Lancia Beta Forum

Hi everyone,
I'm in charge, for the Lancia Club France, to organize a big event in 2022 for the 50th anniversary of the Lancia Beta. The event will take place in the north west of France, near Saint Valerie sur Somme, not far away from Calais. It will be a two days meeting (Friday afternoon until Sunday noon) in the second quarter of 2022. The Betameeta event of 2012, to which I participated, will inspire the organization of the 2022 meeting : nice place, good food, elegance contest, gala dinner with games and Prices for the contest, easy ride in the country side with a visit of some castle, abbey or stunning place, and a lot of time to rest, drink beer and chat about cars.

If some of you are interested (even only one car!), I will make sure that most of the documents will be in English, that visits will be commented in English  and I will select enough bilingual french participants that you won't feel alone

I know it's a bit too early for real commitment, but I would like to know if  you are interested and if it's worth digging the subject.

Thanks for your replies

Happy new year

Claude

I am interested. We can only hope it will be possible by then!

Eric

Me and my HPE are also interested

We would certainly be interested! My car is already in France at present, albeit at the other end of the country...

Just getting to know my Berlina 2000, but should be sorted by then.
Mike

Count me in!

Nige

Sounds great Claude- yes please and here’s hoping we will back to something like normal by then.

Mark

Hi Claude
Please count me in please,  we are also in the process of organising a UK Beta 50th/Betameeta, again no dates set yet, but we will make sure they don't clash with each other.
I'll add a 2022 events page and move this over.

Regards
Tony.

Hi Claude
Yes we would love to attend please, sounds fantastic and will lovely to meet up again.
Many thanks for organising.
Best regards Amanda

10 positive answers in a very short period of  time: It's more than I expected.

So I will work on the project and keep you updated regularly (every quarter at the beginning and every month by october this year). Formal registration will be around December this year (Booking of large hotel for the  month of may needs to be organized a long time before as this period is the busiest of the year).

I am delighted to work on this ambitious french-british project and I will do everything so that you are not disappointed.

Obviously if you organize something in the UK, I'm in.

Would definitely be interested in this - looking forward to all of us being able to enjoy our cars properly again by this time

Yes please, count me in.

Indeed!

It's a bit more of a hike from where I am but why not?

..besides my beta would never forgive me for missing out on such a gathering.
Something very pleasant to look forward to Claude. Let's hope things are back to normal / or semi-normal by then :)


A. 

Have Trevi, will travel.....  ;D
Certainly count me in  :D

Great plan, Claude. I'm in. Howard

Sounds wonderful Claude. I'm in!

Yes please.

That's a yes please from me as well.
Lee

Hi Everybody
The French Beta Meeta event is nearly frozen (but can still be modified)
I have prepared a one page trailer (see below), But I don't know how to post it as a large image on the forum (meaning : readable) , so you will find its content below
When
21 and 22 May 2022.
From 10:00 Saturday morning till noon Sunday
In the Somme River Bay, located in Northern France region
For Whom
All Beta species
All models of Lancia Beta are welcome; Spider, Berlina, Coupe, HPE, Trevi, Monte-Carlo, 037, AOB.
AOB : Any Other Beta
Lodging & Food
The hotel is the Cap Hornu Hotel that will provide Lunch, diner, lodging and breakfast
Cost
All Included
Saturday lunch & diner, lodging, Sunday breakfast, Car plaque, Roadbook & fun
Twin/Double occupancy room package for 2: ~460€
Possibility to book a room in the hotel for the Friday night (add. Cost). If some people are interested, we will do something on Friday Afternoon & night
Preliminary Provisional Program
Meeting point is the Cap Hornu Hotel at 10;00 AM Saturday
The morning will be reserved for welcoming the participants, cars exhibition and examination by the jury. Each participant will receive his Car Plaque and a questionnaire on the Beta (best answer will get a prize)
Secure parking will be privatised for us during the entire stay
After lunch, we will take possession of our rooms then we will discover the landscapes of the Baie de Somme and visit Saint Valery sur Somme. Return to the hotel at the end of the afternoon
The evening will begin with a drink which will be followed by a gala Diner during which prizes will be awarded to the most beautiful cars
Sunday morning, after a solid breakfast, we will continue our exploration of the Somme River Bay and we will finish by a visit the citadel in Montreuil-sur-mer or a nature tour in Berck-Plage to see the seals (need low tide)
We will part around noon
Booking & Information :
Registration form : !coming soon (target end of November)!

claude.goeuriot@gmail.com
+ 33 6 73 99 43 41


(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51655036171_bd909be66b_m.jpg)

Comments are welcome

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51655963935_cb5315c70d_z.jpg)

Sounds good to me. I'd certainly want to stay the Friday night too.

A shame that it clashes with LMC Great Northern Weekend.....

That is a shame but luckily it doesn't clash with the Eurovision Song Contest  ;) ;D

Salut Claude, This looks great! We (Luci and I) are looking at coming out on the Friday and perhaps leaving on the Monday morning. Thanks for all the organisation. Howard

Hi UK Folks,
I wish you the best for 2022 for you, your families, and your beloved cars.
Some news about the Beta Days, the French event for the 50th anniversary of the Lancia Beta model.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51809753273_249095bdf9_m.jpg)
The event is still planned for May 21st and 22nd, 2022 In the Bay of the river Somme. We have booked another hotel than the one advertised in the trailer as their booking conditions were just not acceptable.
The new location will be the hotel “Le Semaphore” located in the small town of Rang du Fliers, near Berck Plage
Web site:https://en.hotel-le-semaphore.com/] [url]https://en.hotel-le-semaphore.com/ (http://[url)[/url]
This is a Best Western hotel whose architecture could be called cubic (let’s say ugly), but the hotel is well located, the rooms are modern and the restaurant excellent. Car park will be privatised for us. After several tries, it was my headquarters during the construction of my house in the area in 2020.
Unfortunately, travel between UK and France is not authorised for the moment except for essential reasons (and this event is not essential):
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france/contact-fco-travel-advice-team (https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/france/contact-fco-travel-advice-team)
Hoping that the situation will improve in the coming months, I will block a limited number of registrations for those of you who have expressed interest until the end of April.
Anyway, the booking forms are available and can be downloaded. As said in page 2:
Should a cancellation be required due to travel limitations (EU, UK or France, ex: Covid 19) prior to the event, payment will be fully reimbursed.
Should the Event be cancelled by decision of the authorities (ex: Covid 19), payment will be fully reimbursed.

Waiting for your feedback

Claude

Claude
This looks very good and it will be great to get over to France again, albeit first time with the Lancia. Two questions please:
- we'd like to stay on the Sunday night; don't fancy driving home after a good Sunday lunch! Is it possible to include this in the booking or should we do it separately?
- happy with paying now but all international transfers I've experience of have required recipients bank details. I assume that is not the case here and, while this may be just my ignorance, I  would welcome some guidance on how to make the transfer and preferably a recommended operator.
Thanks for your work on this - really looking forward to it.

Mike

Hi Mike

Assuming you have the IBAN nos for the account in France, you can send via Wise.com without too heavy transfer cost/fee and the transfer is same day normally to the French account. I have no connection with them other than I have used them for years with zero problems and the transfer rate is market rate, not travel agent rate……

Peter

Mike (mikemcd) asked :
- we'd like to stay on the Sunday night; don't fancy driving home after a good Sunday lunch! Is it possible to include this in the booking or should we do it separately?

Answer : I will do it for you. Just tell me in the email with the booking form (as for the Friday night) .

I will try to set up quickly a Paypal account as an alternate mean of payment

Claude

Claude

I'd like to make the booking soon if possible - any news on PayPal or how else to make the transfer please.

Regards
Mike

Hi all,

I am planning on running solo to this event,and therefore intend to book the
single occupancy package for the Saturday night/Sunday.
I wonder if there's anyone who is also solo, and wouldn't mind sharing a Twin room
with a snorer on the Friday night option package.

I will be emailing Claude in the meantime to check that the Single room is unavailable,as the
form appears to imply.

Cheers, Nigel

EDIT: I've heard from Claude, Singles are indeed available on Friday night.

Hi,
 I have checked with Paypal and it is OK to pay the inscription using my email adress (my Paypal account). It will not be considered as a merchant transaction

Warning : use 'Personnal Payment' option to avoid any fee other than the the change rate

It is becomming urgent to finalyze your booking as I need to freeze the number of rooms with the hotel

Regards

Claude

Hi,

Same message without typos (at least 4)

 I have checked with Paypal and it is OK to pay the inscription using my email address (my Paypal account). It will not be considered as a merchant transaction

Warning : use 'Personnal Payment' option to avoid any fee other than the change rate

It is becoming urgent to finalize your booking as I need to freeze the number of rooms with the hotel

Regards

Claude

I'm now booked and paid, and will be travelling on Friday the 20th,from around midday/afternoon
at the port.

Edit:I've now booked the crossing on DFDS departing Dover 13.15hrs

It would be good to travel in convoy, so lets attempt to match plans.

Regards
Nigel

A brief,if I may, tale of a weekend:

I left home on Friday to get to Dover at the recommended time, and found myself on an
earlier sailing. Pouring with rain the whole day,I was thankful for the sunroof fix, however
I uncovered a strange anomaly in that the right hand wiper,on leaving the vertical,would
pull the water back over the screen blocking my vision!
Reverting to original old-school blades will hopefully fix this. Car running well,otherwise.

By Saturday midday around 12 had arrived, before which coffee,scrutineering, chat and a briefing for
the afternoon drive to Saint-Valery-sur-Somme and the arranged free parking.
I had Jean Marc,an HPE VX owner,with me as navigator and i'm very glad for that. A half hour
walk took us to the jetty where we boarded a boat for an hour long trip in the estuary.

A smaller group of us wandered, and stopped for drinks late afternoon before
the 45 min drive back to the hotel.

One of the hotel managers has a passion for botanical mixing, so the 'starter' was
a couple of interesting gins. During dinner, prizes for various categories were awarded.

I had booked a far-too-early ferry so didn't take part in the Sunday morning drive and stuff.

One tiny glitch happened on the ferry loading ramp, my engine died! I rolled back down out
of the way, and a 5 min tinker found that the inertia switch had failed. Some wire cutting
and twisting got me going again, last to board.

It was a pleasure to meet so many Lancisti, including Howard and Kevin
[aitch and betaveloce of this parish] and of course Howards fiancée Luci.

Great to meet you Claude, and also Jean Karl, the association President, [please correct names]
Thanks for the weekend!

Nigel

entent cordial well done

Did you make it Theo as I did not see you mentioned or are you still in Turin?….

Peter

Hi Nigel

Glad you had a good weekend and there was a decent attendance.

Peter

Some more pictures by me.

Pleasure for me as wel to meet fellow enthusiasts, especially Nigel and Howard and of course Claude, who organised the event.

I enjoyed having an HPE in front of me the whole time during the drive, following Nigel as I did not have a co-pilot with me either.

What Nigel forgot to mention is that Howard's Stratton won the prize for both Best Coupé AND Best of Show, and well deserved too   ;)
Originality being an important criterium during the judging, my HPE of course did not stand a chance with its VX front spoiler (being an i.e.), its Momo steering wheel and especially its gold coloured Delta HPE wheels  ;D
Very happy with the positive comments on my interior though  :)

Because I also drove to Paris on Sunday morning to join another meeting, I arrived home in Antwerp on Sunday evening with 1.070 extra kilometers on the clock. A bit tired, but still with a big smile on my face and happy that my HPE behaved faultlessly. I myself felt it a little bit in my back though – maybe I should try to find a set of VX Recaro front seats for more support (but that's probably not going to happen...)

Thanks again Claude for this great initiative!

Looks great. Sadly couldn’t make it in the end as it overlapped with our holiday.

Thanks and congratulations to Claude for organising.

Mark

Thanks Kevin and Nigel for your kind words. What a great weekend, all made possible by the excellent organisation of Claude and Catherine. Great activities with the visit to St Valery, the boat trip, not to mention the gin tasting: after that, things became a bit blurred, but I do have a nice memento of the weekend with my Coupé trophy. It would not be complete without a mention of the trip to the seals and the dunes at the bay of Authie, and of course the superb lunch of moules frites. (Sorry that those who had to leave could not enjoy that with us!). The weather, which had been poor on the Friday, was superb for the whole of the weekend, and reverted to rain on Monday morning. Wipers going all the way home, especially once back in England, but a great trip with no mechanical issues. (Glad you sorted yours, Nigel!). Hope that some of our new friends from France and Belgium will be able to join us soon for more 50th celebrations!

Thanks Nigel and Kevin,
for sharing your experience and photos! I would have loved to have been there too,
meanwhile I'm still working away at the unecessarily cumbersome registration/tax system here ( perhaps I'll make the 100th Anniversary )
Thanks again for sharing, made my day.
Andrew.

Hi Everyone,
A last and very late comment on the Beta Days event : We were 10 Betas plus 2 others cars . I expected 15 vehicles but 3 cancelled very late due to mechanical problems. As already said, the weather was sunny during the event and I think/hope all participants were satisfied. Many thanks to the UK guys who made the trip to France.
A photo of the VX that win the Prize for Coupe
(https://am3pap006files.storage.live.com/y4mNdewhvcGuG-ZEtbUOH3-5PzGtijOfxlQGVx9oZS8eQxFyTeom_7hnaRCe7j65a0KJ2oWts0nfibB3Bx63dOx-n4cqkj9gW8IjX51hZ2ezLCPdXvUf8f8yAuTYak7Y2Bne5XMpZ_Wyk_rXprC2E1-R47_3vXSVBI7Bl4VPIZpDIBWi4b8nxkXWzFTvfedEcxyXveCCxrmR_BXSYRVnaIABg/DSC_8008.jpg?psid=1&width=357&height=238)
Here is a link to more photos
https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArlILeGFMgZclP0g3dZpeHccey9jOQ?e=docQYS (https://1drv.ms/u/s!ArlILeGFMgZclP0g3dZpeHccey9jOQ?e=docQYS)

Hi all, the article about the Beta 50 years events in France and the UK that I wrote for Informazione (the magazine for members of the Lancia Club Belgio) has finally been published; for those who can read French (or Dutch!), or else just enjoy the pictures  8)

part 2 in Dutch

part 1 in French

part 2 in French

Great article, Kevin. Well done on managing to include such a broad range of 'Beta 50' events... and for taking the trouble to attend so many of them. Hope to see you in 2023.