SOTW: Lancia Beta
1984 Lancia Beta Sports Coupe 2.0
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
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
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
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.
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.
Such a shame they got tarnished with the rust problem of the saloon.
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...
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'
Miguel
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!
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
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!
Miguel
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