1978 Lancia Beta 1600 Coupe

1978 Lancia Beta 1600 Coupe

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Discussion

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Tuesday 15th December 2020
quotequote all
This letter is a bit too late to be about a rust buy back. Anyway this car is not a rusty one. Maybe the original buyer, by 1984 moved from near Aberdeen to the Isle of Man, was just after a new Lancia.

At that time I was studying for my final exams at university, aged 21.


anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Tuesday 15th December 2020
quotequote all
A letter from October 1986 about parts shows that the owner still had the Beta, and Lancia had a new dealer on the IOM.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Tuesday 15th December 2020
quotequote all


Good.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Tuesday 15th December 2020
quotequote all
I have info about the couple that first owned this car! The warranty is in the name of this man's wife, and he appears in correspondence with Lancia UK dating from 1986 in the car's file. The names and residence details indicated in other obituary sources match, and the car came back from the IOM in 2017, so it appears that this hero of WW2 and his wife had the car from 1979, and that he kept it after his wife's death in 2003 until he died in 2016.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/1...

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/eric-garland-xq...

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 16th December 04:41

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Wednesday 16th December 2020
quotequote all
I wonder if Flight Lieutenant Garland's experiences fighting with the Italian partisans gave him a fondness for things Italian.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Wednesday 16th December 2020
quotequote all
F/L Garland was evidently as tough as old boots. After the War he farmed in Kenya and was in the Colonial police during the Mau Mau episodes. He spent most of his peacetime career as an airline pilot. He married a stewardess, and it is she whose name appears on the car's warranty book.

The car's good condition must reflect the care that Mr and Mrs Garland gave it, and it may perhaps have been stored during Mr Garland's old age. A chap in the Lake District brought the car back from the IOM in 2016 or 2017, and I bought it from him in 2017.


anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Thursday 17th December 2020
quotequote all
JPvanRossem said:
Great info. I'll look out for it at Bicester.

Can't believe you're going on both days. You're wild. Completely wild. It's like you have no limits.
Me, Edgelord, me.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Thursday 17th December 2020
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It looks good - more pics or thread please!

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Thursday 17th December 2020
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They all do that, Sir.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Monday 4th January 2021
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Quick and dirty pezzer shot.

Jetwashed afterwards, promise!


anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Thursday 14th January 2021
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WOULD


(checks bank)


can't

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Thursday 14th January 2021
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Perhaps the late Guy Croft.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Saturday 16th January 2021
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Enjoyable night driving. The clock does not illuminate.




anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Saturday 16th January 2021
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I am trying to get it back on UK plates. It will be VED exempt. It has an MOT albeit not legally compelled.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Saturday 16th January 2021
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Lovely looking car.

In 1986 I purchased a 1981 Lancia Beta 2000 HPE. I made about six trips to the dealer crawling underneath looking for rust before pulling the trigger. Of course there wasn't any ( As soon as I got it home we undercoated the whole thing just in case but that was the paranoia back then) .

I filled it up on the way home and some guy commented on the car at the petrol station. He said 'nice car but for that price I would have got a Triumph Stag, that thing will never hold its value.' ..err thanks but he was probably right. However as a 19 year old a 2 litre double overhead cam and cheap insurance stole the show.

It went back within a week due to the head gasket being shot, that was sorted Over the next two years the only things that went wrong was the temp gauge packing up, the headlining becoming unstuck and literally falling on me. I sold it on as got posted elsewhere but still have fond memories.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Saturday 16th January 2021
quotequote all
The car tends to be admired these days. Not so many twits saying "they all rusted at the dealers mate". A bloke parked next to the Beta today enthused about it and recalled his one.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Sunday 17th January 2021
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Play, wash, and engine shot.






anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Sunday 17th January 2021
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Wash shot rubbish cos I could see nowt in strong sunlight.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

55 months

Sunday 17th January 2021
quotequote all
Da, Tovarisch.