FEATURE
We
can rebuild her... a Lancia Beta Coupe brought back to life
While at a wreckers looking for a few badges for
a friend's Saab I saw a car with the front end damaged all the way up
to the windscreen. All the badges had been removed, but other than that
the interior was perfect. Four grey velour bucket seats and a great black
paint job on the exterior. I had no idea what the car was other than I
fell in love with it right there and then. I said to my friend one day
I'm going to own one of these what ever it is. I spoke to the owner of
the wreckers and asked what it was and he told me it was a "Lancia
Beta Coupe".
In any case a few months later I bought an Escort and drove
that for a few years, my father always told me don't buy European cars
they are far too expensive to maintain, but still I loved the lines of
the Lancia Beta coupe. Two years later I crashed the Escort and was in
the market for another car, when I spied a Coupe in the papers for sale.
I recalled what my father had told me but just couldn't resist taking
a peek at it, just to see if it still had the same effect on me. I arranged
to see the vehicle with the owner and as I pulled into the driveway I
fell in love again and regardless of its mechanical condition the only
thing I had to decide on was "HOW MUCH".
I spoke to the owner on our love for the Beta Coupe and
he recalled to me his first love which was a beautiful black Lancia with
grey velour interior that he had had a front-on crash in only a few years
ago, so lo and behold the car that I was buying was from the owner of
the car that inspired me in the first place. At that point I knew it was
meant to be. Needless to say the car was an absolute lemon but I didn't
care. I looked at it as being no different than a high maintenance woman.
Expensive, temperamental and requiring lots of attention, but I didn't
care I was in love.
I then proceeded to run the car into the ground with the
intention of replacing the engine with an electronic version and rebuilding
the engine and fitting a turbo to it. I imported the engine from Germany
and in the meantime searched for someone to do the rebuild. No one in
Adelaide would touch it, too hard, too big a job, blah, blah, blah. So
I had to go to Melbourne. So a car and two engines went east. A company
by the name of Nizpro who built the V8 engines for Brock and Scaife agreed
to do the job in conjunction with Orger Engines and for the next year
they had the car.
I bussed it to Melbourne and drove it back. It was a huge
job to do and Nizpro never wanted to see another Lancia as long as they
lived but did a good job, and so they should have, the engine work in
total cost me over $15,000. Being front wheel drive they were unable to
give me an accurate dyno as the location of the dyno in the shed was set
up for rear wheel cars and there was no room for the car, but it was estimated
at about 150bhp. Over the next 2 years I replaced the body with a new
one with a complete strip down and respray and other cosmetic changes.
The result was the following:
A 1976 Lancia Beta coupe with a T3 Garret turbo and Motec electronic fuel
injection system. Blue printed, o-ringed, copper head gasket, forged oversized
pistons, racing cams, porcelain clutch, Koni rear struts and McPhersons
on the front. Lowered with a front, rear and side fibreglass kit. Leather
interior with beautiful wood grain inserts in the doors and dash. The
finishing touch was to add a laser print of Michelangelo's " Creation"
with the words "PERFECTA CREATIO" which is Latin for perfect
creation, to the interior roof lining of the car. The thought behind it
was that it was an Italian car and it was my perfect creation, and Michelangelo
was an Italian artist and his artwork was called creation so it was well...perfect!
All in all I have spent over $50,000 in rebuilding the
car and love driving each and every day, however as happens with old cars
I feel that every time I drive it something else breaks. But who cares I'm
still in love.
©
Shaun Le Cornu 7/11/02
