77 Lancia Beta Scorpion what a great find!!No rust at all!

[Tamas Opra]

So im a nubee with classic italian car,but the other day I bought a 77Lancia Scorpion.
It was a good deal couldnt pass on it.
72k miles black,with perfect tan interior,cople of stiches loose only.
But the most important thing 0 rust.Beeing a 1 owner california car wouldnt be surprising except this is a scorpion,notorious for rusting.Car was kept in the garage,wasnt registered from 93.Engine runs great.Just did a tune up.Good compression,no leaks.Breaks were gone wich were in the process of getting it work.Folding targa top like new,all electrics work.Not sure about the ac yet.
Has blue plates personalized license plate "VLOCITA".The front plate was never mounted still in DMV envelope.It has all booklets from all dealer option.Blaupunkt radio,Nakamichi 250 in the glowbox,pre amp,Epsilon 3 piece 15x6/7.Dual barrell webers,headers and custon exhaust.Paint is in great condition.Will need a buffing and thats it.
Car is in the shop but I take pictures to share by monday.


Anybody else have a scorpion,would you mind sharing some pictures?


tomka85

[svandamme]

No way, a Lancia without Rust?
Make sure to get plenty of lottery tickets, coz if you can find a Lancia like that, you're bound to win big in lotteries.

[Robert Adams]

Enjoy! COOL, fun car and very under rated. I bought a used '82 Lancia Zagato back in the early 90s and it was a blast, not to mention just about the only one in at least a 100 mile neighborhood! Mine had 38k miles when I bought it from a guy in Laguna Hills and shipped it East. It was a mint black and gold edition. Had a sports exhaust on it and sound heavenly! Drove it for three years and then sold it for more than I paid for it. Not the fastest set of wheels, but handled pretty well and honestly all jokes aside, I actually did get to drive it more than my mechanic!
Suggestion: don't bother even trying to fix the AC. Didn't work in the day and probably will take thousands to get even luke warm air coming out; that's why the top folds back!
Post a picture or two!
Good luck and have fun driving it!
Rob

[KNS]

A friend of mine in high school had a Zagato and long before that I always wanted either a Scorpion or Beta - still do. Post pics...

[doug_porsche]

cool car, but I agree. I thought they came factory with rust.

Keep it in great shape, they are cool cars

[aap1966]

1970s lancias?
I thought rust was factory fitted.

Congrats on the find. Pics please.

[DanielDudley]

I have seen a lot of nice ones in the Fiat Lancia club. They are great cars.

[Tamas Opra]

this is the only one for now,car is at a porsche shop till monday than its going to a fiat mechanic in hollywood
heres a shot of the blue plates,brand new,well from 77

and as of today another great find 91 alfa romeo spider veloce
83k miles, "stole it" from an old lady,original owner,same as the lancia thats a 1 owner car to.
Who wouldve known that the Lancia cost you nearly ten grand in 77?
Tons of maintanence records for both cars.

[TRE Cup]

Fiat (and Lancia , as they were owned by Fiat at by that time) struck a deal with a Russian steel supplier for all the raw sheet metal. Unfortunately, the metallurgy of such was crap and the sheet metal was starting to rust even before the panels were stamped and made into cars !
As a result you it took many years before Fiat addressed the problem and their reputation for rusting away the day it left the production line became known worldwide

The scorpion is a cool car (nee Monte Carlo in yur-up, but Chevy would have none of that here) . It had a fair amount of performance bits made for them too.

If memory serves correct, we got the rather anemic single carb smog equip laden small motors. Euro examples got dual carbs, more compression, different cams which made them fairly lively for the time

[Tamas Opra]

This has dual carbs on it,but I doubt it would be a european model.Car has had some work done to it thats for sure.I will post more pics on monday interior,engine,etc

[Steve Carlton]

I had a '77 Scorpion for a couple of years. I was living in LA and kept watching the deals in the LA Times. Used to see Jaguar XKE V12 roadsters listed regularly for $8-12K. Then I found this one year old Scorpion being sold by the distributor with like 2K miles on it for $8K. It was a very nice driving, smooth car. Not too much power and it got hot inside as the coolant went past the passenger compartment to the radiator in the front. The AC was worthless and the seats were vinyl. Had a lot of eyeball, though. The '77s were cool because they had the windows in the flying buttress C-pillars. I didn't have mine long enough to have trouble with it, but the interior plastic was cheap and broke easily.

Mine was blue like the picture I googled and I really wanted to paint it black. I don't think the car was offered in the US in black, but not sure. As I recall, it was designed by Fiat and was originally intended to be the X1/9's big brother, the X1/20. Lancia needed something to do, so Fiat gave it to them. That was my understanding.

To this day I still jones for another Fiat. I had a 1970 124 Sport Coupe that handled unbelievably well with a nice ride quality. I was following some friends on a 45 mph road and swerving back and forth. They said I was lifting the inside front wheel well off the ground!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Very cool cars, both the Alfa and Fiat. Italian cars often catch my wandering eye, but I haven't gone down that rabbit-hole yet.

[CurtEgerer]

Nice find! There was a very cool modified Scorpion that sold in Wisconsin a couple of years ago. They did race these a bit and even Stig Blomqvist himself drove one:

[tchanson]

I always wanted one as well. They seemed wildly exotic compared to my MGB back in the day.


They are still being run by a few club racers here as well. I took these photos last fall at the Runoffs:











Tim

[TRE Cup]

this was the silliest iteration of the Scorpion (Monte Carlo) as Herbie's "girlfriend" Giselle, in " Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo"

Not even the decency of an italian name !

[CurtEgerer]

I think I remember that movie now!

I think this is the car I mentioned that sold in Wisconsin. Needs to be slammed down a bit and some period wheels but otherwise nicely done.

[targa911S]

Fix It Again Tony!

[madmmac]

A friend had one, different springs and shocks, different master cylinder and brake work and then dropped in a RX7 turbo rotary engine in the back.

It did everything very well like it should have from the factory. Did not have that twin cam sound, but it was very quick and agile.

[n8marx]

Ooh. If you haven't seen it, find the Top Gear Botswana Adventure.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by n8marx

Ooh. If you haven't seen it, find the Top Gear Botswana Adventure.

That wasn't a Scorpion, it was 1981 Lancia Beta Coupe