Beta Berlina, Highland Park, CA (LA area)

[ckeen74]

No connection to this, other than I own one. Could this be a fuel-injected 2000? Or is it a late 1800? Anybody know this car?

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/1377584902.html

Looks pretty good, even if the color scheme reminds me of a stick of butter... and it's tagged with a misleading "wagon" title.

[1,6 HF]

I don't know the car, but if it's an original US car, it can't possibly be an injected 2000. There were only 310 US-spec 2000s built, and none had injection. And with a whopping 1,514 US-spec 1800s produced, the odds favor this being an 1800.

[SubGothius]

The Series 2 body and '79 model year suggests it's likely a 2000, although we have also seen at least one S2 body on a '78 with an 1800 drivetrain (IIRC yours, Chris?). It would be carb'd as with all '79s, although I sure wouldn't mind doing an FI conversion or engine swap on one of these! I think we've seen this same car on Craigslist before, albeit with different photos last time which at least showed the paint in good condition. That interior sure looks nice, too...

[davidb]

Ed's got the #s correct. Looks like an S2 to my eye [?].
Maybe it's digi-cam color shift but looks like ivory to me.
Power windows? Maybe, maybe sunroof? A/C, thank God
a 5-spd. An incredibly rare car. Brings back memories.

[Rem1100]

As a former owner/driver of a 1977 Beta Sedan 1800, the car in this listing looks to be a 1979 Beta Sedan 2000. That makes it 1 of 310 cars. Note the extended drip rail molding at the rear sides. Appears to have PW, AC, leather seats, and aftermarket rims. Some bodyside molding is missing. Wonder how the rust situation is? Overall, it certainly looks presentable.

[LanciaDave]

Yes. I think you guys are right. It looks like it might have that little 2000 tag on the console in front of the shifter too. I can also see that it has those distinctive 2L Berlina US bumpers like mine has. Which may be available before long, by the way (came off a later car and I'll be changing them after I get all the parts I need).
This car looks like a pretty decent driver overall. I think 3 grand might be a little high without putting this car in a little better cosmetic shape though. Should definitely be saved though.

Ciao,
Dave

[Rem1100]

IIRC, I have seen exactly 9 Beta Sedans in person, including the one our family owned for 13 years. Three of those were Beta Sedan 2000 models. The ones with factory installed power windows had a unique (and perhaps prophetic?) feature: there was a plastic grommet on each door, covering an auxillary window winder gear. I remember seeing a new Beta Sedan 2000 in the showroom (1979-1980) that had this, along with one "emergency" window winder handle supplied in the glovebox. An optimist would consider this to be a redundancy, but perhaps Lancia was simply admitting their PW supplier wasn't all that great!

Did other Betas with PW have this back-up system, or just the sedans?

Of course, my current Honda has grommet access and wrench to close the sunroof if the power motor fails.

[davidb]

REM all Betas [Scorps too] had door panel caps for a manual
window crank if they has PWs. I've had 3 new Betas over the
yrs. & not a one came w/the crank handle. As for Beta sun-
roofs they were very nice designs: manual, one could slide it
to any given apeture & lock the handle in place. That said the
fuzzy weatherstripping commonly leaked saturating the headliner,
plus the "A" pillar drains either blocked or the hose came adrift
rusting out the "A" pillars. So "nice design", guarded description.

[1,6 HF]

...Did other Betas with PW have this back-up system, or just the sedans?

Of course, my current Honda has grommet access and wrench to close the sunroof if the power motor fails.

And that's exactly the reason that Lancia supplied the grommet and emergency handle; any piece of power equipment is subject to failure. And, like your Honda sunroof, if a power window fails part way open, you have no weather protection or security until you can repair it, unless you have some manual override.

[SubGothius]

As for Beta sun-
roofs they were very nice designs: manual, one could slide it
to any given apeture & lock the handle in place. That said the
fuzzy weatherstripping commonly leaked saturating the headliner,
plus the "A" pillar drains either blocked or the hose came adrift
rusting out the "A" pillars. So "nice design", guarded description.

Actually, the sunroofs were never intended to be water-tight; the fuzzy strips were only meant to keep out debris which could clog the drain channels. The idea being, a limited amount of water would inevitably drip past the weatherstripping into drainage channels surrounding the sunroof opening, which in turn fed into drainage tubes running down the pillars. Leaks happened when owners would fail to keep those channels swept/vacuumed clear of debris, which in turn allowed that debris to be washed into the drainage tubes thus clogging the tubes over time.

[fiatosca]

Did other Betas with PW have this back-up system, or just the sedans?

Of course, my current Honda has grommet access and wrench to close the sunroof if the power motor fails.


Those aux window cranks were standard Italian car fare for the era. My Alfa GTV/6 had the same arrangement. I am also fairly certain that I could crank the glass up more quickly than by using the switch...