Lancia Beta

Lancia Beta at a glance

Why Fiat needed the Beta

Fiat took over Lancia in 1969, paying a nominal one lira per share, and the Beta was the first car developed under the new owner. It replaced the Fulvia and had to use Fiat's Lampredi-designed twin-cam engine, which Ettore Zaccone Mina adapted for Lancia, while Citroën developed the five-speed gearbox. The Berlina was introduced in October 1972 and reached British showrooms in 1973 at GBP 1,594.45 for the 1400, GBP 1,798.22 for the 1600 and GBP 1,988.88 for the 1800.

The plan worked commercially. By 1976 the Beta was Lancia's best-selling car, and in the late 1970s Lancia outsold BMW, Audi and Saab in the UK. Britain was Lancia's largest export market, with 11,800 sales in 1978. The wider story of the marque, from the Lambda to the Delta, is told in our Lancia history, and the parent company's side in our history of Fiat.

Engineering under the fastback

The Berlina weighed 1,100 kg at launch. Its engine sat transversely, tilted 20 degrees rearwards and carried on a subframe, driving the front wheels. MacPherson struts were used front and rear, and Lancia never patented the rear design. Disc brakes were fitted on all four wheels, with rack-and-pinion steering and ZF power assistance on some left-hand-drive cars, and on right-hand-drive cars from 1981.

The range was updated steadily. Electronic ignition arrived in 1978, along with an automatic gearbox, the first factory automatic offered on a Lancia. Bosch electronic fuel injection followed on the 2.0 in 1981, and the Volumex supercharged 2.0 appeared in 1982.

Coupé, Spider, HPE and Trevi

The Coupé was launched in 1973 and reached customers early in 1974. Its body came from Lancia's own studio under Aldo Castagno, with Piero Castagnero as styling consultant, and it became the second most common Beta with 111,801 built. The Spider, a targa with a folding rear section, was designed by Pininfarina and built by Zagato from 1975; American buyers knew it as the Zagato.

The HPE (High Performance Estate) arrived in March 1975. It combined the Coupé's front end with the Berlina's longer wheelbase and a three-door estate rear, and from 1979 it dropped the Beta name. A June 1983 update brought a minor facelift and the VX, of which 2,370 were made, 186 of them with right-hand drive. The Trevi, a notchback saloon shown in Turin in May 1980, took over from the Berlina. Its Mario Bellini dashboard was widely criticised by the press of the time.

Montecarlo and the racing link

The Montecarlo grew out of a Pininfarina mid-engined project first planned with a 3.0 V6 and finally given the Beta's 2.0 twin-cam with 88 kW (120 PS). Lancia claimed more than 190 km/h. The first series of 1975-1978 had a brake servo acting only on the front wheels, which locked easily in the wet, so production stopped. A revised second series without the Beta prefix ran in 1980-1981. In the US, 1,805 cars were sold as the Scorpion with a 1,756 cc engine of 60 kW (81 hp).

The car mattered more on track. The Group 5 Montecarlo Turbo won the 1980 World Championship for Makes outright and the 1981 World Endurance Championship for Makes, and the 037 rally car kept the Montecarlo's centre section. That car followed the Lancia Stratos as the brand's rally weapon and won the 1983 manufacturers' title.

The 1980 rust scandal

On 9 April 1980 the Daily Mirror ran a front page headed "Luxury Cars in Rust Riddle", and ITV and the BBC programme That's Life followed. Lancia had been quietly recalling cars for eight to nine months; by 10 April it had bought back 504 Betas, at a cost of about GBP 1 million. Owners were first offered a discount on another Beta, then a cheap Fiat, and finally cash.

Most affected cars were built in 1974-1975. The weak point was the rear box section of the front subframe, which carried the drivetrain mountings, collected rainwater and had no drain holes. Heavy rot could let the engine and gearbox drop about 76 mm at the rear, until the cylinder head caught on the bulkhead. The often-repeated story about Soviet steel is unverified; poor paint preparation, bare shells stored outdoors and road salt are more likely causes. Lancia revised the crossmember from a U-section to an n-section, the last condemned cars were crushed by late 1983, and UK sales fell to 569 by 1993, when Fiat ended right-hand-drive production.

Lancia Beta today: what to check when buying

Start underneath. Classic & Sports Car lists the front subframes, especially the mounting box, and the rear suspension mounts as the first checks; Octane adds cracked underseal, wheel arches, door bottoms and, on the HPE, the tailgate and strut mountings. Panels are scarce, although the specialist BetaBoyz remanufactures many of them.

Mechanically the twin-cam is durable if serviced. The cambelt needs changing every three years or 36,000 miles (58,000 km), and corrosion inhibitor in the coolant protects the alloy head and gasket. On a Volumex, look for oil smoke, bearing noise and the supercharger's oil level. Carburettor spindles wear, while the Bosch injection is reliable. The gearbox fails if it leaks its oil; a vague change is usually linkage wear, fixed with an inexpensive kit. Seized rear calipers and handbrakes are common, and good switchgear is hard to find.

Classic & Sports Car bases its figures on 2000 models and adds about 50% for VX cars. More cars of the period are collected in our classic cars section, and every Lancia we list is in the Lancia catalogue.

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