1972 Lancia Beta

Despite its unassuming shoe box looks, the 1963-72 Lancia Fulvia Berlina was an uncommonly accomplished front-wheel-drive family saloon, it’s exceptional engineering finesse making it a very tough act to follow.

Step forward the Beta Berlina of 1972, the first Lancia to be developed and launched since Fiat took control of this once-proud quality Italian automotive pioneering marque in 1969. To not only equal, but better, the Fulvia’s prowess, the pressure was on for its successor with expectations high. The first incarnation of the Beta, the two-box Berlina, was created in the contemporaryaerodynamic fastback style as pioneered by Pininfarina’s influential BMC 1800 Aerodynamica and typified by the neat production Citroen GS and Alfsasud, and it didn’t initially disappoint.

Although less refined and ‘pure’ than its cutting edge Fulvia predecessor, the Fiat-funded Beta was nonetheless a capable and compelling package, enhanced within a short timeframe by the addition of stylish sporting Coupe, Spider, HPE and exotic mid-engined Monte Carlo body styles to add to the Beta’s appealing portfolio.

Launched in 1972 with a lively 110 bhp 1.8-litre derivative of Fiat’s acclaimed TwinCam engine, a more affordable 1.4, 1.6, and ultimately 1.3, were soon added to the Beta Berlina range to expand the model’s reach.In 1974 a fully-equipped luxury 1800ES capped the top of the Beta Berlina range, unusual in offering metallic paint, alloy wheels, electric windows and a sunroof as standard. During 1975 Pininfarina assisted in updating the improved Series 2 Berlina, with a 2-litre also added, resulting in stronger sales and Lancia outselling rivals such as BMW, Audi and Saab in the UK by the late 1970s.

This success was sadly short lived, however, and by the time the revised Series 3 model appeared in the early 1980s, Beta sales (plus Lancia’s reputation in the UK) had crashed due to a high-profile rust scandal, caused by the Betas growing success coinciding with falling quality control standards and cheap, inferior thin sheet steel, supplied by the Soviet Union to Italy in exchange for Russian rights to Fiat’s 124 for Lada production. Although the Beta itself was fundamentally a good car, this rust reputation was the final nail in the model’s coffin, though the few surviving examples today are unlikely to corrodeany more than other contemporary cars, be they British, German, French, Japanese or Italian.

(GSA: 375 words)