Pics added Old Lancia member and Beta enthusiast

[J3SHF]

Hello to you all, My name is Jeremy Barker and I have been a Lancia nut since I was 8 so 30 years lol. Any old Lancia club members might know me as the chap that turned up with Paul Winrow and prepped his Capri blu Beta Coupe to quite a few concours wins, I cut my Beta teeth on that car and spent most evenings either being sent underneath it with sweets and coke whilst I cleaned all the wax oil of the bottom or spending hours and hours cleaning it. At 18 I was given a White Beta Coupe which I set about stripping and restoring. Over the years I have also owned an HPE 2000, Y10 Touring, S1 Spider, S2 Spider through my university years which I covered over 20,000 miles in including a drive to the south of France and back, a Dedra, my biggest regret was selling The Lord Blue Integrale Evo2 which I used as my wedding car and another 2.0 Beta Coupe in the only colour for me Capri blu. Having a rather obsessive attachment to Paul's Beta I wish I still had it.

Currently I am Lancialess and am now wanting to come back to a Beta that I can restore and keep, Once I have put some funds together I will be on the hunt for a Capri blu Coupe, I got very twitchy with the one that was recently on Ebay but it looked pretty too far gone for me at this point. I want to get something that's drive able so I can enjoy it for a while before I take it apart.

I have many memories of being taken to the 1000kms at Silverstone to watch and cheer on the LC2's, which I have since found out is owned by a friend of a friend, I am a Lancia nut and now that my two children are 4 and 8 it's time to go back to my first love, the Beta Coupe.

[angelom]

Hi Jeremy, Loved your story. ! Its one that i'm sure has been repeated by many.  Youthful joys of fantastic cars sold for a family wagon only to be rekindled later after seeing one in a magazine or car show.  Take my advice. find a good beta, retore it to the best it can be and enjoy it again and again.

[J3SHF]

Thanks for the reply, I was starting to think no-one was here lol. I can pretty much remember how to take the whole car apart and I'll be picking up some parts, wheels etc that are still at my parents, may as well refurb a set of wheels while I'm waiting. I just want a mechanically sorted and cosmetically nice car, I've no intention to get it to the same level as Paul's car though I will go and see it to take some pictures for reference.

[MattNoVAT]

Welcome Jeremy,

I know the Capri Blu car you saw on Ebay a while ago, I went to see that car while hunting for another Beta Coupe, it was very sound bodywork wise but missing a few parts so I made the owner a cash offer, but he refused.  Then he later sold it for less than my offer on Ebay, not including Ebay fees.  I think the new owner has registered on here but I've not seen any progress reported on the car for a while.  I'm sure it will be back in fine fettle soon though.

Sounds like you definitely have the Beta bug! So keep your eyes peeled, they do come up but nowadays the really nice cars are starting to realise fair prices and then there are the cars that need plenty of TLC and ££'s to get them back to a decent state.  Looking for such a specific colour is going to affect the number of cars that could be considered, but you never know, one could come up tomorrow.

Lets hope your back behind the wheel of a Beta Coupe pretty soon.

BR

Matt

[J3SHF]

Thanks Matt, I have to say I am so pleased that you guys have been keeping the Beta love going and also that there are so many parts now available.

I'll be like a cat on a hot tin roof when one does come up, currently Beta funds have gone into buying our children a pony each (wife's idea) but the kitty is on its way.

[MattNoVAT]

Hmmm Ponies..... I hear they absorb money just as fast as classic car restorations :-)

[J3SHF]

Yes they do lol, however you can down tools on a car restoration, ponies just keep coming for it 

[J3SHF]

I posted some old photo's of some of the lancias I have owned.

MattNOVat, it looks like my old white coupe and your red coupe would have stood next to each other at the same dealer with the reg numbers only 1 digit apart lol.

[MattNoVAT]

Cool !!  Do you know which dealership your white coupe came from?  My car had been modified by a "Boy Racer" when I bought it and it had six owners before me who never kept any of the original paperwork. All I know about it was the previous owner came from the Princes Risborough area.

We also shared similar Evo II's, I had a K plate Evo II in Bianco for three years which I imported from Milan.

I'll try and convert the old photos to digital images so I can upload them.

[rossocorsa]

Matt

you can get all copies of old owner details from dvla including the original registration papers just costs a fiver, that is assuming you haven't re-registered it in France yet as they might not release the details then (??) I think you need to use form V888

[J3SHF]

It seems the "NX" prefix is from Dudley in Warwickshire, anyone know the local dealer???

Here's some more pics of VNX70X when I was restoring aged 18 ha ha.