Strato'(apostrophe)s

[PANOS]

DOES ANYBODY OUT THERE KNOW THE REAL REASON
WHY THERE IS AN APOSTROPHE IN STRATO'S...
I WAS TOLD THE REASON BY THE LANCIA PEOPLE IN 1975, WHEN I VISITED THEM IN TURIN ON MY WAY THROUGH ITALY BACK TO LONDON FROM CYPRUS... BUT I SEEMED TO HAVE MISSPLACED MY NOTES... AND I JUST CAN'T REMEMBER WHAT THEY TOLD ME...
IT HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE GREEK LANGUAGE I THINK...
YES I KNOW I AM GREEK... BUT AN OLDISH ONE AND MY MEMORY IS MAYBE SLIPPING!
THE REASON FOR MY VISIT TO LANCIA WAS TO TRY AND BUY A STRATO'S... BUT BECAUSE THEY COULD NOT SUPPLY ME WITH A RIGHT HAND DRIVE ONE, I ENDED UP BUYING A LAMBORGHINI URACCO INSTEAD... HOW SAD IS THAT???
I REGRETED IT EVER SINCE, ESPECIALLY SINCE THEY WERE TRYING TO GIVE THEM AWAY AT THE TIME AT AN EQUIVALENT PRICE OF... WAIT FOR IT... USD 7,000!!! BELIEVE IT.
I STILL HAVE THE ORIGINAL SALE BROCHURES THEY GAVE ME THOUGH, TO REMIND ME WHAT A SILLY BOY I WAS...
PANOS:( :confused:

[colin artus]

Panos,

I see your Stratos at $7000 and raise you: Chequered Flag car @ £14,000 (in 85 with a shed load of spares) and Autodelta Alfa GtAm @ £6000 (complete but diassembled, in 84)

Colin

[tryphon]

Get a load of this:

From Road & Track March 1960:

FERRARI 250 TR Immaculate, perfect cond. Spare wheels, 3 extra ratios. $8500

1958 FERRARI 250 Testarossa, late type reinforced frame and brake system, extra set of wire wheels and factory spares kit incl. two rear end ratios, excellent condition. $9500

1957 FERRARI 2-liter TR (trailer, spares) $7000

Late 60s early 70s Ferrari 250 LM chassis #121 goes for $5000

250SWB goes for $4500

March 1960 Ferrari 166MM goes for $4650

You may cry now...

[Stratos]

I had an official response from Bertone about this, but I can't locate the email at present. If someone does a search in the newsletter archive around late 99 or early 00, it was reproduced there.

[Andrew Way]

SRC 43, page 5

[chris.richard]

Que?:confused:

[mogul_x]

Chris,

I think that excerpt has some rather entertaining translation errors, but the jist of it is that the name "Strato's" is a possessive. The genitive case is what is used in many languages to indicate possession, but in English, there isn't a formal genitive case. Except for pronouns, the only indication of possession in English the use of "'s " (or just an apostrophy in the case where a word already ends in "s")

So, to make a long story short, "Strato's" means "of or belonging to Strato" - where, presumably, "strato" is being used in it's definition as an acronym for "stratosphere".

By extension "of or belonging to the Stratosphere" would be the literal definintion, which I think I read in print somewhere, although I couldn't say where exactly.

Now to really bake our collective noodles - how about pronunciation? Folks in the U.K. seem to pronounce "Stratos" as "stra-toss", in the USA, it's "stra-tose", but if the word is, in fact, a genitive case, should we be pronouncing it "stra-toes"?:confused:

[chris.richard]

re pronunciation:
halo halo's (haloes , not ha-loss)
Plato Plato's( Platoes, not Pla-toss) Since we're being classical!


So you may actually be right, but I'm sorry, on this side of the pond we could never consider an American to be pronouncing anything correctly!!:D :eek:

I'm not sure of your difference between "Stra-toes" and "Stra-tose"

[PANOS]

AFTER A LOT OF DIGGING ABOUT AND EMPTYING OF A SHEDLOAD OF BOXES I MANAGE TO FIND MY ORIGINAL NOTES FROM MY CONVERSATION WITH THE LANCIA PEOPLE IN 1975.
THIS IS WHAT THEY TOLD ME ABOUT THE APOSTROPHE... BELIEVE IT IF YOU WILL...
SCOTT/MOGUL IS PARTLY RIGHT. THE CAR IS MENT TO BE SOMETHING FROM OR BELONGING TO THE STRATOSPHERE (SPACE, OUT OF THIS WORLD...), I.E. "STRATOSPHERIC", BUT THAT LAST WORD WAS FAR TOO LONG TO GO ON A CAR... SO IT WAS SHORTEN (ACRONYM) TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE POSSESIVE/GENITIVE "STRATOS"...
BUT, AS EVERYBODY KNOWS "STRATOSPHERE" IS A GREEK WORD (STRATOSFERA) AND "STRATOS" IN GREEK IS A BLOKE'S NAME (LIKE PANOS AND THANOS ETC...) WHEN THE TONE EMPHASIS IS ON THE "A" AND IT MEANS "ARMY" WHEN THE TONE/EMPHASIS IS ON THE "O"...
OBVIOUSLY NONE OF THEM WOULD DO, SO THE APOSTROPHE WAS INSERTED AS A BASTARDISATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE POSSESIVE/GENITIVE OF "STRATOSPHERES"...
THE FASCINATION OF LANCIA WITH THE GREEK LANGUAGE/LETTERS IN NAMING THEIR CARS GOES ON TO THIS DAY...!!!
PHEW......!!!
NOW KNOWING THE ITALIANS THIS COULD BE THE FABRICATIONS OF THE MIND OF A LANCIA SALES MANAGER AT THE TIME, TRYING TO UNLOAD ONE MORE STRATOS TO A GULLABLE GREEK BUYER...!!!
IT DIN'T WORK IN MY CASE AT THE TIME... DAM IT...:mad: (NO RHD!!!):(
PANOS:cool:

[mogul_x]

Originally posted by chris.richard
re pronunciation:
halo halo's (haloes , not ha-loss)
Plato Plato's( Platoes, not Pla-toss) Since we're being classical! ...I'm not sure of your difference between "Stra-toes" and "Stra-tose"

for "Stra-toes" - see your pronunciation of Plato's halo's above ;)
for "stra-tose" - rhymes with verbose, or bellicose - the former of which certainly applies to me!

So you may actually be right, but I'm sorry, on this side of the pond we could never consider an American to be pronouncing anything correctly!!:D :eek:

touche!:D :D :D

[chris.richard]

Here's my translation of Herr/Signor/Monsiuer (whatever they are in Italy - I can't remember much Latin now!). G.B.Pannico's "Italglish" (or is it "Engalian"?)

The original name placed by Bertone designers on the first prototype was Strato's. (English genative case). So it was subsequently used the same on production cars. In speech, (') is not pronounced. Consequently everybody leaves it out.

I think that's what he meant!

[camcar77]

Dear Sir

Is the gtam a car or parts and is it still available

Cheers John

[chris.richard]

I think Colin was talking about 1984 - I think the car will be sold by now. ;)