Early 80's I found myself working in South Africa for British Leyland. Initially I had a South African built RS2000 but a semi-famous local TV actor traded in a low mileage Beta 2000 coupe. One drive and I knew I had to scrape the money together to buy the Beta.... It sat at the back of the used car lot for 3 months before I could buy it..... Wow what a car- I loved it. It could out accelerate the Rover SD1;s V8's which all my mates had. I even put a towbar on used it to tow our speedboat to drunken weekends at the Vaal river waterskiing.! The chassis plate said "Made in South Africa" but they were assembled locally from kits to avoid import taxes. Unfortunateley it had been a Cape Town car and rust isues did start quite early..........served me faithfully for a couple of years fun though....
Mid 80's saw me back in England working for GE Tunbridges in Tunbridge Wells- a Fiat/Citroen /Lancia dealer. The writing was on the wall for Lancia in the UK at that time- we sold very few lancias, a few Themas which had a lot of trim/paint issues and I spent alot of time doing warranty claims. I remmeber we sold a Thema turbo to John Surtees; pompous pratt. pronounced it "Lancia Tayma" when to us plebs it was just a Theme-a!
The boss had a early Delta Integrale which I loved getting my hands on, and also a MonteCarlo which I seem to remember he put twin carbs on.I remember the Gamma's used to throw the power steering belts on full lock......Oh and I really REALLY wish I had kept the RS2000!!!!!..
