I have a Minichamps model of the legendary Lancia Stratos HF rally car in Alitalia’s green and white colors sitting on my desk and every time I look at it, Italy’s “Il Drago” or “the Dragon” comes to mind. That was world rally champion Sandro Munari’s nickname because, according to fan and foe alike, he breathed some well-targeted fire either verbally or from behind the wheel of a rally car.
Regardless, in my book, he is Mr. Lancia Stratos. After rally boss Cesare Fiorio saw Bertone’s fanciful, unlikely looking concept Stratos at the 1970 Turin Motor Show, he resolved to turn it into a rally mobile for his company. The Dragon had already won the European Rally Championship and was on the road to greatness so Fiorio, the legendary multi-world rally and endurance racing championship winner as boss of Lancia’s motor sport department, enrolled Sandro as the car’s exclusive tester. Il Drago became one of a small coterie of men, which included Fiorio and Nuccio Bertone, who created the car that won three Constructors World Rally Championships and no fewer than 18 rounds in the world title fight.
Munari was the first man to win the highly prestigious Monte Carlo Rally four times—three of them in succession—the first in 1973 driving a works Lancia Fulvia 1.6 HF, then from 1975-1977 in the glorious Stratos HF. He also drove the incredible car to three consecutive World Rally Championships.
I first met Sandro when he and his fabulous, wedge-shape Stratos came to Britain for the 1976 UK round of the World Rally Championship, in which he finished 4th. As we talked, I was mesmerized by his description of world championship rallying from the driver’s seat. So, after mulling the idea over for a few months, in 1977, I organized the biggest rally talk show ever held in Britain at London’s Wembley Conference Centre. More than 3,000 enthusiasts came to hear 17 of the day’s world championship drivers —including Munari, who actually drove a Stratos onto the stage before his interview—tell the audience of their knife-edge experiences competing for the world title in Ford, Lancia, Fiat, Triumph and Saab rally cars.
During his distinguished rally career, Sandro won two Italian and one European titles, as well as the 1977 World Rally Championship for Drivers. He drove in a total of 36 World Championship Rallies from 1973 to 1984, was on the podium 14 times and won seven world title events.
After that, Munari switched to the works Fiat 131 Abarth for the 1978 season, when he chalked up a 3rd place in the Tour de Corse, the championship’s French round. By that time, however, Munari’s career was going off the boil and, despite continuing for another five years in a number of different cars including a Dodge Ramcharger, Porsche 911 SC, an Alfa Romeo GTV6 and a Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo, he had little success.
Born in 1940, at Cavarzere, a small town in the Veneto region of Italy, Munari began his rally career in 1964 as a co-driver. He soon became a driver in his own right and went on to win the 1967 and 1969 Italian Rally Championships in Lancia Fulvia 1.3 HFs. Then he won the 1973 European Rally Championship in a Fulvia, but this time with an engine uprated to 1.6-liters. In 1977, he was FIA’s very first World Rally Championship driver in his works Stratos, but perhaps one of his most memorable exploits wasn’t in a rally at all.
Enzo Ferrari specifically asked Lancia for the loan of Munari to partner Maranello’s own Arturo Merzario to campaign the only Ferrari in the 1972 Targa Florio, a 3-liter 312 P. Ferrari even borrowed Cesare Fiorio to run his Targa effort.
Sandro underwent a brief test session at Ferrari’s Fiorano test circuit, where he put up a good performance before being sent to Sicily with Merzario to practice the Targa route in a Dino roadcar several weeks before race day.
As the cars assembled for the start of this tricky, mountainous Sicilian race, few gave the rally driver and his ex-Abarth teammate much of a chance in the event. Munari had competed in less challenging endurance races before, but only in cars of up to 160 hp, while the 312 P put out a massive 400 hp.
The competition was stiff, but not as stiff as usual. After 16 straight years and 10 wins in the Targa, Porsche did not compete in 1972, but Alfa Romeo was there with no fewer than four 33TT3s. Fiorio decided that Merzario would start the race and drive the first three of the race’s 11 laps, after which he and Munari would alternate, doing two laps at a time.
After the first lap, Merzario was leading by 42 seconds from Nanni Galli’s Alfa and after that Sandro kept the Ferrari up front until a brush with a Lancia Fulvia. That gave Helmut Marko and his 33TT3 his chance to muscle through and take the lead. Then the rally ace pitted for Merzario to take over and the little Italian was eventually able to claw the lead back again. Next, Munari was in the driver’s seat for two more laps, in which he opened up an even bigger lead. The two continued to alternate, always keeping a steely grip on the lead.
In the end, Munari-Merzario won the 493-mile race by 16.9 seconds at an average speed of 122.537 kph.
After he retired from motor sport, Sandro became the public relations director of Lamborghini, and it was then that we became firm friends. We happened to be in Sicily doing different things for our respective companies at one and the same time, Munari with a Lamborghini Diablo and me with a hire car! One night at dinner, Sandro asked, “Would you like to do the Targa Florio route with me tomorrow?” Would I!
So we met in the race’s old pits area and from there began the motoring experience of my life. Ironically, Sandro apologized for not being able to drive a road car—albeit a Lambo—at racing speeds. As I held on for dear life, I managed to mutter something, but I don’t remember what it was. At the end of it all, my mind was well and truly blown.
After his Lamborghini experience, Munari ran his “Abarth Driving School—Sandro Munari,” at Italy’s Bolocco circuit.
