Posts Tagged ‘lancia’

Pretty Coupe – 1981 Lancia Beta

November 5, 2013

As has been lamented before on these pages, there are very few companies selling a light, compact sports coupe any more. Of course there’s the Scionbaru FR-Z, and with some liberal interpretation you might also look at the BMW 1-series and some hot hatches like the Abarth 500, but aside from that, this genre is courting extinction. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, most manufacturers – Toyota, Datsun, Fiat, VW, Opel, Mitsubishi and more, all had entries in this slot. One of the rarer and more luxurious competitors in the category was Lancia, with its Beta range. You can find this 1981 Lancia Beta 2000 Coupe for sale in Los Gatos, CA for $2800.

1981 Lancia Beta Coupe left front for sale

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RustyButTrusty On The Street – 2013 Melee Sendoff

September 7, 2013

Okay, it’s going to be hard to lie about this, because even in San Francisco you won’t ordinarily see a Peugeot 203 and a Hudson Hornet within spitting distance of each other. Although the other day, a Citroen H-van and a McLaren MP4-12C were going the other direction on 101 within a few minutes of each other… Anyway, car events can be a great family outing. And such was the case with the Melee sendoff – even if the RustyButTrusty Alfas are too new to qualify, and the BMW is likely too common, there’s no restriction on who attends the sendoff or what car brings you there.

2013 Melee Peugeot 203 1

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Been There, Done That – 1975 Lancia Beta Sedan

May 26, 2013

Well here’s something you don’t see everyday. Unless you were me a couple of years ago – I owned a 1978 sedan from from 2008 to 2011. And while it was a nice car on one level – sort of an old Italian man’s car, or an Italian version of a Volvo or Mercedes – it was painful to repair and woefully underpowered for a sedan of its size and displacement. Certainly, one of those issues could have been eliminated if it weren’t for the fact the car needed to be smog legal – a popular conversion is to mount twin carbs, which is supposed to give over 100hp. With the 5-speed, that would surely give more competitive performance. Find this conversion-ready example for $2500 in Bellevue, near Seattle, WA.

1975 Lancia Beta sedan right front

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