That Moonwalker Stratos Zero Prop Is a 1970 Lancia on Paper and a Late-1970s Fiat X1/9 Underneath

The Stratos Zero look-alike that Michael Jackson’s character turns into in Moonwalker is for sale with a clean Michigan title that calls it a 1970 Lancia. It is built on a Fiat X1/9, a car that went on sale in 1972, and its 1,498cc engine and five-speed didn’t reach the X1/9 until the late 1970s.

The car is Lot 269,260 on Bring a Trailer, and bidding closes Monday, Oct. 19, at 5:29 p.m. Eastern. As of Thursday the high bid was $22,000 after nine bids, with 1,089 people watching. The seller, a private party in Ada, Michigan, who posts as Adnogal, bought it in 2008 and imported it. The listing title doesn’t carry BaT’s “No Reserve” label, so there is a floor the bidding has to clear, and the listing doesn’t say where it sits.

According to the listing, the body began as one of three static props built for the film’s “Smooth Criminal” segment, where Jackson’s character becomes a car to get away from mobsters. It was a single-piece fiberglass shell, painted silver for filming, with no chassis, no running gear and nothing that opened.

From prop to car

The ownership chain before 2003 is hedged in the listing’s own wording. The shell “is said to have been” acquired by Neverland prop designer Art Millican, then passed to a Florida dealer, who sold it that year to English car designer Andy Saunders. Beyond a Moonwalker Blu-ray, the paperwork on offer is service invoices from the current owner, importation documents and magazine articles. Nothing from the production is listed.

Saunders mounted the shell on the floor pan and chassis of an X1/9 and kept the Fiat’s powertrain and running gear. He added working lights and opening panels, painted the body Lamborghini Mica Orange to approximate the color of Bertone’s concept rather than the film car’s silver, and signed the tail panel. The front suspension is said to have been lowered 8 inches. The build was finished in 2006.

Mechanically, then, this is a mid-engine Fiat: a transverse 1,498cc SOHC four with a dual-throat Weber, a five-speed transaxle, MacPherson-strut independent suspension and four-wheel discs. The Weber was rebuilt in 2014. Invoices from 2020 cover a water pump, clutch slave cylinder, brake master cylinder, fluid reservoir and left-rear caliper.

What the listing leaves out

The cabin is right-hand drive, with a Mountney wheel and the switchgear to the driver’s right. There are no gauges, no air conditioning, no radio and no windshield wiper. Mileage is unknown. Someone fitted a rearview camera and ran its wiring to the dash, but there is no screen to watch it on. The side mirrors have been removed and come with the car, and the listing notes corrosion on the underside.

The wheel spec doesn’t add up on the page. The headline features list “staggered-width 13-inch” Schmidt alloys, and the fronts wear 215/50R13 BFGoodrich Radial T/As. The rears are listed as 10.5/23.0-15 Avons, a size made for a 15-inch rim. The listing doesn’t explain the difference, and the seller notes the rear tires need air.

The Lancia on the title

Inside the nose is a plate stamped 820031*002333*. The listing says the number came from a 1970 Lancia 2000 coupe that Saunders bought, and it is the identification number on the Michigan title. That is why a fiberglass prop on a Fiat platform is registered as a 1970 Lancia.

The listing doesn’t say what became of that Lancia 2000, whether any of it is in this car, or what the donor X1/9’s own chassis number was. The next owner will be registering a car identified by one vehicle and built on another, and neither is the one it was made to look like.

The other Stratos Zero

That car, Bertone’s original, debuted at the 1970 Turin show with Marcello Gandini’s styling, a Lancia V4 behind the seats and a roofline that peaks at 33 inches. RM Sotheby’s sold it, chassis C/1160, as Lot 113 at its 2011 Villa d’Este sale for €761,600.

Nothing in this listing claims Jackson owned the replica, and when we went through the cars he did and didn’t own, nothing tied the film car to his garage either. Its value rests on screen time as a static shell plus a 2000s build, which puts it closer to the Corvette-based Daytona replicas in our Miami Vice story than to a studio hero car like the Batman Returns Batmobile.

Bidding has gone from $5,100 on Oct. 13 to $22,000 a day later. The auction ends Monday at 5:29 p.m. Eastern, and whether $22,000 clears the reserve won’t be known until then.

So which are you bidding on: a piece of Moonwalker, or a well-kept Fiat X1/9 in a very good body?

Sources: Bring a Trailer listing, Lot 269,260; RM Sotheby’s, Villa d’Este 2011, Lot 113. Auction photography by Jacksonaustin for Bring a Trailer.

About the Author

Eve Nowell

Administrator

Eve Nowell writes about cars for Backfire News, and she comes by it honestly—she grew up in a racing family, around engines and pit lanes before she was old enough to drive. That world isn't a beat she picked up; it's just where she's always been. At Backfire News she covers off-roading, classic car culture, motorsports, and the people behind the machines. She writes with the enthusiasm of someone who genuinely loves this stuff, but she's a stickler for getting the details right—the kind of writing that holds up with actual gearheads. She's still early in her career and building her own voice, bringing a fresh take to a world she's known her whole life. Her work runs across racing coverage, truck and off-road culture, collector vehicles, and the wider lifestyle that comes with all of it. When she's not writing, she's usually trackside, out in the garage, or chasing down the next story worth telling.

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