1980 LANCIA BETA COUPÉ
Markets expert Russ Smith looks back at his best – and worst – classic buys. This week, an impulse-bought Beta Coupé 2000 that came without an MOT
WHY DID YOU WANT ONE?
I didn’t to be honest, though I’ve always had a soft spot for Betas because my father owned two. They were lovely cars, way ahead of their time.
I happened to be the only person in the office one lunchtime when Nissan UK’S then-pr guy, Wayne Bruce, called to say that he was about to move house and desperate to shift his very nice lowmileage Beta Coupé. £800 would take it because there was no MOT. It didn’t take long for me to raid my secret stash and a cash point and get round there. I walked around the car once, handed Wayne the cash and called Hall’s Garage in Morton to book an MOT so I could drive it straight there.
WAS IT A JOY – OR A NIGHTMARE – TO LIVE WITH?
The former, for sure. Despite having sat in Wayne’s garage for some time, under a lot of blankets, it drove beautifully on the 60-mile trip from Buckinghamshire to Hall’s (handily near my home in Lincolnshire) and passed that hurriedly booked MOT without the smallest advisory. The history folder revealed that much had been spent in the past and it needed nothing. I barely laid a spanner on it other than for regular servicing. Its only foible was a stubborn reluctance to re-start when hot. The cure for that was to open the bonnet when a stop – for fuel, say – was needed. That let enough heat out to avoid vapourising the petrol and then it was fine.
WHAT’S YOUR ABIDING MEMORY OF IT?
Two things. First, how much my kids loved riding in it. They didn’t have much love for most of my old cars but the Beta’s sculpted cloth rear seats were apparently really comfortable and allowed a good view out. Secondly the long-running comedy of trying to sell it a couple of years later. People came to see the car, loved it, could find no fault with it (there were none to find), left a £50 deposit then went off-grid – this happened not once but twice. The third ad produced a call from an officer at the Met’s serious organised crime squad. He met me at Peterborough station looking like he’d stepped off the set of The Sweeney and handed over £1600 in a brown envelope.
WHAT ARE YOUR TOP TIPS FOR BUYING ONE?
Obviously don’t do what I did, so give the car a proper inspection. Betas are mechanically robust and all of the twin-cam engines they were offered with, from the 1300 to the two-litre, offer enough poke to be fun. And you get a five-speed ‘box. Focus on the condition of the body. Despite their misplaced reputation, Lancias don’t actually rot any faster than most other cars of the era – seen many Seventies Renaults or BMWS lately? Take a torch, check everywhere and be prepared for it to be worse than it looks. Also look out for damaged or missing trim parts, which can be hard to track down.