Lancia Beta Forum

Took my Beta to Autocasa in Coventry a few weeks ago to sort the abortion of a job carried out by Richard Thorne 'Lancia Specialist LOL' of a cam belt change and service a few years ago.
Enzo did a fantastic job of making my knocking engine run as smoothly as a sewing machine!
He is so passionate about getting customers cars right and kept me in the loop at all times, something RT could learn about!!!!
If anyone needs a good honest Lancia man in the Midlands Enzo is who you need to call, he runs Integrales and knows what great customer satisfaction is about!

Nothing new to hear a horror story about 'Tricky Dickie'.

The guy I bought my Beta from had bought an Appia from Richard Thorne. It wasn't running very well, because the cylinder head hadn't been tightened down after a gasket replacement!

Wish I'd have known the Richard Thorne horror stories before I took it !! They had the car for 4 weeks, every time I phoned to enquire about a very routine cam belt and service was fobbed  off with some excuse! Now I may know why, seems they damaged the cam pulleys beyond repair , didn't seem to know how to set the timing as it was 34deg out which was causing the fuel pump to knock conrod 2, which was the knocking sound,  kerbed a  newly refurbed wheel and then denied all knowledge of the wheel or knocking engine.
Well what a bunch of crooks! I hope if any of you out there are thinking of using him think twice!

Hi Franco

Fortunately on the Beta I do my own, so only one person to blame here......

Peter

Blimey you were lucky that it didn't knock a hole in the block although thinking further I think only 2 litre cars suffer that indignity

Hi Franco
I've had Steve Gales recommend Autocasa to me personally too. I tried to book my Integrale in, but Autocasa very busy. I will get the car to them some time soon as it's still not idling right. It passed its MoT today so I'm really happy ;D
Will take the Beta Coupe to Autocasa too next time.

Cheers
John

Sort of on topic: Richard Thorne is selling a VX Coupe with a claimed 30,000 miles on it.

The only reason that I'm flagging this up is the £9995 price tag. I imagine it will sell (though probably not to anyone one here - Caveat Emptor!). A nice indication of Beta prices aligning to the market though.

Nice tow bar,also missing rear courtesy light cover! Hope he took it somewhere else to maintain it! Might recommend anyone who buys it to insist Richard Thornes (mechanics?) don't touch it and send it somewhere else before paying!lol :D

http://www.rtcc.co.uk/used-morgan-proteus-carver/lancia-beta-volumex (http://www.rtcc.co.uk/used-morgan-proteus-carver/lancia-beta-volumex)
(http://)
Says 30000 'recorded' , I guess that means they don't know if it's correct or not? The passenger seat has a hole and there is a lovely rust bubble on the door recess have a look at one of the rear seat pictures.

(http://www.rtcc.co.uk/files/dsc04255.jpg)

No doubt there are more issues if you were to see it in the metal. However I can't see any reason why a decent VX shouldn't make £10k or even more, there's a lot of inferior, more common and less elegant metal out there these days for a lot more money. For me the detail makes this one a tad pricey I would expect more attention to detail and at the least the seats to be cleaned!

I'd spotted the hole in the seat, as it seemed unusual for the passenger, rather than driver's seat to be worn. Yes, that rust blister on the B post looks nasty, but I suppose it's there for all to see in the photos.

I agree about what you say about the values Alan. You'd just want a bit more than this one for £10K as you point out.

The tow hook is a funny one, but they probably make a hell of a towing car with all that bottom end torque!

Hi All

I wonder if it is on consignment?

As you say, a bit tatty round the edges for such a strong price given prices of other cars he has had in over the last year or so. I seem to remember a VX coupe at around £3-4K at one time recently?

Not wanting to play the prices down, especially given restore costs, but this is decent Fulvia/Monte money.

Peter

Peter

I suspect this might be the one Thorne had last year with low miles but needing refurbishment at which time it was up for about £3k, anyone recall if it's the same reg?

Well I think a coupe is superior to a monte and isn't as inferior to a fulvia as legend would suggest, indeed to some degree it depends what you want out if a car the betas attributes are better suited to many than a fulvia. For those reasons I think coupe prices are long overdue for a boost