For years Steve For years Steve has had an obsession with the Stratos since he first saw them racing and winning the WRC in the mid 70’s. While on his OE in the UK Steve went to a couple of kit car shows and developed a keen interest in the Transformer HF 2000 (now Hawkridge HF2000). Initially he went home with just a brochure but a year later bought a Group 4 kit and assembled it to a rolling chassis stage. When he came back to New Zealand he brought the car with him and all the parts required for completing it. Like the original most mechanical components are sourced from the same era Fiat and Lancia’s with numerous Fiat 132, Xl9 and Lancia Beta parts here and there. Steve’s car is number 107 which means that there are a few of these running around.

The HF2000 chassis is manufactured from folded steel and tube and the body is fibreglass modelled directly from an original. The body is smooth and well finished thanks to the many hundreds of hours that Steve spent working on it and is painted British Racing Red. In 2002 the car was taken off the road and rebuilt to HF3000 specs with a 3.0 litre Alfa Romeo 164 V6 engine and gearbox replacing the original Guy Croft 2.0 Lancia Beta. To help with stopping power, Wilwood vented discs and 4 pot calliper brakes were fitted along with the ABS system from the Alfa 164.