(Please see end for Update) Believe it or not, I do sincerely try to bring the best and most closest to showroom-spec vehicles to you for this series. That means I regularly skip promising candidates in order to hope to find a better one to share with you down the road. However, there are limits. And when one is faced with a vehicle that was only sold 1,801 times over two years in this country, and 7,798 in total over an eight year span worldwide, well, accommodations must be made. Thus I present to you the 1976 Lancia Scorpion, almost the same as the 1977 Lancia Scorpion before they decided to cancel it over here.
From a point and shoot distance, things don’t seem so bad at first. Rust, schmust, the last time I featured a Lancia in a random post here there were indignant replies that Lancias don’t rust and that reputation is overblown, blah blah blah. Well, maybe they didn’t back in the beginning and maybe they don’t anymore, but in the 1970s, I’m almost sure that the word Lancia was a common latin translation for the word rust. So let’s all get a tetanus shot and flip the page to see what’s left…
I myself am a fan of semi-modern rectilinear Lancias, so this one hits all the right buttons for me. Originally conceived as a Fiat, the X1/20 was to be a closely related but more powerful cousin to the X1/9. However it was deemed to be a bit too much for Fiat’s usual market so then reworked to somehow become part of the otherwise front wheel drive Lancia Beta lineup with which it shares little. In Europe it was known as the Montecarlo (one word), however in the States General Motors was apparently concerned people might confuse it with their behemoth (in comparison) PLC, and so the name Scorpion was chosen in a subtle nod to Abarth who apparently had a large hand in the development.
The 1970s are the era of the wedge, and the Scorpion certainly fits in there. The European model had faired in headlights but to conform to the Neanderthal standards in place over here, those were ditched and round sealed beams were substituted in pods that popped up slightly in order to meet the headlight height requirement. Never mind that it seems to be legal to sell brand new lifted trucks and Jeeps that would seem to diverge greatly from whatever standard may be in place in that regard, but I digress…
Just for reference here is what our example pretty much would have looked like when new. You may be wondering if I could have chosen one in the correct color, however I did. Ours has been repainted. Note that the side of this (red) car has had its black stripes or rub strips removed, whoever repainted ours left them in. But liberties were taken with the front end, the black surround as seen here is the correct one.
The Scorpion was styled by Paolo Martin at Pininfarina, whoever painted it removed and then re-adhered the badges before they were lost forever. I’d like to believe those are little pearls of morning dew on the paint surrounding the missing badge, however they are not. What they are is pretty much representative of the rest of the body on this one. I will award points though for the hole above it looking much better than it has any right to.
The only explanation I have for the cuts in the front hood are that the yard perhaps could not open it via an interior handle and thus chose to cut out the front-mounted hinges instead. Unfortunate and not the way to get someone to purchase that panel but at least it leaves the car more complete for us. Somehow this yard has managed to misidentify this car as a Fiat X1/9, the same as they did with about a dozen other Fiats in situ on this day.
I believe it to be possible and perhaps very likely that the Fiat 128 3p that Dave Skinner shared with us recently (from a different yard but in the same area) may have been from the same collection as there was a far greater percentage of Italian metal present than usual, all of it curiously labeled as X 1/9.
Opening that front hood allows us to see the luggage area which is decently sized for such a smallish car. It also confirms that the car used to be red. Why someone would slow it down by repainting it a different color is beyond me but to each their own.
There are probably numerous reasons as to why a 45 year old Italian car hasn’t been on the road in apparently some time, the rear side body damage is just one of the possibilities. One of the changes made for 1977 year was to rework the rear buttresses to contain a glass pane in order to improve rear 3/4 visibility. This angle also gives a good view of the horrendously large bumpers added for our market in contrast to the much lighter version both physically and visually that were fitted in other markets even though they were painted black over there. In the process they added around 120-130lbs to the weight, not insignificant when the car was only about 2400lbs in total.
The hood back here is actually side hinged (on the left), which is, uh, different but why not, it isn’t like you’re going to be leaning over the buttresses to change the spark plugs. I of course completely forgot about that when faced with it and only remembered it later after leaving.
Thus I held it up as one might expect if it were hinged near the rear window although the actual hinge can clearly be seen at the upper left of the picture but it was detached. Someone really tried to get the silver as far down into the engine bay as possible during the repaint but obviously didn’t remove the powertrain.
The biggest problem facing the Lancia upon its debut on our shores is likely than the 120hp engine available elsewhere had been swapped out for a 1.8liter unit from a Fiat that produced 81hp (@5,900rpm) and 89lb-ft of torque (@3,200rpm) which definitely cut into the fun factor comparatively speaking. The valve covers are missing on this one but the yellow cover on the front seems to be the same as what graces various Fiats.
When in development form as the Fiat X1/20 this was supposed to carry the Fiat 130’s 3.2l V6 which would make it more Ferrari Dino-like in my estimation. While Fiat didn’t think they’d carry that off, Lancia likely could have, instead all markets ended up with inline fours of differing power levels.
This example shows the hood opened the proper way. Note that the spare tire is also back here. Nowadays there would not even be one in the car, no doubt, so our junker is ahead of the game in that respect.
The overhead shot shows what is (or isn’t) left of the cloth top which could be folded open for an open cockpit. In Europe buyers could choose this or a solid metal top, but for the U.S. the cloth top was the only option. Time and weather obviously haven’t been kind to any part of this car but the interior obviously got the worst of it after the top deteriorated and/or disappeared along with the windshield.
What’s left are the door cards, some glass and various other debris items that may or may not be from this car. The dash was fairly interesting when intact as this was a proper little premium car that stickered for just under $10k in 1976.
Riding the time machine, here is what it would have looked like when in better nick. Compare that to a 1976 Monte Carlo. Or whatever there was in 1976 sized more similarly, perhaps an MGB or whatever. I’m sure it certainly felt (and smelled) the business when one slipped into it in the showroom.
In the interests of thoroughness, here’s the driver side view. Not much left, unfortunately. I’m certain that if I ever come across another one in a junkyard it will be in better condition. I’m just as equally certain that I am not going to come across another one in a junkyard. There’s also the possibility that this served as a parts car for a better one still around. Some estimates believe that around half of the original 1,801 sold here are still alive and kicking, so perhaps my headline is a little more facetious than normal. It’s just unlikely that you’ll see one ahead of you at the Burger King drive-thru. Italian car show? Different story…perhaps.
Back in my prior life in California, every year that I attended the Monterey Historic Car Races I would see three or four of these cars in the Lancia corral of the parking lot, all of them in excellent condition with a couple of them converted back to Euro-spec. As such I didn’t realize that there were so few of them about in general, but have not seen any since moving here over a decade ago. The Scorpion/Montecarlo sort of lived on by donating its center section to the rally conquering Lancia 037 in the early 1980s but other than that remains yet another rarely (but fondly to me) seen Lancia. Just a shame that it apparently looked better than it went, over here at least.
UPDATE 10/25/2021 6:30pm P.D.T. : It turns out this car was in fact from a large horde that was held by a local Italian car specialist/mechanic, Aspen Import Auto. The shop closed a couple of years ago after the untimely passing of the owner and there was a sale of everything on the premises. This car may have been one that wasn’t sold at that time along with several others including the Fiat 128 3P that was also featured here recently. Below is a picture of this Lancia whilst still at the shop in the spares lot, seems it was a California car although the license plate was issued in the later 1980s. There were also at least two other Scorpions there at that time.
Related Reading:
Vintage R&T Review: Lancia Scorpion
Vintage R&T Intro: 1976 Lancia Beta HPE and Scorpion
Vintage R&T Review: Lancia Beta Montecarlo: Lost In Translation (Europe Test)
Italian Deadly Sins: Part 3 – The Many Sins Of Lancia by Tatra87
I remember when the development of these was announced as an X1/9 for normal sized people – more interior room, horsepower, sport luxury, same excellent mid engine handling. As we know, the mid seventies weren’t kind to engine designers, and the Scorpion was hobbled in the US.
Terrific promise, poor execution.
So the Montecarlos were called “Scorpions” in the US? I assume because of the Chevys.
Yes, I believe this correct. GM had the trademark for Monte Carlo in the US. Funny, if Lancia were intending this car for the US market that they would pick a name that was available in the US in the first place.
Yes, I believe Lancia thought the name appropriate as they had been fairly dominant when competing in the Rally Monte Carlo in the early 1970s. No idea why they decided to make it one word (perhaps due to GM?) and then it was probably too close for comfort when brought over here and sold in the same market.
A bit of a bummer, surely Lancia has more “claim” to the name as to actually commemorating something with it than Chevy beyond having thought of it first. That said, Scorpion is a pretty good name too, too bad the car didn’t have enough of a sting in the engine compartment…
Couldn’t you have found a real 1976 Monte Carlo? It would undoubtedly get more clicks than this poor Italian loser. 🙂
I quite liked the looks of these when I first saw them in magazines, and then they started showing up in CA just about the same time I arrived there. The federalization did them no favors, and the very malaise-era strangled engine was the kiss of death. Or was it something else?
Like you, I’d continue to see them here and there in CA, increasingly rarely. But nary a one in Oregon, although I bet there’s a couple stashed safely away in some garages somewhere.
This (or the idealized concept thereof) is what I’d expect to see in your neighbor’s driveway. A ’76 Chevy Monte Carlo on other hand, uh, no. I don’t do it for the clicks, I leave the stuff that you dream about for you to wax poetic over (the LTD’s, MC’s, Parisiennes etc). 🙂
Jim,
I hope you don’t mind me asking you the following – have you ever seen the movie “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo?” It was the third movie in the Herbie franchise and came out in 1977, and was the last one to feature Dean Jones as the VW’s owner Jim Douglas.
If you have seen that film, you may remember the powder blue 1976 Lancia Scorpion driven and raced by Jim’s love interest, Diane Darcy, played by Julie Sommars. Herbie fell in love with that car, named “Giselle,” over the course of the movie.
I don’t mind at all! I know I’ve seen it, just can’t recall the Lancia offhand. Someone mentioned that just the other day here as well on a different post too.
It’s interesting that they used a US market Scorpion for what was European racing, but well, that’s Disney and movies for you I guess. The popup headlights and bumper give it away although I’d still like my chances in the Lancia vs a Beetle…
The popup headlights winked and communicated with Herbie IIRC so it might have been semi-deliberate they used a US market Scorpion for it.
This was not the kind of thing I paid attention to at the time, and had completely forgotten about their existence.
$10k would buy a lot of car in 1976 (like a really impressively optioned New Yorker, for a different kind of buyer) so that is probably one problem.
And as for the rust, it looks pretty good to this guy from the midwest. I am sure the car would not look nearly as good had it spent its early life out here where the brine splashes.
Yes, surely a VERY different kind of buyer!
The price was about twice that of a Fiat X1/9 at the time, but less than half that of a Porsche 911 (over $20k) with a Porsche 914 being around $7,250. A 280Z was $6,700 (and probably the best value of the bunch looking at base prices) but the Lancia I suppose seems accurately priced for what it was or aspired to be at the time. You certainly wouldn’t see another one when dropping off (one of) the kids at school…
Incredible find. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen on of these in person. The styling seems like something between a FIAT and an exotic. The only think I don’t like about the red example is how the front section is painted black, almost like a “faux-bra” or something.
I always look forward to these Curbside Recycling finds.
That noseband and any other “black” plastic trim around the car should actually be a slightly-metallic dark graphite color, not pure black. Many owners have painted their noseband body color, which helps visually lengthen the somewhat stubby proportions of the car, along with retaining (or replicating after a respray) the wide black stripe along the lower flanks.
Thanks, I enjoy finding these random and very oddball ones most of all! Seems like the styling did what it was supposed to, since Lancia is somewhere between Fiat and an exotic such as Ferrari…not that Lancia is at all remiss in that department itself, i.e. Stratos, 037, and some others.
Re: “reworked to somehow become part of the otherwise front wheel drive Lancia Beta lineup with which it shares little”
These used the entire FWD transverse powertrain from the Beta but mounted in the mid-rear, just as Fiat had done earlier with the X1/9 using the Fiat 128 powertrain. But aside from that, yes, most of the other running gear was shared in common with the X1/9 — brakes, suspension, hubs, steering, etc.
Not just designed at Pininfarina, this is also the very first production model ever to be entirely built into a finished turn-key car at Pininfarina, whereas they’d only fabricated the bodies for previous models bearing their crowned-Pf crest badge (and models they only designed but didn’t fabricate only got, at most, the Pininfarina script but never the crest).
BTW, this one has already recently been picked-over by a Lancista in the area, who managed to harvest nearly all salvageable remaining parts aside from (what remains of) the powertrain. He’s the one who cut out the front hood hinges, upon request from someone with badly deteriorated hinges on theirs.
Thanks for the info. I think this was part of the huge horde from Aspen Motors, right? I’d have figured all those cars would have been gone by now but they keep on trickling out in batches. This one had been in this yard for at least a week or maybe two by the time I came across it but there were at least a dozen others likely from the same batch (but no other Lancias that I noticed).
I didn’t realize there were so few Scorpions sold in the US, since I recall seeing them occasionally. But, maybe I was just seeing the same one over and over again. Of the 1,801 US Scorpions, were at least 1,500 of them silver?
There’s a repair shop near me that specializes in British and Italian cars, and I sometimes see a Scorpion on their lot, but that’s the only one I’ve seen in the past few decades. I’ve always liked the looks of these cars, but it ranks way up there on my list of cars I’d be scared to own.
Coupe or targa, a 1976 911 started at $13,850.
A heckuva lot more car…
Gosh, I’d forgotten about these. A friend of my dad’s had a beautiful pale blue one; one of the first in the UK. Apparently the front wheels would lock up under braking – in fact the Montecarlo was removed from the market in the U.K. for a couple of years until a fix was developed (which I think involved deleting the brake servo). His fix was to line the front boot with lead to increase the weight over the front wheels – which seemed to be effective!
A colleague had one of these, around 20 years ago, as a daily driver.
He and his partner went out for drink, 4 in total – one driving, 2 squeezed on the passenger seat and Dave in the front boot. Dave was basically amiable, but totally bonkers.
I really like the idea of these cars. While this example looks too far gone to be saved its still a shame. I actually like the round sealed beam front of the North American version better than the original. It is a shame that the lackluster for this application engine let it down.
I saw a blue Scorpion a few months ago at a car show in Southern California, in pretty good shape.
Loved these when I was a kid. Looked like a junior Ferrari, if you weren’t aware of the miserable engine. Of course some Ferraris at the time weren’t exactly rockets either (Mondial).
Wow, I started as undergraduate in 1976 and was living with my family in Vermont (2nd time…we originally moved there in 1965 but moved back in 1975). Actually had a Fiat 128 which I had such a short time (about 2 months) that I usually forget I owned it, but it was my first car. Cars like the 128 3p were right up my alley, and the Scorpion Beta…wow, could hardly imagine it. I never ended up having a mid-life crisis car (and really there’s no longer a car that I really go for) but if there were, this would be it for me (but I think I’m past that point).
Anyhow, it was a rookie mistake, though my head was in the right place, but I was pushing things. There were hardly any FWD cars available in 1976, and I was a commuter student, and traction is an issue for a good part of the year there…but the particular 128 I had looked good but was really rusty, it was only 4 years old but should have been taken off the road…what ended up was that the transaxle threw a gear, I had it towed to the shop, and they advised against even trying to fix it, as it was so rusty…so I junked it. I’ve made up for it since, having owned my current car for 21 years (this month). But if I was still the age I was in 1976 and could afford an “impractical” car, this would have been one I would choose. Nowdays, I look at it and see…it is too low to get in and out of, no storage space, etc…but that didn’t register in 1976. About a decade later I was in the market for a car, and ended up test driving more cars than I ever have since, including different types of cars than I ended up buying, and one of them was an X1/9 (by then a Bertone)…glad I did, the test drive did more than anything to convince me that it wasn’t the car for me…not that it didn’t drive well and handle even better…but the impractical part really didn’t sink in until I tried it first hand (some things you have to experience yourself I guess). I still bought a “fun” car, but it was certainly more practical than the X1/9, a VW GTi. My current car is a Golf (pretty much the same thing) and I did almost no shopping for it, other than where to buy it (which dealer).
I think I’m pretty much the same person I was in 1976, but my perspective is quite different..funny how that works.
Attached is a photo of my 1977 Lancia Scorpion on August 20, 2022 at Concorso Italiano in Monterey, California. I’ve owned my Scorpion since 1979, it is in substantially stock condition, just maintained regularly and California smog checked every 2 years. I know of 4 other Scorpions here in the San Jose, CA area and one is nicely fitted with a Fiat/Lancia Volumex supercharger and really moves. A dozen or so members of the American Lancia Club members own Scorpions/Montecarlos. It was interesting reading the preceding comments. I would like to have salvaged several trim pieces off of the Scorpion at the salvage yard but it sounds like someone beat me to it.
Thank you, to post the pic please try it with a reduced size of 1200 max pixels or one of the “smaller” picture size options, we are limited on the upload size.
I used to attend the Monterey Historics when I lived in the area between 1992 and 2009, if your car was one of the multiple MonteCarlo/Scorpions in the little Lancia corral I’m sure I ogled it more than once along with some of the others! I recall a couple of them being featured in EuropeanCar or similar magazine as well, perhaps in the late ’90s or so…
I also came across another one of these more recently in the same junkyard, but in even worse condition. Both were likely part of the same large collection belonging to a repair shop, when it went out of business eventually the “boneyard” was auctioned off in what seems like several batches and there has been an influx of Lancia, Fiat, and a few Alfa models since then into the local junkyards. Thanks for checking out the post and good luck with your car, sounds like a keeper!
Attached again is the photo (hopefully smaller file size) of my Lancia Scorpion on August 20, 2022 at Concorso Italiano in Monterey, CA. I’ve displayed my car at Concorso Italiano most years starting in 2006.
I previously attended a number of the Monterey Historic Car Races with my car and parked in the American Lancia Club corral but I recall that was in the mid to late 1980’s.
It is unfortunate the Lancia/Fiat/Alfa shop went out of business and so many of their boneyard cars ended up in the salvage yard but I can understand how that might happen.
Your car looks highly familiar, I’m sure I’ve seen it in person somewhere over the years, it looks great!
Most of those cars were in pretty rough shape, and it wasn’t really realistic for another shop to take them over, most weren’t realistically restorable for most people, so each of the salvage yards seemed to get a dozen or so of them. They did get picked over at that point though so whatever good parts there were seemed to go to good use, there’s apparently a fan base out here too for them.