Lancia Beta Forum

Yes I am the owner of the Mike Wildau HPE.  Sadly Mike passed away in January and I have custody of his beloved car which he only manage a very short drive of post restoration.  As per Mike's instruction the car will continue to live in his de-humidifed garage and I have it booked into a few shows for this summer.  I have so far done about 200 miles in her and she is realy starting to come to life.  It looks splendid thanks to Mike's determination, the team at Western Lancia for the body restoration and local man Tot Dixon who rebuilt the engine, brakes and suspension (he also used to look after the car when Mike ran the car as everyday transport in the 1980s).
PS whatever it says on the V5 it will allways be Mike's Lancia.

Dear btsimon,
great to hear from you. I saw CEC374S at Western Lancia last year when Alan and his team were doing an extensive renovation of the body shell. I commented then that HPE's would look good in a bold colour like red (offset by the black trim), and looked forward to seeing her finished once more. I have since realised that she is a 1600cc, so it is important to keep her up together along with the more "fashionable" varients. (Personally I would love a 1600cc HPE to go with our 2000 HPE VX, beauty and the beast so to speak?)
The 1600 is such a well balanced engine that it revs like no other.
I would love to see "Mikes Lancia" at a show this year, where are you hoping to attend, and are you still South West based?

It would be great if you could post some pictures on the forum, just follow the the easy instructions posted on the front menu.
Best of luck,
Chas and Anne,
(VXdeMAYO) :)

Hi btsimon - and welcome to the forum.

So sad to hear about Mike. He and his wife came to the BBQ after the Bristol Italian Car Day at my place about 3 years ago, just as he was contemplating getting the HPE restorred.

I saw the car just before it was finished, and it did look splendid. When i last saw Mike (at the Lakeland motor Museum, whilst I was up there for the LMC Great North weekend last year) I know that he was really exciting about getting it back.

It will be great to see the car out and about at shows - and with this year being the Beta's 40th anniversary what better way of celebrating the work that Mike did on saving one of the rarest of Beta variants!

regards

Andy

I was with Mike at the Lakeland Motor Museum and was hoping the club would venture North again.  The car has always lived around Hawkshead in the Lake District, within a two mile radius!  Sorry no plans to visit the South West with the car in the near future (though we will be in Glastonbury on a family holiday in August, can't come in Lancia as return trip involves leaving car on airport car park for a week and no way doing that with Lancia.  The reason the car had the body restoration at Western Lancia (a long way from home) was due to recomendations from previous customers and they have done a beautiful job sorting out particularly the horror of the drivers A post that was not visible until the wing was removed.  I think they photgraphed every weld and can say what is underneath and hidden is a nice as the bits you see.