Beta Coupe wanted for Classic Car Weekly feature - Tuesday 5th May

[johnb]

Hi everybody
Russ Smith has contacted me looking to feature a Beta Coupe in a "Best £5,000 Sports Cars" in Classic Car Weekly.

It's a fantastic opportunity. Coverage like this is the best way for us to show everyone how well Betas compare, and how incredibly under-valued they are too!

Russ is very pro-Beta having owned a Coupe at least once. It's a car he keeps coming back to, hence his email.

The car and driver would be required at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford nr Cambridge on Tuesday 5th May from 10am.

Please contact me on 07712 787703 or bowjm@hotmail.com if you'd like your car featured. I'll then put you straight on to Russ.

Don't be shy, your car could be the star!

John

[rossocorsa]

Turn out to be a nice article in classic car weekly this week and very positive on the beta although their valuations are way out, £4500 for a concours beta coupe? Wish I could find one that cheap!

[smithymc]

Not very reassuring really when they do so little research for an article. A missed opportunity it seems.

If that's for concours(whatever that means and if one exists) it doesn't say much for 'good' cars. I tend to view concours as meaning over- restored and not used, which was never going to happen with Betas, again a function of their value.

Mark

[rossocorsa]

I think the problem is that there are never many betas for sale and those that are tend to be in varying degrees of disarray as well as often being over described. I don't know how they define concours if it's by the OCD British car enthusiast standards I'd stick my neck out and say there isn't a single beta in the UK to that standard at least that I'm aware of. A few are near pristine and the most relevant car for values sold recently must be the white series 2 facelift that had an asking price of £7995 and didn't appear to take too long to sell, that car wasn't the most sought after spec either what a really nice pre facelift or volumex would achieve is an unknown but for a vx coupe I suspect that £10k plus is not unrealistic for a truly excellent one (I think you can probably count the number of truly excellent vx coupes in the UK on not much more than the fingers of one hand)

[johnb]

Hi all
You beat me to it that the article is out! Sorry just catching up.

Unfortunately you can't rely on accuracy in these articles. Russ has a copy of our "Guide to the Beta" document.

Having said that I haven't read it yet.

John

[rossocorsa]

It's a nice article just the values seem a bit out to me

[smithymc]

Agreed the article itself is very good and presents the car well against the staple fare of the time.

I appreciate that it's a £5000 car comparison, but to suggest that you can have a fair MGB for that figure as against any Beta Coupe you like can't be right.

[rossocorsa]

There are sufficient morris oxford coupés out there to truly establish values, whereas it's very rare a a really decent beta coupe is for sale

[johnb]

Finally managed to buy a copy.
I will remind Russell that he's always welcome to check any details with us, or refer to the Press Pack. I can't find a mention of the Volumex either...
I think the article does us proud, values aside. Really pleased 

I'll try to get Russ to start thinking about his next Beta feature: 1975-2015 Beta HPE perhaps.

[Neil-yaj396]

With the exception of the MG, all the quoted prices seen very low to me. A 'Concours' TR7 for £3250,  a 'usable' Porsche 924s for £1500, really?

[rossocorsa]

Sadly in the following issue this week back to a throw away remark about rust when the beta is listed as a potential competitor for the dreary triumph dolomite

Fuzz Townsend also appears to have fully rebuilt a Flavia for car sos and thinks it's a fulvia! Let's hope that the programme has it right!

[Neil-yaj396]

I think the whole paper is thrown together so quickly that it suffers from poor/rushed editing.