Parking/indicator lens. Help needed identifying it.

[MattNoVAT]

I should clarify.... Fiat have nothing to do with this site, its just volunteers & enthusiasts.  I'd like the Beta regardless of who the parent company was and would anyone really not buy a car based purely on who the parent company was?    How many Jaguar buyers are lost purely on the fact that Tata Motors own them?  Not many i'd guess. 

Just my opinion.

[rossocorsa]

Aside from Tim Speechly who is really helpful I really don't think people at fiat think much of lancias heritage even the cars that were built in their control

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[MattNoVAT]

It will be interesting to see what the Fiat attitude to the Lancia marque in mainland Europe is like, rather than the age old British opinions that were based soley on the 70's rust scandal.

From what I've experienced the Europeans moved on a long time ago and don't remember or care too much about a rust issue that happened 40 years ago.

I will probably look at a new model of Lancia in France, so I'll get the dealer experience over there and see what they are like.

[droptop]

I should clarify.... Fiat have nothing to do with this site, its just volunteers & enthusiasts.  I'd like the Beta regardless of who the parent company was and would anyone really not buy a car based purely on who the parent company was?    How many Jaguar buyers are lost purely on the fact that Tata Motors own them?  Not many i'd guess. 

Just my opinion.

Matt, my comment about not having this site was no way meant to imply I ever imagined Fiat had anything to do with its being.
I realise the people who set up and run it are enthusiasts and it would exist in some form as long as someone had produced a Lancia Beta
I would agree with what you mean in so far as  the parent company wouldn't influence my decision either, just the paring of the Fiat-sourced engine with the Lancia design resulted in such a fantastic car and it's the end result of this mating that has made me a fan.
My point is that if the car was a result of different influences, it's following may have been by a different "breed" of enthusiasts to ourselves who would have appreciated the resultant product for different reasons to ours.

[rossocorsa]

It will be interesting to see what the Fiat attitude to the Lancia marque in mainland Europe is like, rather than the age old British opinions that were based soley on the 70's rust scandal.

From what I've experienced the Europeans moved on a long time ago and don't remember or care too much about a rust issue that happened 40 years ago.

I will probably look at a new model of Lancia in France, so I'll get the dealer experience over there and see what they are like.

when I bought a delta hpe hf from Rotterdam back in 99 I can assure you that the experience was much better than from a UK dealer however fiats attitude to lancia had gone down hill since then so who knows?

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[peteracs]

Just my 2 penny worth, but suspect that it is the old chestnut 'it depends' when considering Fiat's attitude to Lancia, and where the guy's or women's loyalty/pay cheque is coming from. Certainly I would agree in mainland Europe the attitude on the dealers part should be wholly different, as the Fiat dealerships who carry Lancia as well will only have people who go back typically up to 10+ years, so the old issues will be largely forgotten.

The problem with the UK is we are stuck in the time warp for now of the 80s view of Lancia with the rust issue fresh in folks minds, followed by (for me) cars which really did not look interesting, the exception being the Intergrale, but that was always a high value low volume car.

Peter

[rossocorsa]

I don't think rust it's very much on anybodys mind except the stupid british media these days.  They just turn out a lot of pot boiled journalism full of half truth and badly researched detail

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[droptop]

As far as I'm concerned, the only real issur surrounding Lancias and rust was the relitavely small market share held by Lancia.
I have been driving since 1977 and I've owned Leyland, Ford, Datsun, Toyota and Fiat from the 70's and 80's and every one of them had serious rot.
A Datsun I owned actually had the front wheels come back into the wheel wells when I had to brake hard one day and a Mini had the rail to which the front seats attached, seperate from the floor and both myself and my girlfriend finished up in the back and we were damned lucky not to have been injured.
Lancia became the poster child for rot because the industry allowed it to be and took attention away from the much bigger-selling brands which in my experience were equally poor body-wise and certainly unsafe after a few years old.
The earlier Mazdas had their share of  rot issues as well and early 21st. century E-class Mercs are renowned, in Ireland anyway, for having considerable rust issues around wheel arches and sills and I'm aware of several that failed the NCT (our version of the UK's MOT) for chassis rot!
Spindoctoring and manipulation have as much part, if not more, than actual quality when it comes to the Beta's reputation.

[peteracs]

Interesting point about the E class, that is a surprise. recently went looking at used Mercs and guy in the showroom was more than a little critical about the C class cars build quality.

I also know from a relative who used to work in an armouring business in the 80/90s that they would receive brand new Rollers and the some of the wings were rusty before they left the factory.........

Peter

[Tony B]

Just to chip in, we had two W211 E's in the family but saw the rear arch rot issues whilst looking at earlier versions - happily sorted from 2002 onwards and I'd agree, Lancia copped for the rust issues when all around were just as bad. I worked with a girl who's early Polo had a bad case of the Fred Flintstone's in the footwell department. Cortinas' were not much better and Datsuns', BL rubbish the same and so forth. Mini subframes, Rover 213/216's (OMG) and the list goes on

When I think about the press hysteria from that time I think of the old football addage - "your hate makes us strong" 

[rossocorsa]

To be fair series one beta berlinas, along with all 70s fiats and the Alfa sud and anything Japanese, were terrible for rust but the media tarred every beta with the same brush later cars were probably average for the time.front subframe mounts that they went/still go on about in the press hardly ever rust on betas after the first berlinas that had the design fault

[droptop]

Whatever you do, don't mention parking/indicator lenses. I did once, but I think I got away wiyh it

[peteracs]

Yes, but interesting to see how some threads have a life of their own......

And as a bonus you did get an answer to your question, so a full result.

Peter

[Thotos]

Plus some of us still have Fiats with those lenses fitted 

[droptop]

That is one beautiful car!

[Tony B]

That 131 Sport is indeed fab (and valuable). Some years ago I had an orange 131 Racing briefly, not too many of those around either!! 

[droptop]

I always remember driving a friend's one and the overall impression was a great straight line car that didn't like corners and wasn't too good at slowing down either, but like all twin cams, was free-revving and just kept on accelerating as long as your hoof was firmly planted

[Thotos]

That 131 Sport is indeed fab (and valuable). Some years ago I had an orange 131 Racing briefly, not too many of those around

The only difference between the 131 Sport and the 131 Racing is the badge on the back of the car and the country the car was sold in. The car was originally named "131 Racing" but the UK insurance authorities gave the car a high insurance grouping because of the name so for the UK market the car was named as "131 Mirafiori Sport". Apparently Germany also got the "Mirafiori Sport" badge on the cars. It's only a guess on my part but I think cars imported to the UK had the "Racing" badge on them and the dealers replaced them with "Mirafiori Sport" but towards the end of sales in the UK they no longer bothered and a few cars were sold with the "Racing" badge on them. Unless of course it's the Italians in the Fiat factory that didn't bother to change the badges (or maybe they run out of "Mirafiori Sport" badges  )

[Thotos]

I always remember driving a friend's one and the overall impression was a great straight line car that didn't like corners and wasn't too good at slowing down either, but like all twin cams, was free-revving and just kept on accelerating as long as your hoof was firmly planted

I'm obviously very biased as I am a big fan of the Fiat 131 (I've owned at least one since 1978) but I think you re being slightly unkind.  The brakes were the same as most other Fiats of the time and they were very good if kept in tip-top condition but a lot of older cars had disks well past their best and were fitted with cheap pads that faded with the slightest application. Plus the rear drum brake self adjusters never self adjusted so unless manually adjusted the brake pedal travel was very long. So while your memory of 131 braking performance is probably correct, it was most likely due to badly maintained brakes.  Cornering performance though was and is very good for a car with a solid rear axle; at least it's fine on normal roads. I remember chasing a 131 Abarth Stradale (with independent rear suspension) round the South of Ireland in 2007 and while I could keep up or even catch it on the straight bits, I had no chance round the bendy bits  The Stradale simply turned round the corners as if on rails while my car bounced around the corners 

Fiat 131 s on the Healy pass

But I think enough hijacking of this thread (apologies!  ) if anyone has a keen interest in 131s and other Fiats of the same era then come for a visit over at www.131mirafiori.com 

[Tony B]

Hi again, maybe just a point of order but the gearbox ratios from sport to Racing were different (diff final drive too) but they were more or less one and the same car. I think the carb(s) certainly when new were also jetted marginally different - I enjoyed a lot of my early apprentiship working on new / nearly new ones. Not sure about non-UK cars.