Friday 3rd August 2007

SOTW: Lancia Beta

1984 Lancia Beta Sports Coupe 2.0

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The gang at Pistonheads were filled with mixed emotions when we spotted this 1984 Beta Sports Coupe for sale. Come the early 80s, it was game over for Lancia in the UK. The company had become renowned for making rustbuckets rather

Beta coupe is still a stylish set of wheels

than revered for building beautiful driver’s cars. Yet still, if we had £500 burning a hole in our pocket, we’d be hard pressed to resist this car.

The Beta coupe still has masses of image and this model for sale sounds like a great project. It uses the Fiat-derived 122bhp 2.0 litre injection, which was the most popular engine on sale, and the advert states has had thousands spent on it. If that’s the case, we can only hope that the front subframe on which the engine and gearbox are mounted, will be pretty solid.

Unfortunately, the rusting rep was deserved - the combination of poor quality steel, poor rust prevention techniques and inadequate water drainage channels led to the Beta being seriously rust-prone. So if you’re going to check it out, make sure you get on your hands and knees for a proper inspection. If there are any minor problems, remember you’ve always got that spare £500 to play with.

Advert:

1984 LANCIA Beta Sports Coupe 2.0

Twin Cam, A reg. thousands spent including full engine rebuild, includes last 10 Mots, for restoration, OFFERS OVER £500

Source: www.autotrader.co.uk

 

[Casino]

I had a Montecarlo. Mid engined seaside car not built for our wet climate. Streetwise version of the 037 rally car. Havent seen one in years, Perhaps thy have all rusted away.

[festeringroot]

These cars do have a huge following in the UK and abroad - there are lots left yet most are being kept & worked on to get them "just so".
I am one of the management team of Betaboyz which was started a few years ago to try to help owners of the Beta range of cars on the road by sourcing & getting obsolete parts remanufactured. Please feel free to take a look at our site & let us know what you think - there are tons of pictures of these beautiful cars, pages on hints & tips, etc etc.
I have an IE coupe like the one in the advert which is MOT'd & runs well - it hasn't rusted away either. I am also the proud owner of a Beta Spyder too which will need some tender loving care before i get it back on the road.
Hope you enjoy the site anyway. www.betaboyz.co.uk
Stevie

[wl606]

The Lancia Beta Coupe is a surprisingly stylish car. A couple of years ago I used to regularly see a young lady driving one in the area where I lived, got a lot of attention. If you were a youthful "hipster" this would make a great runabout car.

[albundy89]

great car I had the VX ,supercharged version, early eighties when the XR3 and GTI were king pissed all over them whilst it stayed together

[thirsty]

Buy it, thrash it, and trash it. Good car.

[inthedark]

Just for information
It was only the very early Beta Saloons that had a problem with corrosion
around the rear of the front subframe mountings and unlike the stories of
the time, engines cannot fall out of front wheel drive cars. Lancias problem
was honesty, instead of discreetly repairing the cars as most of the other
manufacturers tend to do they recalled all the suspect vehicles paid out
the owners and scrapped the vehicles.

[cramorra]

Love it- great car nippy for HP...

[FestivAli]

Staples to Naples it then sell it to an italian

[Andy_sx]

there was a montecarlo outside my office for a few months, it went beginning of the week. was a lovely car, just needed a bit of tlc, unfortunately the person selling it was after too much money (for my pocket) and i couldnt afford it, would have been a great car to own

[Vr6-er]

inthedark said:

Just for information
It was only the very early Beta Saloons that had a problem with corrosion
around the rear of the front subframe mountings and unlike the stories of
the time, engines cannot fall out of front wheel drive cars. Lancias problem
was honesty, instead of discreetly repairing the cars as most of the other
manufacturers tend to do they recalled all the suspect vehicles paid out
the owners and scrapped the vehicles.

Twas the Daily Mirror with an article that "outed" Lancia. They were indeed discreetly repairing cars, but had to recall when the Mirror made it Public. It destroyed them.

[rallycross]

I used to love these old Lanica's having owned a 1.6 HPE ser 1, HPE 2000ie, Coupe 1.3 and Coupe Vx, the subframe issue never affected the coupe or HPE, these cars were really over engineered for how much they cost, the handling was superb, lovely inside when you compare what else was available at that time for that money.

Such a shame they got tarnished with the rust problem of the saloon.

[flat16]

Unless someone can provide evidence of engines falling out of cars, I will keep this story filed under "urban myth", alongside the kind of BS espoused by tabloid idiots such as Clarkson.

These cars *do* lack galvanisation - fact.

It's also a fact that, particularly when compared to the homogenous "off-the-shelf" style that is the modern car market, they're a great deal of fun with more than a touch of style. The cars are simple to maintain and there are plenty of aftermarket mods available to improve performance and general useability.

It cost a packet to restore my '83 Montecarlo (people would say it was the best example they'd seen *prior* to the bare-metal restoration) and I wouldn't want to propagate any notion other than the concept that Lancia from this generation have quite serious flaws. But, once you've dealt with the issues, they are an enormous amount of fun; they sound lovely (particularly with CSC pipe), there's plenty of grip and they exude Italian charisma.

You need to know a good bodyshop to own a Lancia of this vintage, but if you do, they're highly rewarding cars to own (waxoyl is the missing ingredient!). I've had my Montecarlo since '92 and would loathe to part with it.

BTW - Good to see you here, Stevie - I wonder if our paths may have crossed over the years...

Edited by flat16 on Saturday 4th August 13:02

[flat16]

BTW - The more I look at the current "Lancia" line-up, the more I like these cars... I do hope they put the Fulvia into production.

[inthedark]

]

Twas the Daily Mirror with an article that "outed" Lancia. They were indeed discreetly repairing cars, but had to recall when the Mirror made it Public. It destroyed them.
[/quote]

Actually I think you'll find it was a disgruntled Daily Mail motoring journalist who perpetrated most of the lies purely because Lancia would not
let him test drive a car for six months.

'the colonel'

[scruffy101]

I had one of these in the mid 90s it had a fantastic engine it was bang up to date date with great handling and brakes(all discs) and a great red led clock it was quick but the rust was awful ,I used to wash it then spray the arches white every week!

[tinman0]

FestivAli said:

Staples to Naples it then sell it to an italian

stuff the italian, i'd buy it off you at the end. probably give you the money at the beginning to make sure i got it

[Miguel]

Here's a bit of useless trivia: The Lancia Beta Monte Carlo was called Lancia Scorpion in the US since here Monte Carlo refers to an altogether different car.

Miguel

[flat16]

Miguel said:

Here's a bit of useless trivia: The Lancia Beta Monte Carlo was called Lancia Scorpion in the US since here Monte Carlo refers to an altogether different car.

Miguel

The name infringed the Chevrolet Montecarlo's trademark.

The Scorpion was the car that really killed the Montecarlo... Even an appearance in "Herbie falls in love" couldn't save it. The engine had emissions that didn't meet US regulations, so they not only downgraded capacity to 1800cc, but they also had to add a catalyser...

The Scorpion not only weighed a good few kilos more than the Monte on account of its cat and extra bumpers, but it had the grand total of 85 horses under the pedal...

Understandably, the US market didn’t take to the car’s performance...and when the rust issues showed their head the car really plummeted in the popularity stakes.

Can you imagine releasing a mid-engined Lancia that took nearly 11 seconds to get to 60? It’s sad enough that Fiat kept their best engines for the Volumetrico 131 (had a larger blower than the Volumex – I believe this formed the basis for the 037) and the Volumex, but the Scorpion was a laughing stock.

One can only begin to imagine what would’ve become of the Montecarlo had it received as much development as the Delta. A Monte with an Integrale-spec engine and 6-pot brakes would be incredibly quick – up there with the Esprit (Monte is pretty light btw, a smidgeon over 1000KG).

My apologies for drifting OT on Montes. It boggles my mind to think that the suits at Lancia would give the FWD model a decent blown engine (Beta Volumex), yet the mid-engined flagship got a docile 120BHP with a single carb… Only in Italy!

[shouldbworking]

Yummy. ill have to try and find that on autotrader

I have a Beta HPE Volumex presently being restored - detail here http://lancisti.net/forum/index.php?topic=2763.0

Subframes were a problem on the series 1 saloons. You want to see what an untouched subframe from a hpe or coupe will look like after 20+ years, you can see it in this photo - that said it may raise some doubts about the front crossmember instead :P

[Miguel]

flat16 said:

Miguel said:

Here's a bit of useless trivia: The Lancia Beta Monte Carlo was called Lancia Scorpion in the US since here Monte Carlo refers to an altogether different car.

Miguel

The name infringed the Chevrolet Montecarlo's trademark.

The Scorpion was the car that really killed the Montecarlo... Even an appearance in "Herbie falls in love" couldn't save it. The engine had emissions that didn't meet US regulations, so they not only downgraded capacity to 1800cc, but they also had to add a catalyser...

The Scorpion not only weighed a good few kilos more than the Monte on account of its cat and extra bumpers, but it had the grand total of 85 horses under the pedal...

Understandably, the US market didn’t take to the car’s performance...and when the rust issues showed their head the car really plummeted in the popularity stakes.

Can you imagine releasing a mid-engined Lancia that took nearly 11 seconds to get to 60? It’s sad enough that Fiat kept their best engines for the Volumetrico 131 (had a larger blower than the Volumex – I believe this formed the basis for the 037) and the Volumex, but the Scorpion was a laughing stock.

One can only begin to imagine what would’ve become of the Montecarlo had it received as much development as the Delta. A Monte with an Integrale-spec engine and 6-pot brakes would be incredibly quick – up there with the Esprit (Monte is pretty light btw, a smidgeon over 1000KG).

My apologies for drifting OT on Montes. It boggles my mind to think that the suits at Lancia would give the FWD model a decent blown engine (Beta Volumex), yet the mid-engined flagship got a docile 120BHP with a single carb… Only in Italy!

Interesting info. Thanks. The power of the Scorpion was very low, but that was typical of such cars sold here in the US at the time. Almost all cars sold in the US from 1975 on had a catalytic converter. To be fair to the suits, I don't think that Fiat/Lancia had a supercharged engine at the time. That only came later. Of course, then they did the supercharged and turbocharged mid-engined homologation special that you mentioned, the Lancia Rally/037.

Miguel