Ebay - Beta Spider 1600 S2 pre F/L

[peteracs]

Hi All

Just seen this one which I have no  affiliation with

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110632645676&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123

Not too much info, but there again not a great price either, so parts anyone?

BTW The ad says leather seats, but they are the orig vinyl from the looks of it.

(Also posted to Lancia Beta Forum)

Peter

[fay66]

Hi All

Just seen this one which I have no  affiliation with

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110632645676&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123

Not too much info, but there again not a great price either, so parts anyone?

BTW The ad says leather seats, but they are the orig vinyl from the looks of it.

(Also posted to Lancia Beta Forum)

Peter

Hmm Looks like it's be standing a while

brian
8227

[frankxhv773t]

It looks in better nick than my poor old coupe. I am almost tempted, but what would the wiffe make me scrap to get it on the drive?

[peteracs]

Looks like it is now sold for £500.

Would be interesting to know if it was bought for restoration (good) or breaking (not so good as on the face of it looks ok)

Peter

[frankxhv773t]

Not withstanding the registration it has a flat bonnet. Doesn't that make it a series one or were Spyders different from Coupes?

[peteracs]

Hi

The Series 2 pre F/L 1600 also had the earlier bonnet (as does mine) with the small raised bit down the middle. The larger raised part was on all the 2000 and then I think may have been standard on later (F/L) 1600 as well.

Oddly I also thought the front grill should have been silver rather than black on the 1600 s2 pre F/L.

Peter

[frankxhv773t]

Interesting. My early 1978, pre first facelift S2 1600 coupe has the raised bonnet and I just assumed this was common to all S2s. I broke a T reg 1300 some years ago and that had the raised bonnet too.

As to grilles, talking to Alleyn Body many years ago he gave me the impression lancia weren't too fussed about which grille they fitted at that time.

Frank

[peteracs]

Hi Frank

Ok, well the plot thickens.

This is a thread in which Andy laid down the European layout for the lights/grills which I asked about.

http://www.lancia.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2951.0

Mine although originally silver had the grill painted (badly) in black, but was obviously silver underneath. It was the original honeycombe grill as opposed to the one with lines across.

I also thought for some reason I had read about the bonnet in Brian Longs collectors book on the Beta, but may be mistaken or read somewhere else. Maybe someone else can comment?

Peter

[Betaboy2.0]

Ahh - Betas and bonnets! I think on that one there can be (and often is) a difference between theory and practice.

So here goes with the theory:
All S1 Coupes, Spyders & HPEs be they 1600 or 1800 had the flat bonnet with the narrow central ridge.
On S2 cars, the 1600 kept with the flat bonnet and the 2000 had the bonnet with the raised central section.
1300 Coupes had the flat bonnet .
S2fl1 and fl2 cars all had the bonnets of the 2000 (that is the one with the raised central section) with the exception of VX vehicles which had an additional little hump.

However..... in practice (and there is probably a factory chassis number change over reference somewhere) the later S2 pre facelift cars all moved over to the raised centre section bonnet before the car itself changed to S2 fl1.
Clear as mud ehh?

Is it at this point I mention that many years back, when Lancar cleared out all their old slow moving stock and gave it to the Club, we discovered two Beta Coupe / HPE / Spyder bonnets which were different again! They appeared to be the S2 fl1 type, but had a factory created 5 inch square hole in them, not quite where the supercharger bulge is on the VX cars. I don't think we ever did trace what they were for .... and I have no idea what happened to them!

[peteracs]

Hi

Thanks for that, always good to clear these things up.

I guess that is why this car which is a pre F/L S2 1600 has the raised bonnet given its 1978 reg. Although I guess it could have been kicking around for a few months before reg depending on the demand for the Spider at the time, of which I have no idea what it was like.

Peter

[frankxhv773t]

Those holes in the bonnets sound interesting. Maybe it was a Rantzen Special Edition for the British market to allow the rats to leave the sinking ship............

Frank

[neil-yaj396]

Ahh - Betas and bonnets! I think on that one there can be (and often is) a difference between theory and practice.

So here goes with the theory:
All S1 Coupes, Spyders & HPEs be they 1600 or 1800 had the flat bonnet with the narrow central ridge.
On S2 cars, the 1600 kept with the flat bonnet and the 2000 had the bonnet with the raised central section.
1300 Coupes had the flat bonnet .
S2fl1 and fl2 cars all had the bonnets of the 2000 (that is the one with the raised central section) with the exception of VX vehicles which had an additional little hump.

However..... in practice (and there is probably a factory chassis number change over reference somewhere) the later S2 pre facelift cars all moved over to the raised centre section bonnet before the car itself changed to S2 fl1.
Clear as mud ehh?

Is it at this point I mention that many years back, when Lancar cleared out all their old slow moving stock and gave it to the Club, we discovered two Beta Coupe / HPE / Spyder bonnets which were different again! They appeared to be the S2 fl1 type, but had a factory created 5 inch square hole in them, not quite where the supercharger bulge is on the VX cars. I don't think we ever did trace what they were for .... and I have no idea what happened to them!

Andy; I know when you had a look at my 1978 1300 you felt that it should have had the flat, rather than raised bonnet. Having checked the non re-sprayed underside of the bonnet with the un-resprayed area of the A post, which is only visible with the doors fully open, they are the same. Additionally, the bonnet isn't in particularly good nick, matched only in fact with the now replaced offside sill. So we have the scenario where the flat bonnet, if the car had one, must have decayed at a disproportionate rate on a car laid up indoors for nearly 20 (documented) years. The post above confirms that Frank broke a 78 1300 that also had a raised bonnet.

My theory, for what it's worth, is that at some point Lancia ran out of flat bonnets (in the knowledge that they were to be discontinued) and began fitting the raised version to all cars:- As you say, clear as mud!

Neil