Pretty Coupe in the Current AW

[KeppelmanJ]

Anyone else notice the Escape Roads feature on the BC in Auto Week? Page 37. It's a '75 model with remarkably low mileage. In three columns of text there is less about the car, particularly driving it, than you'd like, but it is cool to have one featured in on of our best auto rags. If nothing else the photo is great. A nice surprise. What's the steering wheel?

[Charley]

That's my Coupe. With a Nardi steering wheel.

[KeppelmanJ]

Nice, Charlie. Excuse my not knowing! I've always liked the lines of the early coupes, lower profile roof line w/o the sunroof and hood w/o the 2.0 bulge. Couldn't you have arranged better weather so the writer could have flogged it a bit more. The write-up is a little short of glee. Is the Nardi big enough to make steering effort reasonable? Do you have the PS and A/C?

[Charley]

The weather on the day of the shoot was nice until just after I put Bob in the driver's seat,and then it became scary.There was actually some tornadic activity spotted in the area that day.I guess Bob really didn't get a good feel for the car driving it on unfamiliar roads in a deluge.The car does have AC, but thankfully not the notoriously problematic ZF power steering that leaks and robs power. The Nardi steering wheel is exactly 1" in diameter smaller than the ugly looking plastic steering wheels that came standard on Betas.The little extra muscle that is needed to turn the wheel at slow speeds or to park doesn't bother me in the least. I used to drive R-Model Mack tractors without any wimpy power steering....now THAT'S a bit of a chore. ;)

[KeppelmanJ]

I've been curious about one of the Nardis for my coupe. I bought a hub from Omicron, checked out the various wheels and wondered about the missing 1". I had a Momo Prototypo I bought in Italy for my Fulvia. Loved that, but it's fairly small for the heavier Beta. A black Nardi might be right. Have to screw pattern check the match with the hub. Your car in your various photos looks great.

[Jim Keller]

I don't recall you saying anything about this comming up Charlie! We now have even more in common, <grin>, my good Zagato was in Autoweek June 7th 2000, back then they called the page "The Car"

Congrats! not many make the page, it's an honor for sure, I had mine framed! ha ha ha

[Charley]

I don't recall you saying anything about this comming up Charlie! We now have even more in common, <grin>, my good Zagato was in Autoweek June 7th 2000, back then they called the page "The Car"

Congrats! not many make the page, it's an honor for sure, I had mine framed! ha ha ha

Hey Thanks Jim,
The Autoweek article was actually written and submitted about two years ago,it appears AW finally decided to print it.:)
I didn't want to go around and shoot my big mouth off about the article because I learned I should keep my mouth shut about stuff like this until it actually happens. Especially after that embarrassing experience with the "Transformers" movie my car was picked to be in (and I bragged about it all over the internet),and then it never happened ! :red face: I still have some egg on my face from that one !!!