Beta Coupe early S2 1600

[frankxhv773t]

My old Beta Coupe has come up for sale on https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1237689 beautifully restored apart from minor finishing. It was a wonderful car which I absolutely loved but it suffered cosmetically at the hands of a local garage and then had it's seats shredded by my cat. I lost heart in its renovation and passed it on as a project. It has now been renovated, resprayed and retrimmed to a high standard and looks like new.

[neil-yaj396]

That looks a nice car Frank and at a sensible price for what it is. Was it a late registration? It looks early as you say, but the facelift came in on the T plate, which would make it a late pre facelift?

[frankxhv773t]

According to my reckoning it was a series 2 pre first facelift having the raised section in the bonnet but the lower, round edged roof and brown plastic facia. It had bright range seats when I owned it. I had started to strip it for a respray so the side windows were out and it was covered with a blanket in the garage over winter. What I didn't know was our cat spent the winter sneaking under the blanket and sleeping in it. To mark it as "his place" he stropped his claws on the seat backs. I was devastated when I went back to it and found the seats destroyed. It then had to sit outside under a plastic sheet for a bit which was doing it no good at all so I moved it on.

I had feared that the car was lost to the world so am delighted someone has given it the renovation it deserved. I can't fault the current owner for reupholstering it in something other than "tangerine" but personally I rather liked the 70's kitsch of the original.