Lancia Beta Volumex

[truck71]

GC8 said:

A 1,600cc HPE made an RS2000 look rubbish in every respect.

Interesting, a mate had a black RS2000 at the time and I'd suggest as much but he wouldn't hear of it!

I remember having to cut the rear exhaust section off for the MOT and replaced it with an end section from a Saab 99 turbo without a silencer(my old chap had one in the eighties and this was residue from the time). The tester was slightly perplexed but passed it since it was secure and didn't blow- sounded ace to an 18yr olds ears. The 1600 revved better than the 2000, which with extra torque, was perhaps better suited to every day driving.

The volumex is something special though, red or grey.

[anonymous-user]

The comprehensive instrument panel at night:-

[Mighty Flex]

Does this replace the Spider, Breadvan?

Another colour option is the metallic blue that was on a few cars (all I have is a poor picture), and whilst you are at it, you need the "Supercharged" stripes .




Considering there were 150 VX coupes and 186 VX HPEs imported to the UK, they are rare beasts.

[arguti]

On a serious note, if anybody knows of a decent volumex coupe that may be for sale, please do drop me a line

cheers

[anonymous-user]

There was a black one on eBay recently, but it had some bad body rust showing and the seller seemed optimistic in his pricing. There is a link to the ad towards the end of my Lancia Beta Spider thread in Readers' Cars.

A very spiffy gunmetal grey one just sold on carandclassic for quite a wedge, I gather.

Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 30th March 06:48

[v8250]

bv72, that's a very smart looking girl. Never owned a Lancia and this thread has got the radar twitching. Just searched to see what's available and came across this somewhat savage scrapping of Volumex. Shame she couldn't be saved...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonysphotos/sets/7215...

[anonymous-user]

He was mad to scrap the car unless he sold the supercharger and engine for good money.

Here was the last Volumex Coupe seen on the Bay. Query whether the sale went through.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1985C-Lancia-Volumex-Cou...

This early 1600 HPE begs to be saved:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291110704585?ssPageName=...

There was also a late HPE IE on sale recently, in what looked to be OK nick.

Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 29th March 18:12

[anonymous-user]

Volumex - here is where the rare magic happens -

[truck71]

Blimey, busy in there. Is it carb or injection fed?

[anonymous-user]

There is a single Weber twin choke carb sat on the right of the blower, underneath that big airbox. It's a Weber 36DCA 5/250 with 26mm chokes. The twin rotor supercharger was derived from a Rootes system.

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 1st April 09:34

[anonymous-user]

An auto choke for cold starting was standard, but it can wear and produce problems, so in this car a manual choke has been fitted.

By the time that the Volumex was in production, most HPEs had fuel injection. Coupes were also offered in Volumex and IE spec, but the Spyder only ever came with a carb and normal aspiration. The Montecarlo used a twin carb set up.

[anonymous-user]

This is the IE that is for sale at the moment.


http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C479926

[arguti]

Breadvan72 said:

There was a black one on eBay recently, but it had some bad body rust showing and the seller seemed optimistic in his pricing. There is a link to the ad towards the end of my Lancia Beta Spider thread in Readers' Cars.

A very spiffy unmetal grey one just sold on carandclassic for quite a wedge, I gather...

thanks I saw that and agree his pricing was optimistic given the amount of visible rust - I wonder what it was like elsewhere on the body!

I have inherited a rust free 1600 coupe out in South Africa so volumex is what I really want

[anonymous-user]

Re the Weber carb: some people on the Lampredi twin cam "scene", if you can call it that, think that the carb on the HPE Volumex is too small, but I am not always convinced by the idea that to tune a car you need a big phat carb (or carbs). Anyway, I usually keep cars pretty standard, and tend to think it unlikely that Joe Bloke in a garage can out think the engineering team at a manufacturer that has a well established reputation for making performance cars.

[anonymous-user]

Arguti, you will have seen the decent looking non-Volumex Coupe for sale on Car and Classic.

See also this:-

http://www.triple-mregister.org/forums/topic.asp?T...

http://www.triple-mregister.org/forums/topic.asp?T...

You might oppose unoriginality, and I would support that, but if you wanted to make the conversion you would need to change the manifold (Betaboyz has a Volumex one for sale) and no doubt some other bits and bobs. The HPE's gearing is different from that of the normally aspirated HPEs. I assume that the same may be so for the Coupes, but don't know. The HPE Volumex also has uprated springs compared to the other HPEs.

[arguti]

To be honest I would prefer a volumex coupe and if I were going down the modded route I would be talking to guy croft - his book on modifying the fiat lancia engines is a work of art in itself.

Thanks for the input

[truck71]

On the carb, was there any reason the Fiat group decided to go with the supercharger solution? These engines seem to respond well to twin carb applications- the Strada Abarth perhaps being the most mainstream example. It's very responsive from all revs and sounds great- maybe a bit uncouth for a stylish Lancia? Having said that didn't Fiat put the volumex in the Fiat 124 Convertible? Again maybe a more refined car to the Strada.

[gforceg]

Breadvan72 said:

Anyway, I usually keep cars pretty standard, and tend to think it unlikely that Joe Bloke in a garage can out think the engineering team at a manufacturer that has a well established reputation for making performance cars.

Copy that, BV. (in a crackly 70s CB trucker voice).

Oh, and btw, you utter bazzer for posting the blue IE ad. God that looks nice.

[bob1179]

Breadvan72 said:

This is the IE that is for sale at the moment.


http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C479926

I want that.

So very much.

Damn you man.

[MarshPhantom]

bob1179 said:

Breadvan72 said:

This is the IE that is for sale at the moment.


http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C479926

I want that.

So very much.

Damn you man.

Got to be worth 3k, if I had a garage to put it in I'd go to have a look.