Lancia Beta
My wife and I were walking along the sidewalk a few months ago when I came to a sudden, stunned halt, mouth open, gaping at a car parked on the other side of the street. After a moment spent ascertaining whether I had just suffered some sort of attack, my wife followed my gaze, slumped visibly, and muttered, "oh, just another crappy old European car."
My wife could say that virtually at random throughout the day and be right on a regular basis, but in this case she was especially spot-on--the source of my befuddlement was a pristine light-blue Lancia Beta coupe.
I've already discussed the Beta's close sporty cousin, the Monte Carlo/Scorpion; the rakish mid-engined relative borrowed most of its mechanicals from the Beta, and so much of what I wrote then still applies. The Beta was a typical small Italian car of the time--fiery, fun, tossable, lovable, and, of course, more needy than your typical Honda.
But, setting aside its qualities as a car, the grimy bits weren't what stopped me cold in my tracks. No, I was harpooned through the heart by the Beta's crisp, clean looks.
I've been familiar with the Beta in general terms for years, but I couldn't remember having ever seen one in the skin. In the real world, surrounded by mundane cars, the Beta was a jaw-dropper. Clearly, I was blown away, and frankly, the pictures here don't do it justice. The Beta mixes the classic square-edged, upright-grille look with a narrow B-pillar and spare detailing and just a hint of zest. The effect is like the E30 BMW 3-series coupe, but vastly more sultry and inviting.
It's a small coupe that looks really good--and assuming I could afford Lancia parts on my salary (I can't) and could find a good coupe or spider available for sale, I'd be eagerly pursuing one to own. Of course, I'd really love an HPE "shooting brake" (at right) but there's no point in dreaming, is there?
I'm tempted to keep typing gibberish just to fit some more photos in here, but it might be simpler just to visit Flickr user tonylanciabeta's photostream--all of the gorgeous photos here are from him, and there are many more where these came from.
--Chris H.
Cookie the Dog's Owner on July 07, 2008 at 02:35 PM
I think that orange one in the second photo is the "Zagato" version. It has a removable roof panel and a fold-down rear window, making it a sort-of-Targa sort-of-convertible.
I remember seeing one once on the road, probably about 1983 or 84. The driver was a pretty blond girl. I was driving a 1978 Chevy Monza station wagon. Even if I could have kept up with her, the car I was in was just too dorky; I wouldn't have had a chance.
Anthony Cagle on July 07, 2008 at 02:37 PM
Hey, too bad, there was one for sale about 2 blocks from my house a couple of months ago. I think there's still a DeLorean a block over as well.
I seem to be in a prime Car Lust neighborhood.
I wish I could remember the little Italian job my family had, briefly. It was a blue Fiat we bought from my uncle who probably sold it to us just to get rid of it, little did we know. Seemed like a wicked fun car -- I wasn't nearly old enough to drive -- but as I recall it was the usual Fix.It.Again.Tom kind of thing. My primary memory of it is with my dad in some parking lot and we were sitting there watching while the car ahead of us was backing up, seemingly oblivious to our presence. The person was backing up at us very slowly and my dad was valiantly trying to get the dumb thing in reverse to back up out of the way and not succeeding. He could have honked the horn but, of course, the horn only worked sporadically. They finally bumped into us, but not enough to do any real damage.
We eventually got tired of it and sold it to a local priest. We were up front about it's. . .errr. . .'challenging maintenance history' but he said that was fine, he wouldn't try to get his money back or anything, but don't be surprised if we saw it floating down the local river.
Last we heard, it caught fire on him.
rob the SVX guy on July 07, 2008 at 03:20 PM
I would love to see one of these with a nice modern 4 banger under the hood. Nothing crazy, just a nice 130-170hp, fuel efficient, reliable powerplant. It'd be a blast.
David Colborne on July 07, 2008 at 04:53 PM
So that's where AMC got those weird door handles from... I always wondered about that.
Mochi Mochi on July 07, 2008 at 07:16 PM
By a strange coincidence, I was going through ALL the CarLust postings on Lancias, just yesterday. And today we have the Beta. Coincidence? I think not.
When it comes to Lancias what can I say?... my brain explodes and sends happy shrapnel through nearby walls. I think Lancia... and I start reciting Italian poetry. I develop a strange lilting accent. I roll up my sleeves and reach for a bottle of Chianti. I start listening to opera by Verde and Puccini - nodding my head and humming along as the wine works its magic. I imagine myself followed by warm rich sunshine. My hands move with animated gestures when I speak.
The Beta Spider I think may possess the best lines of the Beta variants. But the HPE and the Coupe are just gorgeous. I have already showered the Beta Monte Carlo with Lavish praise in a previous post - and despite the naming similarity they are very different cars. I LOVE the fact that Lancia set out to name cars according to the strict order of the greek alphabet, and then randomly named and renamed cars according to the whim of whoever happened to own the company at any particular time. The fact that there was an ordered plan and a complete deviation from that plan makes perfect sense in a joyously contradictory fashion. What you donna a-like-a de name? ehhh! Have a nice-a glass a vino. Salute!
I believe CookieTDO is correct. I visited the Zagato web site. They did a 1980 redesign of the Beta. And the drawings they have look remarkably like the orange gold one pictured above.
http://www.zagato.it/bozzettihi/z58.jpg
As a side note Zagato is a design studio in Milano ;) It's worth taking a look at some of the their work.
www.zagato.it
They have a long history of great design and they've done styling work for Lancia, Alfa, Ferrari and many others.
For some odd reason I got to see A LOT of Beta's when I was growing up. Even more odd they were all running around Boston - THE WORST POSSIBLE PLACE to have a Lancia from the 70's or 80s. There was a dealer for Alphas and Lancias in Waltham. Selling such cars near Boston must have been like selling firewood to people living in a burning house. Apparently there was a scandalous rust problem world wide with the Betas. For such a rust prone car, Boston would be an instant death sentence. But they were gorgeous little cars. Really nice lines. They represented a unique design vision in their time, but that vision is still fresh and clean even today (perhaps even more so).
When we are talking about cars like the Lancias... reliability?... well that's highly over-rated don't you think. I mean the reason for owning a Lancia is not to have a car that is reliable or even really fast - it is more of a temporal experience. Its the definition of a high-maintenance girl friend who happens to be really really hot. She makes you a little nuts but she's worth it.
The thing that makes me really happy is that there are a lot more Lancias that are truly lust worthy, and I hope to see many more posts. A few weeks ago I was driving up the Pacific Coast Highway and ran across a Lancia Fulvia HF. Bright red - much like the first car in this video (the second is a fulvia zagato) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n03khddIiiA&feature=related
The Fulvia did not appear to be particularly fast by today's standards, but it was gorgeous and it had a remarkable and beautiful sound. These cars really are about experience.
I'd own one if I could. I could even deal with reliability issues. But the rust would break my heart. So instead I think I will stick with Japanese cars that are inspired by the likes of Lancias. There might be one or two cars I can think of that have a vague resemblance to the Stratos and a few other Lancias of note.
I think the thing that really puzzles me, and I would love it if someone could shed light on this, is that cars from the 70s were exceptionally prone to rust. Why? Italian cars were the worst, but VW and Porsche were also terrible. BMW faired slightly better - the 2002 for instance does not appear to have quite the rust issues of its contemporaries. But if you had a car in the 70s rust was a huge issue. I know that as the decade progressed Porsche started galvanizing their body and frame components to fight the trend. It makes me wonder if there was an issue with the grade of steel used at the time - low quality cheap steel? recycled scrap with impurities? Was it a lack of rust proofing or changes in rust proofing technologies that simply failed?
Chris you are so lucky to have seen one of these beauties. I'm imagining your excitement - and I'm picturing your wife's utter boredom and exasperation. Great post. I was looking forward to today's post - but never expected to be greeted by the Beta.
Brian on July 07, 2008 at 07:40 PM
Mmm, that shooting brake makes my eyes water. Man I love shooting brakes. Like this one:
http://www.924.org/models/modelpics/CarreraGT/924_Turbo_Break.jpg
Or this one:
http://static.autoblog.nl/images/wp2007/Porsche%20944%20shooting%20break3.jpg
http://www.pestalozzi.net/sb/porsche944_300.jpg
Link:
http://automotivenews.blogsome.com/2007/08/16/ebay-find-of-the-day-porsche-wagon/
Sooo damn practical. Didn't mean to hijack, please continue.
Rob the SVX guy on July 08, 2008 at 06:32 AM
"and I start reciting Italian poetry. I develop a strange lilting accent. I roll up my sleeves and reach for a bottle of Chianti. I start listening to opera by Verde and Puccini - nodding my head and humming along as the wine works its magic. I imagine myself followed by warm rich sunshine. My hands move with animated gestures when I speak."
Mochi, this is a car site, not a poetry contest. Come on man. Jeez.
Mochi Mochi on July 08, 2008 at 07:02 AM
"interesting cars meet irrational emotion" enough said.
Ian on July 08, 2008 at 07:05 AM
These really are just beautiful. The Beta is one of those cars that would cause me to abandon my common sense and deal with any number of reliability issues. Actually, there are a lot of small, European cars I could say that about. It's probably good that my wallet isn't big enough to allow it.
Mochi: "Even more odd they were all running around Boston - THE WORST POSSIBLE PLACE to have a Lancia from the 70's or 80s."
Yeah, I can't imagine any of them having any of their bodies left after the first winter.
Gareth on July 08, 2008 at 07:25 AM
Lancia's are so cool. I've always wanted a Stratos. I've driven one once. Amazing to drive and the fact that it didn't fall apart!!
Cookie the Dog's Owner on July 08, 2008 at 07:52 AM
Mochi, I'm OK with the poetry and the Chianti and the sing-along-with-Giuseppe-Fortunino-Francesco-Verdi bit, but when you started trilling your "r" sounds, you crossed the line! :-)
Chris Hafner on July 08, 2008 at 09:57 AM
Cookie: "I think that orange one in the second photo is the "Zagato" version. It has a removable roof panel and a fold-down rear window, making it a sort-of-Targa sort-of-convertible."
Yep, that's the Zagato. It's a very pretty version of the Beta - as you say, comparable to a Targa or even a roll-bar-up Jaguar XJ-S convertible.
Anthony Cagle: "I think there's still a DeLorean a block over as well."
I think I've seen that one as well - the one over by the PCC just off 65th? There's a very nice 1977-1990 Impala/Caprice over there too - whenever I'm in the area I make a point to ogle those two cars.
Anthony Cagle: "We eventually got tired of it and sold it to a local priest. We were up front about it's. . .errr. . .'challenging maintenance history' but he said that was fine, he wouldn't try to get his money back or anything, but don't be surprised if we saw it floating down the local river."
Ha! We unloaded our problematic Saturn on a minister. We also were pretty up-front about its problems, but we hit a run of really bad luck right after we sold it, which does make one wonder ...
David Colborne: "So that's where AMC got those weird door handles from... I always wondered about that."
Nicely played, sir.
Mochi Mochi: "my brain explodes and sends happy shrapnel through nearby walls ... selling such cars near Boston must have been like selling firewood to people living in a burning house."
Mochi, you've been on a roll lately - that's some classic stuff.
Mochi: "Its the definition of a high-maintenance girl friend who happens to be really really hot. She makes you a little nuts but she's worth it."
Um, Jane?
Thanks a lot Brian, I'm not going to get any work done today - that Porsche 944 shooting brake has me all hot and bothered.
Oh, and if Mochi wasn't waxing ecstatic about a car, we'd all be the worse for it.
Tony Harrison on July 18, 2008 at 03:33 PM
Chris, many thanks for adding my photos
Beta's are fantastic cars, we in the UK 6 years ago started BetaBoyz, now reproduce a lot of parts for the Beta
with over 550 members worldwide on our forum it now makes Beta ownership a lot easier
See: www.betaboyz.co.uk
ps, also have a cars for sale section (-:
Thanks
Tony Harrison aka (tonylanciabeta)
TN on January 21, 2009 at 09:23 PM
I owned and used a late '70s Beta as my daily driver from 1993 to 1995. It felt as stable at 100MPH as it did at 30. The engine was smooth, and really reminded me of my KZ1000 engine - indestructible and high-reving. It was light on its feet, cornered very well. Had those greenish-glowing alloy rims. I set the ignition timing to around 50 deg. advanced and ran 100octane avgas through it sometimes because I was doing freeway commute, and saw over 40MPG most of the time in that mode although it wouldn't idle well in that mode. I loved that little car!
Dave Wilson on March 30, 2009 at 03:28 PM
Thanks for this article on the Beta Coupe ! I have always loved them, and years ago eventually found the exact same model as the blue one above, but it was in most less impressive condition. It used to drive wonderful though and that sweet free revving eager engine, just fantastic. Been after one again for the last few years but never quite had the spare cash. But I would prefer another one of these lovely cars over pretty much anything else at any money. I am that crazy for the Beta Coupe! Oh happy memories. Thankyou :)
Alastair Ward on August 18, 2009 at 03:31 PM
Go to a car show with my Dad, pass by an MGB and he'll tell a forlorn tale to the owner about having to sell his when I was born for a four seater car. Said four seater car was a Beta coupe, so I can't exactly say that Dad was loosing out.
The HPE looks even better in the flesh than that photo above. There was one for sale at the last car show we went to, looking magnificent in black with gleaming bright work.
chandru on September 20, 2009 at 06:18 AM
I owned two Beta Zagatos, 81-84 and 84-92, the first with the emission-strangled engine which breathed much freely after a carb change, the second with the much more powerful injected 2-lit., also improved with headers.
Fantastic cars (when they started). Being able to drive in almost any northern CA weather, even moderate rain, with the rear top open is an experience like no other. And you could squeeze too consenting adults in the back.
High-maintenance? Right. But for a head-turning, fairly inexpensive, unusual, good-handling car nothing beat it.
Now that Fiat is thinking of selling cars here again, what's near this thing?
Ron Cote on October 13, 2010 at 11:56 AM
I have a pair of 1981 Lancia Zagatos, and love them. The car I drive runs great, and Hasn't really given me many problems in the year iv owned it. Its in great condition now, and When I bought it, It was sitting in a garage for 5 years and the man turned the key and it started right up. Everything on this car works, and neither car has an ounce of rust. Even the other car runs. I have two complete cars, and i got a terrific deal on them, but Im currently looking to sell them, as i want a bmw convertible.
anyone interested?
Steve on November 19, 2010 at 11:06 PM
I just spent the last eight months restoring a 79 Beta coupe. It's on Ebay right now if anybody would like to check it out.....it's a great car, handling is fun, light on it's feet, rev-happy and willing engine, nice looking Italian lines and reasonably priced. Just buy a rust free one and a Haynes manual and you'll be a happy camper.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Newly-restored-low-mileage-Great-Condition-/290500575269?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item43a32f0025#ht_3196wt_1167
Michael Robinson on July 12, 2011 at 12:46 AM
76 Lancia Beta
I have a 1976 Lancia, because of my health I have to get rid of it.
The History: I stored the vehicle improperly 15 years ago, because I did not like the way it shifted although I had A so-called transmission specialist do the work. The engine ran fine; I put it together using a second Lancia I had purchased.
The Condition: Running when it was stored. No major body damage (scratches minor from the kids slamming their bikes into it)been in the garage the entire time. An Earl Scheib paint job, just to protect the metal of the vehicle. The interior front seats are slightly damaged, no radio, left window needs motor replacement. Interior flawless
The Extras: Complete Head machined, Intake Manifold, Shims of various sizes, ceramic switches wheel and tire replacement bulbs, small basket with specialty hoses harness, turn signal switch.
The Deal: Will be given to the first person that makes arrangements with me to pick it up. (Must have tow truck or flat bed)
Michael Robinson 3467 Highwood Court, Simi Valley Ca. 93063, Phone Number, 805 604 3169
Most people don’t believe that anything free has real value, so if you would like to donate to the hospital bills will take, other than that the car is still FREE!!!
Giovanni on September 18, 2011 at 10:30 PM
I just got the information on your Lancia Beta. Is this car still available, or am I too late? Please send me a message.
Thank you,
Gio