Cohort poster S. Forrest was undoubtedly surprised to encounter a Lancia Beta Zagato in a parking in Ontario, in the winter no less. The last time I saw one of these was in sunny Los Angeles, over 25 years ago. And they were hardly a common sight then. One of these days, we’ll have to do the Beta family full justice here, but for today, let’s just briefly touch on this uncommon find.
The Beta family of cars were the first new cars from Lancia after it was taken over by Fiat in 1969. Three years later, the first Beta arrived, in the form of the sedan. The short wheelbase coupe followed a year later, and then in 1974, the 2+2 Spider, called Zagato for the US market, presumably to avoid confusion with the Alfa Romeo and Fiat 142 Spiders. The Spider was actually designed by Pininfarina, but built by Zagato, hence the name.
Although it now used Fiat-designed engines (1.4 – 2.0 L DOHC fours), and Fiat’s pioneering FWD layout, with the engine and transmission side-by-side, the Betas still showed some of Lancia’s innovative spirit, such as the rear suspension using MacPherson struts, which was widely copied. Although the early years of the Beta family was very rust prone, later ones were no worse than average. Still, seeing this one in this setting is a bit unexpected, even if there’s no snow on the ground.
Still sporting a 1979 era license plate, so possibly one owner.
“the whole Beta family was very rust prone”
Only the early Beta sedans were very rust prone (and for some reason only in the UK…), other cars in the Beta lineup rusted like any other European or Japanese car of the era: faster than a modern car, but not like some people claim, “yeah, they rusted on the dealer’s lot, man, i know, a friend of my cousin bought a used one of these for 50 bucks back in 1980 !”
Agreed; I should have made that clear, and I will amend it to do so.
As far as I know that was due to ignorance on the UK importer’s part. They saw two big holes at the bottom of the bulkhead and thought ‘that can’t be right’, so they plugged them up with rubber bungs.
Turns out they were drain holes, and plugging them up trapped moisture inside the bulkhead, leading them to rust from the inside out.
Oh, and to make it worse they kept them in a field between importing and shipping to dealerships.
That could be nothing but rumour, but that’s what I’ve heard.
Never heard of this story, but it certainly make more sense than the usual russian steel conspiracy.
And the typical British weather certainly didn’t help either. But then, how many 1969 BMWs, Opels, Toyotas, Renaults or even Saabs survived? Exactly.
My, another car I do not believe I have ever seen. I suspect that these were quite rare away from the coasts, and possibly Chicago.
The last time I saw one of these was three years ago and that was at the Import Show in Carlisle, PA.
Didn’t the Beta series once have a reputation for being the most rust-prone of any mainstream Italian car during the late ’70s? I heard it was even worse than the Fiat Ritmo (Strada in the U.S.).
That “honor” goes to the Alfa Romeo Alfasud. A car so great yet so flawed.
http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/cars/alfa-romeo/alfa-romeo-alfasud/the-cars-alfa-romeo-alfasud-2/
AROnline does articles about Alfas?
My two automotive worlds just collided.
Fantastic 🙂
That’s what we don’t have any more – cars that are “so great, yet so flawed”. And I miss them, because flaws bring out character and diversity. There isn’t a car on the market today that isn’t fundamentally competent – sure, there are cars that are dull or ugly, but they all do their job. “Character” used to be in a car’s DNA, the sum of a set of compromises (or the refusal to compromise) made in its development. Today, it feels as though “character” is layered on top of the appliance – some styling quirk, handling fix or hammed up engine noise. Today’s equivalent Alfasud – the better-built, rust-proofed Mito, I guess – is less flawed, but also less great.
I like this a lot but a contributor said the best way to experience a Lancia is to find a mate who has one and borrow it when it’s running OK
Yay! A Beta coupe! Sort of. The coupe’s glass house succeeds where this doesn’t; that c-pillar can’t stop this looking a bit pushmepullyou. Those rear lights are not shared with the coupe or the HPE. If they’re not parts bin, it would make this a write-off in my home town if it ever copped a roadworthy canary. Great find S. Forrest.
When it comes to Beta, I like HPE the most. Almost impossible to find a good condition one anymore.
I always thought Ford should have gotten ASC to do a similar roof treatment on the 77-79 T-Bird. It was a natural, as my admittedly quick & dirty photochop attests. The T-Bird Town Landaulet.
The UK was Lancia’s largest export market when the Beta showed up. The Beta led to Lancia’s departure from their market, although it took a few years for Lancia to give up. Does anyone remember “Modern Problems” with Chevy Chase? There was more to Beta ownership than rusting Berlinas.
The car shown in the b&w photograph looks like a car from the first series of production.
Initially these cars had the donor coupé’s window frames removed and did not have a rail between windscreen surround and rear pillar. These bodies proved to be extremely wobbly, so after a relatively small number of cars this was changed. Later examples used the unchanged doors from the coupé/HPE complete with door window frames and they had a rail connecting front and rear posts to reduce body flex.
In the early Eighties I owned one of the later ones for a short time. If you opened the window and held your finger at the gap between door and removable roof panel, you could feel how the whole thing flexed. I do not dare to imagine how a car without the stiffening rails must feel on rough surfaces.
The car was nice to drive. Raucous exhaust note, snappy throttle response and good torque characteristics from the two litre engine, heavy but precise unassisted steering, very light and precise gearchange and very throttle sensitive handling. The biggest problem were frighteningly expensive replacement parts and their non-availability when it came to parts specific to the Spider.
The car was four and a half years old when I bought it. It already had cracks all over its bodywork caused by the flex, you could tell which body parts were made by Zagato because of their rippled surfaces and it did have a rubber mat on the boot floor with an enormously large “Z” logo on it so you could tell passengers it was Zorro’s car.