overall and stopped before the finish, losing the podium on the last and longest stage of the five-day event.

Marty McCormack and Barney Mitchell won in an Escort Mk2, 5m30s ahead of Cathan McCourt and Liam Moynihan. Jason Pritchard and Phil Clarke inherited third, leaving an all-Escort podium without the Stratos that had been running among them.

A title in a different car

The following season gave Seb a championship rather than an unfinished result. He and McElhinney contested the 2024 British Historic Rally Championship in a Porsche 911RS, a nine-round series in which Mark Higgins and Carl Williamson’s Triumph TR7 V8 kept them under pressure to the final event. The title was decided before that last round, the Rally Anglo Caledonian, when Higgins withdrew with an injury and Perez was confirmed champion; he and Dale Bowen went on to win the Historic class on the event itself.

Seb had followed Steve, whose 2003 British Historic title also came in a Porsche. His RAC podium in the Escort and the Porsche championship gave him results well beyond his outings in the family Stratos.

Photo: Alex Thomas Photography.

He kept changing cars in Europe too. For the gravel of Lahti in August 2025 he left the Stratos for a Porsche Carrera RS and won the FIA European Historic Rally Championship round, also taking Category 2. The Stratos stayed in a programme where the car changed from event to event.

Myherin ends the 2025 attempt

For the 2025 Roger Albert Clark Rally, Seb returned to the Stratos with Dale Bowen alongside him. This time the attempt ended in Wales, rather than on the final day in Kielder.

On Myherin, SS7, the car slid wide on a fast left-hand bend near the end of the stage and took a heavy impact at the rear. Its official result records Perez and Bowen as non-finishers on the second leg.

Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss went on to win in an Escort Mk2. For Seb’s two RAC appearances in the Stratos, the outcome was now two retirements: one while holding second on the final stage in 2023, the other early in the 2025 event.

What the Ceredigion finish means

Rali Ceredigion gave a different result. Perez and Bowen completed the 2026 Historic event in 1h36m49.3s, taking fourth overall behind Maciej Lubiak and Grzegorz Dachowski’s winning Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.0 and the Escort of Dyfrig James and Trystan Evans. Their deficit to the winners was 5m34.9s.

Fourth on Welsh tarmac did not make up for the RAC podiums that got away, but it put the Stratos back in the results of a British rally, with another competitive run in Seb’s hands.

Steve had put his attachment to the car into words years earlier.

He said in 2021: “That rally Stratos is the last car I’d sell.”