Lancia Beta Forum

July 16th-18th
Lancia Motor Club AGM -Oxford

more information to follow

Lancia Motor Club Rally & AGM
16th - 18th July

The Oxford Belfry - QHotels   
Milton Common, OX9 2JW Nr Thame

http://www.qhotels.co.uk/hotels/the-oxford-belfry.aspx (http://www.qhotels.co.uk/hotels/the-oxford-belfry.aspx)


Non LMC members are very welcome on the Sunday, like Goodwood this is a very nice social event
and always the largest show of Lancia's in the UK, would be nice to see even more Beta's/Montes this year.

here are some photos from previous years: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonysphotos/collections/72157606127707532/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonysphotos/collections/72157606127707532/)


 

So I'm on my way to the Lancia Motor Club AGM heading along a motoway at a "reasonable"
speed when, all of a sudden, splutter, change lanes, splutter, change lanes, cough - head
for the hard shoulder. engine dies, restart make 27 yds stall, restart 24 yds stall, this goes
on for 2 miles until I can get off the motorway.

So I check fuel flow, must be a the fuel pump, no problem install the spare in the engine bay
sorted...... No, still the same, bypass the regulator to increase pressure and manage to just
make the venue after another couple of stops.

Right then change rear fuel filter and install new pump, still no joy and it later turns out the
new pump is faulty. Three hours later with the help of Tony we open the carb to find the
needle jet that sits above the fuel float has come unscrewed and is only allowing 1/3 of the
bowl to fill up hence the short distances achieved with the restarts.

Get ready to set off home and then find the pump I've fitted is intermittant so I have to refit
the old one - which once again works perfectly.

Life with a Gamma Huh, never dull but often surprising

Thanks to Tony for his help, Steve for watching, Andy for being amusing, Charles for his advice, Harvey for being Harvey
Paul for his morale boosting and of course anyone who took the "P"

Still the fastest Gamma in Hampshire
Sorry forgot Peter and his 11mm spanner

'thecolonel'

Not such an adventurous day as Geoff and the other Gamma owners had, but had a good trip up and back, nice to have a catch up with people and put some names to faces, car went fine, and i'm liking my new suspension setup.
My attempts for the day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanciamad/sets/72157624412623197/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lanciamad/sets/72157624412623197/)

Mostly was a good AGM weekend.

Congratulations goto John Gillingham(gillybeta) who won best Beta in show :D

John Bower who won best Beta last year, this year was automatically entered into the Masterclass
And won :D :D

I even managed to pick up the award for faithful ownership and regular use  ;)

(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/4806776516_7b3459cda7_z.jpg)

Sadly as mentioned there were a few unhappy Incidents, all Gamma related ???

I and Andy Collins had a call from harvey (Gamma 1) saying he had broken down 2 miles up the road with a snapped clutch cable
So we jumped in Andy's Gamma (Gamma 2) after a mile driving in a strait line at 30 mph we heard a little noise, and the engine stopped.  upon inspection we found one of the cam belts had snapped >:(
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080/4806169810_b2c2cff660_z.jpg)

Gamma 1 had a temporarily cable repair, Gamma 2 was relayed back to the hotel.

after a call to Geoff (thecolonel) he said he would bring up a pair of cam belts for us to fit on the Sunday morning.
around 10.30 on the Sunday we had a call that Geoff had also broken down in Gamma 3, again just up the road(M40 off slip)
this time into the Prisma to try and help.
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4101/4806681506_3231af2b78_z.jpg)

Geoff Limped back to the hotel and handed over the belts, we spent the next couple of hours fitting Andy’s cam belt and fixing Geoff’s fuel problem. Whilst all around us were judging cars, so apologies if we might have been a little unsociable.

Sadly Andy's engine has a little engine damage :( he had a photoshoot the next morning for Classic and Sports Car Magazine
so we had to give it a go.

Thanks to Geoff and every one that helped us out, lent tools etc


and here are a few photos from the weekend: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonysphotos/sets/72157624530376534/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonysphotos/sets/72157624530376534/)

Tony,

Ps moral of this story if you want Reliability, get a Beta  ;)

Oh, I don't know, I mean, 1st breakdown in 3 years, and that
being just a needle valve, some serious hard driving including
trips to Turin, Stuttgart (Stuttgart-Dunkirk 5.5 hours) plus the
multiple trips around the UK

Not a bad record for "an unreliable, fragile, underpowered" Italian Classic.

Great pictures by the way.

'thecolonel'  Hooligan, renegade, rebel and GAMMA driver

Andy's face says it all! There's nothing worse than car trouble on a big annual trip, as I know.

Yes it was a real shame, the car came out of the painters(fully stripped/painted) 2 weeks before the AGM
having been off the road for neally 30 years so only spent 4 years of it's life on the road.

after the stress of getting the MOT(Just) and with the photoshoot the next day

It was a real shame.
Andy has two spare engines, Geoff and I will be going next weekend and hopefully swap the head/heads

so all should be ok :)