Lancia Beta Reviews

Growing up, my parents went through a phase of buying well-used P4 Rovers as family cars. A (mainly) 1950s British icon with top-notch leather, proper wood trim and luxuriously thick carpet. But these hulking sedans are also cumbersome, fugly and painfully slow.

Ahead of the full model’s official launch, a special edition of the Lancia Ypsilon electric car has been revealed in a video and series of images by the Italian brand.

Over its close to 120 years as a carmaker, Lancia has been through significant ups and downs. From leading the world as an engineering and design innovator in the 1920s to the ignominy of having its badge applied to a variety of Chrysler models just 10 years ago.

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Lancia will launch three new models as part of the Italian brand's rebirth, with right-hand drive production on the cards for the United Kingdom and, possibly, Australia.

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She's a little more than 21 years in the making and the Lancia Aurelia is about 20 years in the re-making. The two got together late last year when the Italian classic was a surprise 21st birthday present from Aurelia's parents Garry and Monique Connelly. The saga started in 1990 when friend and car restorer Wolf Grodd of Sleeping Beauties heard Connelly had christened his daughter Aurelia, the same name as the famous Italian rally and race car. "I had no idea of what the car was or looked like, but I had heard it was a rally car," says Connelly, a former rally driver who helped secure rounds of the World Rally Championship for Australia and was honoured in the 2009 Queen's Birthday honours list for service to motorsport. "Wolf said we should get one and give it to Aurelia for her 21st birthday," he said. The car came from England and was found on a dump in Woy Woy in 1990. Connelly paid $10,000 for the rusted shell. After 20 years of restoration at Sleeping Beauties it is now insured for $140,000. Aurelia didn't find out about the car until she was five years old. "Then it was hidden away from me until my birthday," she says. "I hadn't forgotten about it but I didn't know it was going to be my 21st present." The B20 Aurelia has a 2.5-litre V6 alloy pushrod engine, dual-throat downdraft Weber carburettor, drum brakes (inboard in the rear), four-speed H-pattern column-shift transmission and was capable of 200km/h when new. "I'm still learning to drive it because it's not easy to drive like my Yaris," she says. "It goes like hell, but it doesn't stop all that well." The Lancia was built from 1950-58 and competed in famous rallies and races such as the Monte Carlo, Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and Le Mans. In 1954, they cost 4200 ($6550) in Australia while a Rolls-Royce was 5000 ($7800). Restoration may have been a long process, but it was meticulous with a lot of handmade parts required, such as the boot and dashboard. "They did a bit each year and the rest of the time it sat in the back of their garage," Connelly says. "It's amazing; you can still get parts from England, Italy and even in Australia." Aurelia says she will display the vehicle at classic car shows and attend Lancia Club events. "I'm very interested in motorsport and been to world rally and F1 events since I can remember. But I'm more on the organisational side rather than competing," says the masters student in organisational psychology who managed the media centre for the WRC round in northern NSW in 2009. Connelly is chairman of the FIA stewards and attends seven F1 events a year. He is also a member of the FIA Institute which researches motorsport safety. He retired from his WRC involvement at the end of 2009. 1954 LANCIA AURELIA Year: 1954 Price new: $4200 ($6550) Price now: insured for $140,000 Engine: 104kW 2.5-litre V6 Body: 2-door coupe Trans: 4-speed column shift, rear-wheel drive. Did you know: Lancia Aurelia introduced the front-engine, rear-transmission configuration later used by Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, GM, and Maserati, as well as the V6 engine.

The wedgy styling of the Italian original has been reinvented by Pininfarina and German car collector Michael Stoschek already has the first car - and plans for a limited run of 25 copies. Stoschek is a huge fan of the Stratos and has a 1970s original, with the full World Rally Championship package, in a personal car collection that includes many of the world's greatest cars. He has stayed almost completely true to the original Stratos - apart from pop-up headlamps that would not pass today's safety checks - down to using a Ferrari as the donor car for the chassis and engine. The seventies car was twinned with a Ferrari Dino and this time the work has been done on a shortened Ferrari 430 Scuderia chassis. The 21st century Stratos project actually began when Stoschek met a young car designer, Chris Hrabalek, who is another Stratos tragic. The pair worked together on the Fenomenon Stratos project, which was displayed at the 2005 Geneva Motor Show, before the money man bought all Stratos trademark rights. Work on Stoschek's car began early in 2008, first at Pininfarina in Turin, Italy. It has since been tested at Alfa Romeo's test track at Balocco, where its carbon fibre body and Ferrari chassis combine for an ultra-rigid and very lightweight car that sits comfortably in the supercar class.

You can always sport something obvious like a Rolex, but if you want the respect of those few who really know, you'd have a nice, quiet and classy IWC. The Lancia Fulvia was acclaimed but not very popular in its era; a step up from Fiat, a step aside from Alfa Romeo. It was a model that perpetuated Lancia's history of innovation and racing success. The Turin marque came up with such firsts as the monocoque body, independent front suspension, five-speed manual, full production V6 and V4 engines. It persisted with right-hand-drive (then the sign of a prestige auto) into the 1950s. A Formula One fixture in that decade, the dashing Fulvia would add to Lancia's haul of world rally titles. Yet Lancias have always remained, especially in this country, something of a cult, a marque whose merit and cachet was appreciated by such true enthusiasts as former prime minister Malcolm Fraser. "In the old days he'd fly in his helicopter to Lancia rallies," Kovacevic says. "We have a major one every two years and that brings them in from America, Britain and New Zealand." The allure of Lancia remains strong for those in the know. And working for Shannons Insurance, Kovacevic knows his venerable, valuable cars. "It's not a mainstream marque. But in 1996 when the list of the 100 most influential cars was being decided to celebrate the first 100 years of motoring, there were six different models of Lancia included. That's more than any other manufacturer. That sense of innovation and history is very appealing," he explains. With its rally breeding, Kovacevic, president of the Lancia Motor Club of NSW, considers the 1600cc V4 HF among the marque's pearls. "The HF is a pretty rare car," he says. "They built only about 1250 HFs and the best guess is that 200 were right-hand-drive. They were a pretty hot little car when they came out, with mag wheels, fibreglass sleeves, the engine has 10.5:1 compression. Pretty potent. It was built as a homologation special that would enable Lancia to race in the European and World Rally Championship." Fittingly, the example Kovacevic acquired in 1996 had itself been raced extensively. "I had a history of Fiats, I had more than 30 of them," he says. "I decided to move to something bit more sophisticated and interesting, but still Italian. I love Italians cars." In 2000, Kovacevic gave the Lancia's body a major restoration. The now gleaming silver HF is a fixture on the club circuit, including the biennial rally that brings entrants from the US and the UK. "I've driven it to Castlemaine in Victoria where we have the Lancia rally. I've driven it to Queensland twice and in all the little local runs we have," he says. "It's powerful. It's got a lot of torque, so you just put your foot down and it goes. The engine in my car's engine was modified for competition. It has bigger brakes and the windshield is the only glass in the car. The cars came from the factory with an alloy boot and doors, so they were pretty light. In its day it was quite advanced: four-wheel disc brakes, five-speed manual. And it was pretty expensive — about twice the price of a Holden at the time." And that holds true of Holdens today, given the price at which a new Commodore Omega is flogged to fleet. "We sold a Fulvia at Shannons recently for $53,000. I see them advertised in Europe for E50,000, which is quite a bit more, but in Australia it'd be between $50,000 and $60,000." That will be a good deal more even than the new Lancia Delta, should the marque choose to resume operations in Australia. "Delta has come out in Europe and management say they are going to make a push back into right-hand-drive markets," Kovacevic adds. "That RHD thing goes back to the Roman chariots — the driver was always on the right."

"I like to say I sell pre-loved cars not second-hand cars. Unfortunately I love too many of them," the 44-year-old Southport dealer principal says. "That's the problem with being a dealer principal; you are in the shop with all these lollies coming in through the front door. You say, 'will I buy it to keep it or sell it?'. What do you do? It's hard when you love cars. You end up with a collection."Dean's collection is mainly made up of cars that have come down from the bedroom walls of his youth into his garage. They include: a 1966 Austin Healey Sprite, a "black, lowered and lovely" 1970 Fiat 124 BC Sport, a 1982 Lancia Beta Coupe which "not surprisingly has rust in all the wrong places", a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III, a 1970 Honda Civic that's only done 20,000km, a 1972 one-owner VW millionth edition Beetle, a 1968 Meyers Manx beach buggy, a 1990s Nissan S-cargo mini van "my wife calls Daisy", a 1988 Corolla hillclimber and a rare 1988 Lancia Delta Integrale HF 4WD eight-valve."I just bought another Integrale from Japan which is basically rust free," he says. "But I'll have to give up some of my other toys like the Beta, Veedub and the Civic."He plans to strip back the second Integrale and make it into a replica white Martini rally car like the ones driven to six World Rally Championships in the 1980s and '90s by drivers such as Juha Kankkunen and Miki Biasion. It's got the 16-valve, two-litre turbo engine but even though it has a smaller turbo than my eight-valve, it doesn't have as much lag. "You can get about 700 horsepower (522kW) out of them which I imagine could be quite scary."He plans to drive the Lancias in historic sprint meetings such as the Tweed on Speed, Leyburn Sprints and recent Cootha Classic. Meanwhile, he seriously campaigns his Corolla in the Queensland hillclimb championships which he won a few weeks ago."I got into it about three years ago through a friend of mine with a little Alfa who kept hounding me and hounding me," he says. "I kept putting it off because you have to be committed, but I did it one day at Mt Cotton and I was hooked. They're a great bunch of blokes. It's not exactly a blood sport."His Corolla has a 4AGE blacktop 20-valve Toyota four-cylinder naturally aspirated improved classified category race engine developing 89kW at the wheels."But it has a lot more torque which is great for hillclimbs," he says. He bought it for $1500 and has turned it into a $28,000 project racer. This is just a car that was supposed to hold me over until I got into the Evo monster," he says. "But you just can't jump in and hit the track with something that has 350kW at the wheels. It's a bit dangerous. I bought the Corolla to step up to the Evo, but I've fallen in love with it and the Evo is still sitting there. And in the interim I've come across the Integrale and now I'm getting another one. It's a sickness."He bought the 134kW Delta from Western Australia for $15,000 after "hunting one down" over several years. "It's got coil-over springs, it's been chipped, I've replaced the manifold and exhaust, and it's had tender loving care...  and about $5000 spent on it. I only use it for special exhibition events, not serious competition. I worry a little bit. I don't want to put it into a wall."