![Man Builds Mustang Out Of Lamborghini, World Goes "Huh?"](http://cache-02.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/12/2010/02/126x100_stangallardo_1_01.jpg "Man Builds Mustang Out Of Lamborghini, World Goes "Huh?"")
Mar 25, 2008 09:45 AM
4,689
Enter your username and password.
Detroit, 12:57 AM
Wed Feb 10
27 posts in the last 24 hours
Some of our sharper-eyed readers may have noticed the car backed up against yesterday's Scout and said to yourselves, "Wait a minute... there's something odd about that Malaise econobox!" Well, that's exactly what I said about 10 seconds after I saw the Scout and started gearing up to take photographs; I think it was the crazy door handles that first tipped me off about the possibility of a Super Double DOTS Potential situation, and then I just about dropped the camera when I caught sight of the grille.
I'm pretty sure this is the first Strada I've ever seen, period. You Yurpeans know this car as the Ritmo, and perhaps you still see a few of these things on the roads over there.
The Strada was essentially a 128 under the skin; by 1981, most Americans staggered back in horror from the prospect of purchasing perhaps the only available motor vehicle with a worse reputation for unreliability than the Peugeot 504 (yes, yes, Peugeots and Fiats are perfectly good cars in Europe, et freakin' cetera, but that's the way it was- and is- on this side of the water). Still someone bought this one!
If I ever find one of these in the junkyard, I'm buying the door handles. I don't know what I'd do with them, but this design is pretty damn cool.
Send an email to Murilee Martin, the author of this post, at murilee@jalopnik.com.
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
Start a new discussion