Club 10th Anniversary!

Stratos-y Type Peeps,

I noticed recently, while reading posts by you lot, that the "join date" of the, er, shall we say, "more senior" club members, only(?) goes back as far as 2011. Having only joined meself in 2016, and being aware that there was a previous incarnation of the club, I therefore wondered if 2021 might actually be the club's 10th year. So having dropped Ian "The Slug" Ford a mail to check, it turns out that it is indeed that very occasion!

I didn't know this, but it seems that back in 2011, the old club's website disappeared overnight. Turns out that we were piggybacked onto someone else's website, and said "someone else" did a runner without telling anyone, and the site and all info were binned. So Ian created a new website and forum, and got it all up and running from scratch, in 24 hours, and all funded by him. Pretty impressive! I think we've paid him back since...I hope...

So here we are, 10 years later, and the club and forum are doing pretty well. We seem to hover around 200 members (paid ones, anyway) from all round the world, which is quite gratifying. Our cars are becoming more appreciated, even as replicas, with values to match, and we're even affiliated with FCA Heritage (or that's what they were called before FCA became part of Stellantis), and we get invited to some pretty cool events. Who'd have thought, eh? I think we should mark this occasion somehow - dunno how yet, but we'll see - and in the meantime, Big Thanks to Ian for getting the whole thing going, and all the committee members past and present who've given of their time for free to make the club what it is. And also to you, the sad nerdy Stratos-loving geeky members, cos without you not only would there be no club, but there'd be no point to it either!

Ta muchly, and give y'selves a pat on the back :)

Chairman Norm

Great idea Norm, just need to come up with a plan & venue? But to be fair the club was first established back in 1988 as the Stratos Replica Club and a change of name ensued to reflect a desire to include anyone interested in the car in all it's guises, including owners of the originals. So... I guess 2021 is the clubs 33rd anniversary?

Next year is the 50th Anniversary of the Beta so I guess that also means the Stratos is going to be 50 soon?

Christ, we're all getting old...

That’s a good idea and a nice tribute to all historic staff and creator members


I remember well the old Stratos replica club website I visited sometimes before I found and bought a Stratos replica in UK in 2010.

In early 2011 my car disappeared somewhere in England during restoration and after the old website too with a lot of disappointments!
Fortunatly the new SEC was quickly created and helped me to get the car back!

Many thanks to all friends and fellow members to make this happen
Happy 10th( and 33rd) Anniversary
Cheers



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Guy, I know there was a previous version of the club, but that pretty much disappeared along with the old website etc. and Ian had to create something from scratch. So I kind of see them as separate entities, but if all you old original folks see this club as a continuation, that's fine - just occurred to me that it needed to be marked in some way.
Yep, Beta's 50, and also the Lambda's 100 next year! If they're sticking with an "every 50 years..." thing, maybe Stellantis will announce something positive and exciting about Lancia's future soon, and is it too much to hope for a new model - I mean a proper, Lancia-heritage-type model, maybe a reworking of that Fulvia concept from 2003 - as well?
No idea of what we might do to celebrate - all depends on what gives with the virus and lockdown. You never know, this thread might just be yer lot :)

Fred, didn't know you lost your car for a while! That must have been scary! Must have been a massive relief when you got it back!
Thanks for the 10th/33rd cake too, reminds me of the Lancia 30/50 event in 1978 they held at Donington....so maybe there's an idea for us in another 20 years? As Guy says, we're all getting old, so it'll probably be more of a meeting of Alitalia-liveried wheelchairs :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Normb666

......we're all getting old, so it'll probably be more of a meeting of Alitalia-liveried wheelchairs :)

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They'll be the fastest ones tho. :D

....well, apart from the ones that're faster, yeah ;)

Thinking I might get a gig organised by Zimmers 'R' Us, to include a celebratory/demo lap of the care home car park?