Lancia Beta Forum

Dear All,
Just to stir things up a bit, here's is some food for thought:

Although I love looking at all Betas, IMO the HPE has that vital ingredient of "Looking right from every angle". (Excuse the cliche) And when it comes to practicality between the two, theres no contest!

However there is an irony in the fact that the very first car I ever seriously considered buying was a Beta coupe, (I even dragged my mum along to see it when I was 20!) , but as I have got older, (much), I have increasingly realised the merits of the fastback design. I suppose when you are young you think the coupe is the thing to have (supposedly being more sexy and all that).

But here's the thing, on the Coupe from the front to behind the C pillars - lovely, from those further back again the design just starts to get progressively more compromised. The rear end treatment of the boot just "stops"! It's as if they just cut it off with a breadknife and they called it done. Some might say that is the nature of "a Kamm tailed design", but alied to that strange rear window as well, NO, that was the bean counters calling time!

The HPE with it's distinctive "black eye shadow treatment" of the glass is bang on for the era we lived in. I would argue that the side profile has that look of something "going fast whilst standing still", (cliche). I don't in all honesty think the coupe can boast that because of the confusion behind the C pillars!

We might actually say that the later HPE would have been the BEST car for Adam Ant to be seen in in all his warpaint driving to a gig! Think about it!
(And where would all you Coupe boys be without our HPE's spares carrying capacity eh)?
Now where's my tin hat, I am going down to the basement to dig out some old vinyl records and make up!
Chas,
(VXdeMAYO) an "outed" Adam Ant fan.

My previous Spider was owned by a record shop owner in Newcastle when it was new in 1978....

Plus I guarantee you can have bigger hair in my car than you can in an HPE!

You could still have big hair in a HPE, it would just have to be a Limal style mullet!
Chas,
(VXdeMAYO).

I think it is fairly much a photo finish on which is better looking, beyond that the coupé scores on being a bit smaller sharper and more agile to drive the HPE scores on family friendly 4/5 seats and a practical hatchback. As a sunny day only car the coupé wins for me but the HPE is definitely the best all round and versatile design in the range. 

If we're talking good looking rears, I'd say the Spider wins every time. It certainly appears much more finished than the coupe (to my eyes, at least). For practicality the HPE wins every time, though.

I always thought they got bored when they got to the rear of the spider and finished it off quick because it was Friday afternoon and they wanted to go home! Rather plain. I think which you prefer depends on which you own, in reality a lot pluses and minuses are there with each design.

dear all,
aren't we lucky we still have some of each still around, so we can bickker about them!
IMO I just don't understand the Targa top arrangement on the spider. It looks over complcated and must have been MORE expensive to manufacture than a standard cabriolet style.
..........There's a thought, a Beta Cabriolet. (No where did I put that angle grinder?)
cue the music!
Chas,
(VXdeMAYO). ;D

It was thought that legislation in the states might ban fully open convertibles hence the targa arrangements. I'm sure it was more expensive to make!

The angle grinder trick has been done on at least one Coupe - it was on eBay a couple of years back. No idea what happened to it though.

Stuart

i think there were possible legislation issues at the time everyone thought fully open cars would be banned in the USA. There must also have been rigidity issues as despite the wider sills and the roll over hoop Lancia had to put the bars over the doors in the series 2 spider. I've seen a couple of coupés that have been chopped looked OK with hood down but I would be concerned over the lack of rigidity unless converted to a very high standard

Funny - that was pretty much my view of the Coupe when compared to the Spider... They couldn't decide how to finish the Coupe's rear, so just chopped it off.

But each to their own - we're only quibbling over small design points that most people wouldn't even notice. And they all look a million times better than most of the bland modern committee-designed cars.