Lancia Beta HPE 2.0 IE Track Car Blog

[lanciamad]

Well this is my Beta, it’s a 2 litre IE HPE registered in 1982, which is my Track/Road Car, although everything I seem to be doing to it, is turning it more into a pure track car only.
I thought this would be a good idea to have a on-going blog on the car so not only others can see what I am currently doing to the car but also what’s happened to the car, and what can be done; it also acts as a record of things i've done for myself.
I’m not sure how the forum will cope with so many pictures, so if it becomes a problem I will upload pics. to my flickr page and add links. Please feel free to chip in with any comments, suggestions and idea’s at anytime, but don’t be too nasty.

I was originally looking at getting a fulvia coupe or sedan to use with some type of motorsport intended, but then this HPE came up on ebay as a “running” example needing TLC at Bath, 10 miles from me. I asked for some pics. And a week later became the owner of a £99 HPE around September 2006.
It wasn’t until I arrived to pick it up that I found the owner was Gary Stretton, editor of Classics Monthly. He was going to have ago at restoring the car but ended up selling it due to having too many projects on the go. I told him what my plans were for the car, and he told me to keep him updated, which will lead onto later on. Somehow, I’m sure it was with some type of black magic that he started the car and with it popping and bagging drove it onto the trailer. From that moment the car didn’t run again for roughly a year. Electrics!

From many, many, posts on the old betaboyz forum you may remember me asking plenty of questions regarding the electrics, to the point that at one time I could tell you which colour a wire was out of the loom and what it did from memory. I’m starting to forget now, I’m taking that as a positive as I havn’t had a problem with electrics since I replaced the whole engine loom, and ignition related wires, as well as distributor, coil, ignition amplifier, igntion barrel, airflow meter, while removing a digiplex loom that had been bodged to “work” without the digiplex unit and may have had an immobiliser previously fitted.

When I got it back home, my first job was to start stripping the car of weight, removing most of the interior and bumpers front and back, its suprising how much those wrap around bumpers weigh! This was a job that was further continued at Wiltshire College as I was currently on my 2nd Year of a National Diploma in Motorsport and became a project car for me and three friends to use for coursework etc…


Here it’s pictured being taken to Lackham College, it then was moved to a purpose built facility for the motorsport side of the college at Castle Combe racing ciruit, where I carried on for another two years completing a Foundation Degree in Motorsport Engineering. The car wasn’t in there as long as I was I’m pleased to say, overall I think it was only in there a maximum of a year, but while it was in there had some of the following jobs seen to:
The subframe had quite a substantial crack right near the gearbox mount which had cracked due to a poor weld at the last attempt of welding a previous crack up. So this was welded up and then I put a sleeve over the top also welded to help transfer the load a bit more evenly.




The front valance came off to be cleaned up, luckily it turned out to be JUST surface rust as well as many areas over the bonnet and wings.

The door strips came off so each hole was filled in as well as the holes for the rear bumper, and many other areas were tidied up so it was at least passable at an MOT.

One side of the transverse arms were bent just a tadd, so a good condition cross member was fitted in its place.

As well as this, betaboyz springs front and back were fitted, as well as polyurethane bushes in the front. (I didn’t have time to fit the rear at the time). I will put a specification of the car at the end.

[lanciamad]

As a mini project for college, I had the main hoop (B pillar) made and bent by merlinmotorsport so this is ready to go in the car at some point in the future from garage to car.

I cant remember what else had been done, but you can imagine it was a full strip down of everything and then rebuild, so you could say I started with a solid shell, with poor bodywork and built it up from there.
With various other jobs completed it past its first MOT with me, March 2008, and naturally it had to go on track. I was unsure whether I would have the car ready in time so couldn’t book the Lancia Motor Club track day at Goodwood but two weeks later decided to go down and watch anyway. The day before, the head gasket went, but from what I could tell it was only minimal water leaking into one of the cylinders and I decided to brave it. I arrived without problems although watching the odd puff of white smoke along the way, and then the unexpected happened that I could go on track at the end of the day for a session as car numbers had dropped due to weather, so it was rude not to.

The car went fine, although started to drink water on the journey home and had to make three unplanned stops to fill her up on the near 100-mile journey back.

So it was off with the head, and I was correct, head gasket had gone. I had a spare IE head at home so I took this to be skimmed at a cost of £10, rebuilt the head up at college and bought a new head gasket set for around £60 plus a timing belt £10, so didn’t cost me that much, it was something I hadn’t challenged before, and the best bit is its still going strong.

[lanciamad]

After this, I had the bodywork redone in some places and a professional respray by a local company to me.





I then did my first proper track day at Castle Combe Circuit in November 2008, and got it a bit sideways around camp corner on one of my laps in the first session, followed by another 5 cars doing the same within half an hour, that was certainly slippery. One of my favourite pics of the car I must say and I’d like to say I held it like that all around the corner but that would be a lie.

The car went faultless all day, not needing any oil, water etc… ending up doing 8 sessions of 15mins each, roughly 80 laps, nearing 100 miles of combe.

Classics monthly magazine then got in contact with me and wanted to do a 5 page spread, as i had originally bought the car from the main editor Garry Stretton, and found it a project with great interest, and an example that not all 19 year olds (at the time) drive around in corsa’s with ironing boards fitted to the roof.

[lanciamad]

In march 2009 i then got on Goodwood again for a full day this time, although i only went out 5 times during the day, due to it being so many cars booked, and do prefer to go back to the paddock to check the car over than in the que. Thanks to Tony Harrison for this great photo of the car on the day.


Since then i have been doing a few modifications for the rest of the year.
Some new copper brake lines for the whole car was made by myself as well as the goodridge brake lines fitted, this is now with high boiling dot 4 brake fluid as well as a bit of red paint.


I got myself some dunlop track tyres which improves handling and grip a million times compared to my plastic road tyres i've got on it at the moment, two still from when I bought the car!


I have fitted some adjustable spax in the front, which has made it REALLY stiff now, and i'll be looking forward to using these in anger and getting the best balance for grip.


Since Goodwood track day I have done two sessions at Action days at Castle Combe, will be at Curborough this Sunday and have just booked to do another all day track day at Castle Combe in late November, let me know if your interested, (all cars welcome).



At the last action day me giving it the beans out of quarry corner. To me and the cars credit we kept a caged up track prepared ford anglia a distance behind all session, unsure what was under the bonnet of that one.

[lanciamad]

Back to the car, I have also recently fitted grooved/drilled front discs mated with Tarox pads, and new pads and discs on the rear, as well as a new handbrake cable from the betaboyz this year.


So that I can control cooling before the standard fan kicks in, I have a secondary fan fitted to a manual switch on the centre console which controls the temperature bang on for what I want.


Some recent work that has been done over the last couple of weeks includes the exhaust having the chop, as of course it was still the original length for when bumpers were fitted, this has now been reduced to the length of the fog light and comes straight out of the silencer which I think looks a lot smarter.
From this:

To this:


I have also made myself tackle these rear bushes that I kept putting off, to find they were reasonably simple to replace in the end, I managed to get the old one’s out with a vice not even connected to a bench and a claw hammer! So here’s them fitted. Only one I have left to fit is the bush situated in the hub as I cant get the bolt undone at home, that’s on there tight.


As well as Spax in the front, I have now fitted some in the rear and its certainly a revelation, car seems to stick to the road like never before (on smooth surfaces) and the suspension is certainly much harder than before. I’ll be having them on fully hard for track use, and from what I’ve seen the only movement is in the top mounts and the sidewall of the tyre.

I hope it didn’t take you as long to read as it did to write , I will write in a more detailed manner as I work through things now, it was just the bulk of history I had to skim through. Car specification to follow.

Next projects, are fitment of an Ansa manifold and solid strut top mounts!

[lanciamad]

This is the exhaust manifold I bought from HFStuart.

I got to work with the wire brush and then sanded it down further with wet and dry.

After doing this I blow torched the whole manifold dry and then sprayed it with black manifold paint.

Once this had dried I got to work on wrapping it all up in heat wrap, I ended up using almost all of a 10m roll of the stuff and held it in place with metal cable ties.

Next job will be the fitting after Curborough.

Car Specification:

Engine:
Standard 8 Valve 2 Litre Fuel Injected 122BHP
Gearbox:
Standard 2.0 IE Gearbox
Exhaust
Ansa 4-Branch Manifold
Shortened Tailpipe
Front Suspension:
Adjustable Spax inserts
Betaboyz lowering/Uprated Springs
Polyurethane bushes
Rear Suspension:
Adjustable Spax inserts
Betaboyz lowering/Uprated Springs
Polyurethane bushes
Strut brace
Brakes:
Goodridge stainless steel brakes lines
Dot 4 Racing fluid
Front:
Drilled/Grooved Discs
Tarox Pads
Rear:
Standard Disc
Standard Pad
Other:
Bumpers removed front and rear
Interior stripped
Bucket seats
Harnesses
Bonnet pins
Secondary Fan
Track tyres for track use only – Dunlop currently
Cone K & N Air Filter

[HFStuart]

What a post Marcus !

Great stuff and quite inspiring for those whose road car projects are lagging a touch 

How would you rate the Betaboyz springs for road use ?

[lanciamad]

Glad you like the post Stuart , hopefully others will to and i'll keep it updated as and when jobs are done.

How would you rate the Betaboyz springs for road use ?

I cant comment fully on this as i havn't driven a beta with the standard spring, but have been in one. I have a picture of mine and a 1600 HPE nose to tail and the difference in height is really not that noticeable. I've had mine in now for 3k miles plus and are still as new. On the driving matter i found they are stiffer but with a standard shock absorber your find not much difference in the ride other than roll slightly reduced.

[hutch6610]

Yes, very nice post.
But, regarding your back box - the odd angle i mean, from your photos it appears that it has been welded, as the pipe connecting it to the middle box goes off at a sharp angle.
If it was unmolested (just guessing it has been messed with) then it is adjustable via the olive and rear hanger.
The hangers do tend to get distorted though and need re-bending to get them back where they were originally but the box tucks away nicely under the rear corner and should not "dangle" as yours does.
Lancia put the cutout in the rear valance for a reason.

Cutting it was inevitable though as you have no bumpers - how many times did you smash your shins?

Anyway nice post, does it sound different with the Ansa?
   

[hutch6610]

Oh i forgot - how did you end up with the traverse link damage?
Trolley jack?

[lanciamad]

Oh i forgot - how did you end up with the traverse link damage?
Trolley jack?

The transverse links were like that when i bought the car, and by the looks of the tyre that was on there people were driving around like that! Yeh i presume some type of trolley jack did it.
Ansa hasn't been fitted yet, and suprisingly although the exhaust looked long as original, it didn't stick out too much. When people said about possibly tripping on it, i just said why would you need to be that close to my car.
Regarding the silencer, the new shortened version is a new old stock silencer which hasn't been messed with (and was the same as what came off), i did adjust it further after that picture was taken and the car is raised to the third notch on axle stands.

[lanciamad]

The middle section of the exhaust was vibrating on the underside of the car at just above idle speed, which annoyed me; so i took it all apart again adjusted it a lot better like it should be, but now this means the tailpipe sticks out at a bit of an angle

Think i'll buy some new rubber exhaust hangers as the original one's are clearly stretched and it seems to be a looseing battle to get it looking right. It all has to come off to fit the ansa anyway
Of course this is the main reason why a HPE is the perfect track toy

[thecolonel]

Car looked great at Curborough, well impressed.

Geoff

[lanciamad]

Thanks Geoff
Had great fun, car did me proud as usual with no problems other than the exhaust rubbing on something when at speed around one of the corners; total mileage for the day was 270 miles there and back for me not including the 15 laps round Curborough.
Was really impressed with the brakes and suspension on such a short twisty track. Seemed to be able to brake a lot later and with the shocks on fully hard there wasn't much forward momentum when hard on the brakes.

Picture taken by Tony, some great one's as usual
Here's some in car video's, two clockwise on shorter track and one anti-clockwise on longer track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vCDCh8JbFg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLZA3OTT6tg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjIt2ovXcj4
Sound is awful due to cheap camera and vibration.

[lanciamad]

Jobs to do before Castle Combe on the 28th November:

Replace damaged fuel pipe
Replace fuel filter
Spanner check rear suspension
Fit ansa manifold
Adjust exhaust system accordingly
Check all hoses and fluids in engine bay
Change induction system

First, I tackled the most important job, the fuel pipe. I noticed that before Curborough, one of the pipes looked like it was under pressure, as it had become slightly kinked and as a result was starting to wear. It wasn’t leaking and looked like it was only the outside wall, so I taped it up as a bit of an insurance policy and it didn’t cause any problems.

I then got to work in removing the fuel tank. Firstly disconnecting the three wires for the fuel tank sender unit:


Then the other relevant pipes (Easy when you don’t have an interior):


Fuel tank drops down easily with the trolley jack:


The offending ½” fuel pipe (Tank to pump):


The new pipe I bought is braided so should be a slightly better quality and will help prevent the kinking that occurred with the rubber one:


I decided to replace the fuel filter while I had the tank out, its still the original from when I got the car, and not knowing the age, fitting a new one cant be a bad thing. This is the old filter and the filter to engine pipe that seemed to squirt out a bit of fuel under the jubilee clip before anywhere else, so I replaced this pipe also:


Here is the new filter fitted in bracket, bit rusty but still doing its job (Cleaning and painting things will be a job for the winter):


All pipes connected back up again, quick test of any leaks and the pump working, then fuel tank re-fitted:


I then tackled fitting the ansa manifold. When raising the front of the car, I was pleasantly surprised that the rear wheel also lifts quite happily off the ground at the same time, when being jacked by the rear of the front subframe:


Once the car was raised as high as possible on axle stands, the whole exhaust system was removed, leaving the front section. This was a much easier task removing than fitting the ansa. With this removed I attempted to fit the ansa, finding that I needed to disconnect the front anti-roll bar for the manifold to go up through; with this disconnected from the wishbone and loosened from the mounting on the subframe, it just squeezed through, also with some wriggling to get it past the steering rack. At this point, the idea of keeping it as clean as possible had gone out of  the window. After some strange angles and various lengths of sockets, extensions and spanners I managed to get it on tight, even though 2 or 3 of the nuts looked physically impossible to do up when initially looked at; and here it is fitted:

With this now on, I fitted the rest of the exhaust to the best I can do for now. Its not at the perfect angle nor position but does its job.

With these jobs done, a more rewarding and cleaner job was tackling the induction system. With the hose loosened off I removed the large flat air box and am replacing it with a cone K & N filter. I started off with a new paper element of which I then replaced for a K & N panel filter, but I honestly noticed no difference and if there is an improvement it would be at higher rev’s as the car seemed more responsive at lower revs with the standard paper element! For now it sits quite nicely on top of the engine but not exactly the most ideal spot for cold air (Cold air feed pipe to be fitted):

I didn’t quite realise how big it was until it arrived but JUST fits under the bonnet in that position; but at least you can see the engine unlike the eye saw of an air box. Due to the filter being of 76mm ID and the air flow flange OD being 68mm, two aluminium joiners and a red reducer pipe does the job nicely, and I think looks quite smart, if not a bit boy racey (o dear). Ideally I’ll probably fit it in the inner wing near the alternator away from heat when I get some more pipe/hose; but the perfect location would be on the nearside inner wing with a direct cold air feed; only problem being that the battery is in the way. Move battery to boot, hmmmm, another job on the future list.

All pipe connected again, initial start up created lots of steam with various moisture, oil and dirt burning off.

The hose pipe was on standby as I was told by a friend his heat wrap caught alight when some oil dropped onto it. This is what it looked like after having the engine running for 15mins and fully upto temperature:

Apart from a slight blow at one of the joints (just needs to be slid further down) everything seems fine, and there seems to be noticeably less back pressure at idle from the exhaust.

[MattNoVAT]

Can you not extend or relocate the pipe with the cone K+N on the end of it well away from the point more or less directly above the exhaust manifold?  I know you have heatwrap round the manifolds but that don't fix a hot engine bay!

I did this on my Hawks, they have a very hot engine bay regardless of what you do with the manifolds.  I plumbed the tube through a side panel of the engine bay to an area where it was protected from the wheels and any water spray or rain, where it could draw in colder air.  Defo made a difference!

But you should be commended regardless for flying the Beta flag !  Great stuff :-)

[rossocorsa]

not sure about that cone filter idea I think (and this is just a personal opinion) that performance air filters are 99% mumbo jumbo you'd never feel the difference as it is so small (might sound faster with a cone as it will be noisier). The standard box seems to draw air from a fairly cool spot so I can't see there being a major improvement even if the cone is relocated (aside from easy plug access I suppose). If you are still running injection the air flow meter on L jetronic will in itself be a limiting factor not a high performance idea! no coincidence I think that later performance lancias used IAW with pressure sensors instead

[lanciamad]

Ideally I’ll probably fit it in the inner wing near the alternator away from heat when I get some more pipe/hose;

  Not only near enough above the manifold but also resting on the engine and top water rail Hopefully get this sorted before the track day, just need to measure what length/size/angle tube and hose i need. Saying that, the original air box is near enough in the same place as it is at the moment with the inlet being directly in front of the radiator
I agree there is minimal improvement if any with the cone filter (Manufacturers spend thousands on researching it of course), but does allow me to relocate it to a cooler area, and colder air will make a bit of a difference (in theory).
Don't know about flying the flag, but if it influences and inspires new and current owners to work on their cars and make use of them, then that'll do for me

[MattNoVAT]

Don't know about flying the flag, but if it influences and inspires new and current owners to work on their cars and make use of them, then that'll do for me

Here here! :-D 

I am suffering from a kind of mental turmoil at the moment as well as a significant project (the Hawk Stratos) I'd love to return to having a track car, but I have too many cars on the drive and the Mrs just wont have another motor on the drive - especially one thats "Stripped out and Stickered Up"!  Plus although my heart says run a Beta Coupe as a track car, the driver in me knows that RWD is the proper way to go if going out on track.

Maybe I'll come to a decision soon... who knows?

[lanciamad]

Follow your heart
Well I did a bit more on the car today, the exhaust was blowing at the front section to middle section joint, so with various twisting managed to slide it down a bit further; a hammer might have been involved also. As well as this I spent some time getting the rear silencer hanging correctly, this was the best outcome i could get (Its straight and level anyway):

With this done, i set-up our other camera for when I took the car for a test drive, and the sound quality is much improved on the other camera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C33wrTUp07Q
Everything went fine with the final moisture being burnt off by the manifold. It does seem to be quite slug-ish from low revs though, whether this is down to the ansa creating less back pressure or the filter sucking in hot air i'm unsure, i'll fit the k & n panel filter again and see; until i can relocate the cone. Seems to go better than before anywhere above 4000 rpm