Lancia Beta Forum

enyone else running a beta coupe on the track , give me the benifit of your knowledge as ive not prepared a lancia for the track before eny little cost or time saving tips please,
regards mr speed aka matt

Loose as much weight as possible (from the car) including carpets, sound proofing, door cards etc also replacing the side glass and rear windscreen with perspex.  

Change seats for light weight bucket seats.

I have been told by two seperate Lancia mechanics that putting a 1600 head on a 2000 engine is a good mod as it changes the compression ratio.  Change cams, twin webers and better exhaust system are the usual places to look for performance gains.

Front and rear strut braces and better suspension will improve handling

I have several complete/ incomplete side draft 40's if your thinking of going that way.

Geoff

so removing the fuel injection is the way to go ? im just waiting to see the paper work for the blue print engine work that was done was informed that the car would go of the clock so must have some head and cam work already ,enyone have a contact for rear arch repair panels as the arches have gone both sides the rest is minimal welding wise .the complet interior will go up for sale its all in good condition when we strip it .

Hi Matt (mr speed), I'd be very interested to know what your plans are and how you develop the car, keep us all updated  ;) I've got a HPE 2.0 IE Track car  :D there is always something that i'm working on.

well im abit of an old skool type ,loads of fords,vws,porshe,have run some very fast escorts, my eldest girl got me into subarus about two years ago ive had 3 and im still doing all the work on hers ,{good old dad }got back into vws got a fast beach buggy for when the suns out ha ha .but this lancia just turned up out of the blue best freinds brother , have built and restored many cars over the years so looking to have fun ,
watch this space as i think the power to weigh ratio is going to be interesting,re skin doors and bonnet in plastic etc is there eny ready made competition parts for these cars or am i going to fabricate strut braces cage etc,.regards mr speed aka matt

If you are putting the engine through tight high g corners baffle the sump and consider an acumsump to prevent trashing the bearings. The standard sump will have the oil leaving the oil pump pick up leaving to starvation when you corner hard.

Eric

good point should think making up a dry sump system would be costly . watch this space .

Hi,  mods I have done to my 1975 coupe so far which I use mainly for hillclimbs, but occasional sprint etc:

Brakes: Full overhaul, Goodridge steel brake lines, new fuid, std discs with genuine DBA pads - uprated discs/pads under consideration as I am planning more track time.(Brakes are'nt an issue hillclimbing!)

Suspension: Full rebush with betaboyz poly bushes, spax adjustables (a must have), 2 degree negative camber at front (can be acheived by elongating top strut to hub mount bolt hole in strut. Leave lower hole standard. You need a camber gauge to accurately do this.) I also have about 2-3 degrees toe out, but I don't use my car on the road much. Gives better turn in. I have standard springs at present, I find the spax's stiffened the car considerably, but really need lowered springs. Toyo R888 185/60 tyres

Engine: 2 litre with early beta 9.8:1 1800 pistons these are very similar to beta 1600 pistons, and give about 10.5:1 CR in 2L with late type thicker head gasket, baffled sump with windage tray - OK as long as I run sligtly overfull with oil..Head std. Twin 45 DCOE carbs, 4-2-1 tubular manifold and single side exit silencer. More engine mods to come including cams, stainless valves, porting, oil cooler etc.
Car has had all sound deadening removed and everything non essential such as radio, speakers etc removed and goes well but very noisy!! 

The dunlops are, 185/55 x 14 and a really good tyre in the dry, the grip is incredible compared to road tyres, so many people rate the R888's there be my next tyre, but there's still plenty of life in the dunlops yet. As most of the tracks I go to, the corners are right handers, I run something along the lines of 30psi all round but the offside (right) front a little bit more, something like 32psi.

Don't know if you've read/been following my blog, here's the link if you want a read of what it's had done and having done: http://www.betaboyz.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=472.0 (http://www.betaboyz.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=472.0)

Here's a reasonably up to date spec. of the car:

Engine:
Standard 8 Valve 2 Litre Fuel Injected 122BHP
Gearbox:
Standard 2.0 IE Gearbox
Exhaust:
Ansa 4-Branch Manifold
Shortened Tailpipe
Front Suspension:
Adjustable Spax inserts
Betaboyz lowering/Uprated Springs
Polyurethane bushes
Rear Suspension:
Adjustable Spax inserts
Betaboyz lowering/Uprated Springs
Polyurethane top mounts
Polyurethane bushes
Strut brace
Brakes:
Goodridge stainless steel brakes lines
Dot 4 Racing fluid
Front:
Drilled/Grooved Discs
Tarox Pads
Rear:
Standard Disc
Standard Pad
Other:
Bumpers removed front and rear
Interior stripped
Bucket seats
Harnesses
Bonnet pins
Secondary Fan
Track tyres for track use only – Dunlop currently
Cone K & N Air Filter

Ignoring engine work i've got planned, (see blog) suspension wise i've got adjustable transverse arms for the rear (see blog) and the front struts will be modified with eccentric bushes for negative camber as well as polyurethane top mounts.
As Ian (75coupe) says, spax inserts are a must, really happy with them, fully hard in the dry and your wonder if your still driving the same car, they are possibly too hard even when set to softest on a very wet track but apart from that there worth the money, and the car is still very much driveable on the road if set to soft, and i've got poly bushes all round and lowered/uprated springs.