Re: Lancia (Zagato)

["Tom Sanor" <mygoose@domain.elided>]

I bought a Lancia Beta sedan new, in '75.  Started out by having it Ziebart
coated, and I looked after, and maintained this car very carefully, myself,
'till I sold it circa 1992.

The carburetor was a disaster, and was replaced at abt. 47k miles.  The
exhaust header continually cracked, and was replaced with a nice Ansa
header.  At the same time I upgraded to a bigger carb, better cams, and
different distributor.  All proved to be solid improvements.

The clutch disintegrated (came apart) at about 72k miles.  I installed an
entire new factory engine/gearbox, swapping over the hop-up parts. This unit
had the same clutch disintegration after about 60k miles.

The clutch cable had a short life.  Rust bubbled up here and there (from
scratches in the paint during body assembly), particularly around the window
seals.  The A/C never cooled well.  The (rest of the) exhaust system had a
short life (internal rust).  Front ball joints had a short life.  Plastic
joints in shift mechanism eventually broke, leaving one without reverse and
fifth gears.  I tired of the front end rise and fall upon accel. and decel.,
shifting gears, etc.

On the other hand, this car had the most comfortable front seats I've ever
found (I still have 4 of these bucket seats!).  It had the best sunroof
mechanism.  The paint was beautiful!  It had the smoothest ride (even with
Konis).  The horns were good(!)  Tire wear was always perfectly even.  The
body structure wasn't overly stiff.  I fought rust continuously from the
first year.  The first sign of Ziebart failure was when the doglegs/ and
rocker panels popped through from the inside (probably caused by water from
the sunroof area as the drain hoses cracked and disintgrated.

Altogether it was an enjoyable car, but made of Fiat's famous ever-rusting,
ever-spreading cancerous lousy steel from Brazil.  Today's worth of any of
these Betas is SCRAP VALUE due to the fact the body will be terminal and the
mechanicals will be ever-needy.  A great design very poorly executed.

Mr. Goose
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