So many cars; not enough time. Yohai Rodin has a seemingly endless stream of finds at the Cohort; they all deserve more time than I can give them at this hour, but I just can’t let this pristine US-spec Beta Coupe go unacknowledged. These were the first generation of new cars designed after Fiat bought Lancia in 1969, and were desperately needed to get the company back to profitability, something that had been lacking for way too long. Pre-Fiat Lancias, as exquisite as they inevitably were, inevitably were expensive to build. The Beta’s job was to change that equation.
The Beta sedan was the first of the family to appear. It used the Fiat DOHC four, now mounted transversely and driving the front wheels, as was the tradition at Lancia for some time in its smaller cars. As such, it was an innovative car; a modern roomy FWD sedan with a lively DOHC four. Here’s an interesting factoid: GM used Beta sedans as mules for its X-Body Citation during its development. And while they were at it, Chevy copied the design too.
The coupe arrived in 1973, followed by the Targa Spyder (Zagato, in the US). This one was caught by another Cohort poster, S. Forrest, in Canada, no less. The coupe in Israel looks a bit happier.
Here’s the back of the Spyder. Underneath the back end, Lancia used a particularly original independent rear suspension with MacPherson struts attached to parallel transverse links that pivoted on a centrally mounted cross member bolted to the underside of the floorpan. An anti-roll bar was fitted to the floorpan ahead of the rear struts with both ends of the bar trailing back to bolt to the rear struts on each side. The Betas were exceptionally good handlers for being FWD, given the times.
image: Wikipedia
The final member of the family, the shooting-brake HPE, appeared in 1975. Inspired by other sporty wagons like the Volvo 1800ES and the Reliant Scimitar, it also sat on the longer wheelbase of the sedan, thus was reasonably roomy inside.
Unlike previous Lancias, these were marketed fairly aggressively in the US, and were quite common in Southern California during their run until 1984. It was an alternative to the BMW, and an attractive one at that. Interiors were handsome, with that inimitable Italian flair. Not surprisingly, they developed a bit of a spotty reputation, not unlike the Fiats (and a few other Europeans) of the times. It was undoubtedly a combination of factors, between the growing complexity of smog controls, the demand for air conditioning, and other new complex systems that smaller European manufacturers were challenged with, in their US-bound cars.
The basic mechanicals were mostly robust. The bodies not so much so, in terms of rustproofing. The first series Beta had serious corrosion issues, which were improved in the later versions. Lancia had to buy back some of the first-series cars, so bad was the problem. Which makes seeing a survivor like the coupe at the top such a treat. Most likely it came from Southern California.
The corrosion problem on these was really bad. I worked at a Fiat-Lancia-Volvo dealership when these cars were current. Lancia was conducting a fuel tank recall because of rust. The brand new replacement tanks we received were almost as bad as the old tanks we’d pull out.
Either you worked at Big Dee Fiat-Lancia-Volvo in Westchester County, NY, or there were TWO Dealers weird enough to take on this trio!
I was at Mooers Motor Car Company in Richmond, Virginia. Today they just sell Volvos.
Remember these quite well when they first appeared in Erie, PA about 1973 (or 74?). Really wanted to own one, but they were well beyond my price range, as I was driving a Vega GT at the time. Given their propensity for rusting, its probably a good thing. Erie tended to have their salt trucks follow six inches behind the plow, assuming one truck wasn’t doing double duty.
I don’t remember our getting the sedans, just the sports models. Coupes were something like 90% of the inventory. Sold thu the (tiny) Fiat dealer just outside the city limits. I think his showroom held two cars at most, and the dealership looked like a large converted gas station.
Nice, but I’d like to know what’s hiding under the red tarp behind the Lancia in the title picture!
+1 I hope we find out unlike the mystery car from last year(a 2/3 size pre war Lincoln look a like)
A friend bought one of those coupes in ’73. He got to drive it roughly one day a month when it wasn’t in the garage being fixed.
Renting the car for those occasional jaunts would have been a better deal!
Those are the cars that killed Lancia in the UK; at one time – as hard as it is to believe now – Lancia used to sell more cars in the UK than BMW. After the rust fiasco sales collapsed until, sometime in the early 90s, Fiat decided to stop import of the brand completely. As Paul noted, mechanically they were good and the handling is good even by today’s standards. If only…
If you can’t fix it ***** it was Lancia’s answer to the rust problem in the UK.Plenty other countries it hardly rains so we won’t bother.A long time since I’ve seen one of these attractive coupes,never seen the estate in the metal despite going to car shows a lot.
I drove one of these 15+ years ago and was quite impressed, then again an early Prelude was not bad either. The $250 Prelude was in very sound condition, no rust, which I’m not sure could be said of any Beta.
Strangely it is the sedan version I like the most even though it does not have the lift back it should. That is probably for the best though in an early 70s car, but if anyone could have pulled it off it would be Lancia; their pillar less sedans have amazing torsional rigidity.
So how many shooting brakes have been really used for hunting? All I can think of in England is some tweedy aristocrats bagging pheasant on their manorial grounds, but don’t these people drive Range Rovers instead? The French call them breaks, as in Citroën Break; I could more easily imagine ordinary Frenchmen using them as such.
The American equivalent is an F-150 with rifle rack, usually manned by Southerners.
Shooting brakes was an upper class expression.They were estate cars to oiks like me
I always thought that shooting brakes were things like converted Aston DB5’s. Then again I’m sure I’ve seen earlier ones actually used for shooting were R-Rs and such.
I like that sedan. It looks like a much-refined VW.
The sedan had a very un-FWD-like axle-to-dash ratio. A pity GM didn’t copy that aspect for their X-body.
While Lancia built FWD small cars before the Beta, the ones they did had longitudinal engines with novel cylinder arrangements. The Fulvia had a narrow angle V4 and the Flavia had a flat four. The Beta had a transversely mounted Fiat I4 engine, familiar to 124 Spider owners. Basically, the the Beta was a Fiat engined Fiat with a Fiat drivetrain layout. It was more of a big 128 than it was a new Fulvia. It’s also the car that killed Lancia’s largest export market, as noted above. It wasn’t quite as much of a disaster in the US, although its dearth of quality did inspire its skewering by the director of “Modern Problems.”
Interesting — it looks like the rear anti-roll bar does double duty triangulating the track control arms. That’s commonplace in front (that’s one of the features of the ‘classic’ MacPherson strut suspension), but relatively uncommon for rear struts, which usually have trailing links or trailing arms for that purpose.
Another car that I haven’t seen in a very, very long time, if ever! I’m sure they weren’t common on the East Coast at all, and even less so once rust started to claim them. Very attractive though.
Did we get the sedan or the HPE in the US market? I only know of the coupe and targa. And the Scorpion/Montecarlo, which was based on this same platform unless I’m mistaken…
Thanks for the complements, Paul- I do hope you’ll get to all the other cars I take photos of…
Here’s another “Israeli” Beta Coupe- see how good it looks without the front bumper:
And how about this (also in Israel)? Similar looking but very different…:
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Not bad. Looks like a Beta Montecarlo. They were imported to the US as the “Lancia Scorpion,” since General Motors already had dibs on the name Monte Carlo. I saw a silver one the other day, being driven in rush hour traffic, no less! Too bad I didn’t have my camera on me. I really need to get one of those Borg Collective camera implants.
The propensity to rust must have been severe in the sedans as you never see them…or is it the styling that condemned then to their early “graves”?
I always thought that the coupes looked like the green house belonged on a different car….perhaps a Fiat coupe?
If they weren’t so fragile, I’d own an HPE or Spyder…the sedan? No thanks.
I’m not sure if there was a difference in rusting, but more people would spend money to save a sports coupe.
The beautiful Beta Saloon was the first car I was entrusted to pick and buy as the family runaround back in 1983. It was cream coloured with a beige cloth interior, in perfect condition with everything working, drove like a hoot and didn’t let me down once. I think it was a 1974 model so barely ten years old.
One rainy evening I took a right hand bend too fast, over corrected and spun left into a guard rail at about 30mph. The suspension must have been a bit shot as the car nose dived under the rail and pushed the front passenger side all the way back to the gearbox, which came to rest in the passenger footwell with me lying on top of it.
Went to the police pound in the morning to collect a few bits and pieces and to surrender the ownership documents. The car was too badly damage to repair and the police were happy to pass it on to the scapyards.
I was shocked to see that the entire front end was facing 30 degrees off centre, including the undamaged driver side. Rust was eating its way diagonally across both MacPherson struts and it really was only a matter of time before the car seperated into two pieces; possibly at high speed with fatal consequences for me.
In retrospect, the accident actually saved my life. Would I buy another one if offered? You bet I would!
The late 1970s Toyota Corolla SR-5 liftback looks so similar to the Lancia Beta HPE coupe. Here is a photo of a 1977.
My parents had 2 Bata Sedans in the 70’s The first was the blue one pictured.
Both unlucky cars, the blue one ended up on its roof in Nudgee Cemetery after the
Michelins let go on a wet road ( I suspect Dad was in a hurry to get to the airport)
No injuries- apart from being hit in the head by a toaster in the back seat.
It was repaired then rear ended only weeks later.
Second one was a Series 2, with AC. Also unlucky as it was T boned in traffic. Again
Dad was unhurt.
I drove them both, steering was a bit heavy, but overall they were a comfortable, good
handling car with comfy seats & great brakes. No worries with rust-but the cars
were only 4 or 5 years old when traded.
I still rate the styling of the Beta Coupe very highly,especially with the Euro/rest of the world bumpers
saw one in the wild not too long ago…
from the back…
Look at those door handles! They obviously should have merged with AMC.
“New for 1983: the stunning LAMCia Beteagle!”