Lancia Beta Coupe Superleggera Restomod in Italy

[Alt.Clr]

Dear all,

I'm back writing in this forum after a very long absence. My Lancia Beta Coupe 1.6 (S4 - 1981) has been on the shelf for 8 long years. I bought it in 2010. After modyfing and fixing it with a friend mechanic and driving it for about 4 years, in 2013 I lost a front wheel in a city roundabout, luckily no damage at all to person and properties, and at that precise point I decide that the car was not going back to the road till I would have been able to get her a proper complete restoration.

In this last 8 years I collected money, ideas and researched for a place that could perform a professional restomod. Finally in February this year I found what I was looking for, Antonelli Motorservice in Bologna. The owner, Fausto Antonelli, has a spectacular Coupe VX wich he is personally restoring and modifing (you can see picture of it around in facebook Beta groups). In March i decided to pull the trigger and I sent the car to Bologna.

Main principle behind the restomod will be weight saving (hence the Superleggera echoing Top Gear), street driveability and as much as possible a factory looking.

For the engine we will reamin faithfull to natural aspiration, adopt fuel injection, increase capacity to 2L thanks to a 2L crankshaft and high CR forged pistons. Objective is to have an engine with good lowdown torque, around 150-160hp and rev limit at 7000 rpm.

List of modification will be very long, so I will update with photos and specs as the works will go on.

Let's begin.

Alberto

[Alt.Clr]

Here some picture of the awakening of the car, arrival in the workshop and weighing of the car (we start from 1008 kg). You can see also the white Coupe VX of Fausto.

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The disassembly has gone smoothly with no negative surprises. Rust situation exceptionally good with only some isolated points, the biggest on the the bottom right corner of the windshield sill.

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During the disassembly all the original and quite heavy bituminous sound assorbing material has been removed and will be substitute with a ligther one.

Then the body paint has been fully stripped and the pictures show how the car is at the moment.

Next step is galvanic treatment and new paint. Choice of color has taken me quite a lot of time, at the end I decided to go for Blu Lagos.

[Alt.Clr]

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[WestonE]

This looks like a fantastic car being done properly with so little rust to repair compared to cars here.

Well done

Eric

[Neil-yaj396]

That body shell really is in amazing condition.....

[Alt.Clr]

I'm also partially surpised on how good are the conditions of the shell. The car has always well kept in garage even before i bought it but nonetheless I was ready to have some suprises that luckily did not show up.

Climate conditions have a big impact in the fact that Betas in UK has so many problems with rust. In Italy the Beta is known as a car that might have some issues with rust but does not have at all such as an infamous reputation as the one it has in UK. It was not a car engineered for the rain even though it is brilliant to drive in the rain.

[slowe]

I've dreamt of a shell like that but always wake up to reality!

[squiglyzigly]

A wonderful body shell to start an interesting project.
I look forward to your progress updates.

The VX coupe in white with integrale wheels looks superb. Complimenti.

‘In bocca a lupo’

Ian

[Alt.Clr]

@squiglyzigly: crepi il lupo!

While the shell it's at the body shop for priming and painting, I made some shopping on Ebay.

A set of restored 2-pieces modular Gotti rims from 1978. Measure 14"x6".

And a pair of Recaro seats to reupholster from a Lancia Delta integrale.

[peteracs]

Hi

What colour are you aiming to paint the car?

Also with the wheels will you need wing extensions or will they fit within the existing wings?

Also you originally had twin carbs, just curious what they were (dual dcnf?).

Looks a great project.

Peter

[squiglyzigly]

Those Gotti rims look sublime and will fit nicely. Evo seats and a ready supply of Alcantara in Italy will look good inside.
Sono già geloso

[Alt.Clr]

Hi @peteracs

The choice of the color has literally taken me months. I've gone through countless options from palettes of different automakers, always looking at the period late 70s, 80s and early 90s. At the end I decided to stay inside Lancia palette and go for the rare Blu Lagos. Got convinced after seeing the photos of a 037 stradale resprayed in this color.

On paper the Gotti rims should fit nicely without the need of wing extension but yet to try for real. Actually I think they might even go with 10mm or 15mm spacers. Let's see.

Regarding the carbs you spotted right, it was fitted with dual DCNF on a Mangoletsi mainfold with Pipercross dome filter. Still have them and planning to sell soon.

[peteracs]

Hi

Thanks for the reply. Blu Lagos is a stunning colour and should go well with the gold in the wheels. I am one of those who struggles to find any wheels which suit the Coupe etc better than the original alloys, so will be interesting to see them on the car.

I think the dual dcnf carb or throttle body solution is also a neat one as it makes routing the cooler air to them easier than the side draught solution.

On the rims that is an interesting comment as I would have expected them to be right on the edge of the wing assuming they have the same offset as standard ones?

Peter

[Alt.Clr]

Hi @peteracs

I totally agree with you, to choose different rims for the Beta Coupe it's a complicate task given how well the original ones fit with the overal design of the car. I hope that this Gotti wheels will prove to be a lucky strike as they looks definetely more sporty but yet retain an overal design and feeling not too dissimilar to the original Beta rims. I'm really curious to see them fitted to the car.

Regarding the spacers, I used to have fitted 10mm spacers front and back with the original rims and still they were staying confortably inside the standard arch limits. Actually in the back there was still quite a lot of space, at least 10mm, the front instead is tighter. I do not know exactly the offset of this but shouldn't be to far off the original. And even if it goes in the region of 20-25 I know that there should be still enough room to accomodate them inside the original arches. Hope I'm right because I have never been a fan of wing extensions on the beta, neither the small nor the huge gr.4 ones.

[Alt.Clr]

Progressing with the preparation of the shell for painting. By the end of the month paint should be done and reassembly can start.

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more pictures