Lancia Beta HPE - experiences?

[(CZ)enda]

I wonder if there is someone here with a hands-on experience with this car.
It seems one will become available shortly and I am thinking about taking it as a restoration project. Right now, it is only a theoretical thinking as the price was not clarified yet, but any information would be useful for my decision-making. I never saw the car in real life, less drove one.
AFAIK these Lancias are rather rare beasts (unfortunately, it is not Lancia Beta Coupe).

Honestly, I planned a restoration of Fiat 128 SC or early AR Sprint/Alfasud, but this seems tempting...

 

[Chas Uno]

Lancia Beta HPE? Well, I had a couple of friends who had Betas back in the late 80's.

They are typical Lancia. Wonderful to drive, gorgeous exhaust note (same engine as the Fiat twin cam I believe), great handling, great looking and full of Italian charisma.

However, it is no myth about the rust. They aren't really any worse than many other cars built in the late 70's/ early 80's to be fair (Fiat, Alfa, Renault, Citroen, VW, Vauxhall, Ford etc.), but boy can the tin worm eat them alive

So that's what you need to look out for more than anything else. Also, they weren't exactly common when new either and some body panels are now extremely hard to find and also very expensive when they do turn up.

Mechanically they are robust, no real weak points to note. Just the dissolving bodywork

If the one you look at is solid and complete then go for it. If it's a rot bucket walk away very quickly...

 

[J333EVO]

best start reading some stuff on here http://www.betaboyz.co.uk/

Aaron.

 

[Gazza AK47]

Lancia Beta,,,, is that like a pre-release test car or something??:nutter:

 

[simonrw]

I loved my HPE until I stuffed it into a stone wall . I can remember a lot of hassle getting it through the MOT and having the carb in bits a lot...Lovely car to drive however, even if the steering was a bit heavy at parking speeds.

Body rot will be a problem, my mother had an HPE and the body was in a shocking state, there was even a hole where the sill joined the floorpan. The window frame on the drivers dooor of my car was held on with strip steel and pop rivets because the spot welds had all rusted through.