Looking at buying a Beta Coupe Vx

[Paul Duncan]

Yeah I don't think they come up that often, have you contacted the local Lancia club, there should be a listing in the NZ Classic Car magazine, they list clubs every month but not alway all of them, A-L one month then M-Z the next.

As for which car to go for, I guess it depends on what you're after, a car to drive and enjoy without pouring money into it all the time, or one to enjoy by driving and doing all that work on yourself, and without support of the club, parts could be hard to find. Interior bits may be hard enough anyway.

There were some seats from an older coupe that had just been recovered on trade me not so long ago, I don't think they sold, you could search in the expired auctions for the contact details. And the second VX may go for a lot closer to what you want to pay if it sits there for too long and he really wants to sell it, the trick is being the one that gets it.

If something comes up down here through the club I'll let you know.

[Paul Duncan]

How about a FIAT 124 sport, this looks like a good one. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motor ... 897256.htm
I had one before I bought my VX, and really really loved it. I think it's almost like the Beta coupe's older brother, not as much as a Fulvia of course. And the 1600 BC like this red one is probably the best to get, the 1400 model is too hard to find, and the 1800 isn't as nice looking.

Just a thought, and about the right price too.

[Andrew Holmes]

Hi Paul,

I found those seats on TradeMe ( http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... d=76356836 ) and asked for them to be relisted about one week ago and they are now there, and I'm going to have another look at the coupe today with a Fiat nut to see what he thinks. I talked to the seller about the lack of seats and he said he'll knock a few hundred off because of that. Still not 100% sure about the coupe though, I enjoy working on cars but sold most of my tools a few years ago when I went to live overseas for a few years (silly I know!) so I'll have to start building up a collection again

As for the Lancia club, it seems obvious but I didn't even think of that! I'll be sure to join whether I get this car or not, and thanks for asking around your club on my behalf, really appreciate that!

Cheers,
Andrew

P.S there is a HPE on trademe now ( http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motor ... 304986.htm ) which I quite like the look of but my better half doesn't like the HPE shape which rules it out unfortunately

[Andrew Holmes]

Well, I had a good drive of the coupe and a good look around it with my Fiat loving friend and in the end decided against it. He said it was overall a good car but there were too many small niggles to sort out and it would be better left in it's race form with half roll cage, strip the interior completely, remove what's left of the dash and bolt some other gauges there and keep it like that, a sparten, noisy race replica to be used on Sundays which is fun but not really what I'm after.

I just need to have patience, one will come along sooner or later, and meantime I've found a 205 gti which I'm buying off a friend for a ridiculously small amount (he's spent around $5000 getting it all sorted, and that's on top of the purchase price! I'm paying $1500...) so that will keep me going until *MY* beta comes up (whenever that may be!)

So I'm still on the lookout for a beta, I just have more time now

Cheers,
Andrew

[Randy Adams]

I might be jinxing myself by posting this, but my 1981 injected Beta coupe has never had a fire, either electrical or fuel.

The FI cars are not all that different in terms of their electrical specification than the carbureted cars. The electrical and electronic bits for the FI system itself are Bosch and typically common to a large range of FI European cars. And, yes, the double relay failed on me but that occurred when the car had over 100,000 miles on it and was over 20 years old. If the IE cars use a Marelli distributor at the end of the cam (as the US-spec injection cars do), I suggest a retrofit to the Bosch unit from a FI Fiat X 1/9. The Marelli unit is notorious for burning through the insulation to the pickup wire leaving you with a frightening on again/off again ignition. This seems to happen with the Marelli distributor every two or three years. With the Bosch, no problems at all. Because FI systems use a very high pressure fuel delivery, the car must have proper FI fuel hoses; some brilliant folks replace their fuel lines with crappy ordinary ones and failure is just down the road a year or so, there might be your fire. The little injector hoses do go brittle and crack; consider them a typical rubber replacement item but they are by no means unusually short-lived. And to avoid the prospect of a fire, respect the fact that the starter motor is located down below the fuel injection manifold and rail; replace any leaking fuel lines right away!

The chief electrical nuisance common to all Betas, FI or carburetion, are the crappy grounds. You'll eventually find yourself hunting them all down and improving them just to get decent lights inside and out.

Betas are a little "cosy" to work on, whether carbureted or FI.

And, yes, new struts are surprisingly scarce but Konis can be rebuilt.

[Paul Duncan]

Yeah hang in there Andrew, there's always a Delta to hold you over, and those Integrales are going cheap, with the Deltas going on trademe you have a cheap donor car for a right hand drive conversion.

[Andrew Holmes]

ohhh... knowing my track record of ever finishing anything mechanical the RHD conversion would take a million years...

I've bought a Peugeot 205 1.9 GTi so at least I've got something small, rattley and European rather than large, quiet and Japanese and the girlfriend is driving again (she hated my last car, a Nissan Skyline and refused to drive it) for the first time since we sold our mini (which is nice as it means I'm no longer always sober driver when we go out )

Still have half an eye out for a Beta though... having driven a few now I want one more than ever!

Cheers,
Andrew

[n]

If you are interested in it I have for sale a Beta Coupè 1.6 from year 1982 white color -
Greetings from Italy - Mr. Nicola

[Nicola]

For sale I have a Beta Cuope 1.600 - year 1982 - white colour