The REAL truth about the Lancia Beta

The Lancia Beta is 50 this year. It often appears on '10 worst cars' lists - but what's the real story?
I borrowed a friend's 1978 Beta Coupe and dropped in to the Betaboyz 50th Anniversary meet in September 2022 to find out.

Thanks to the Betaboyz forum team for organising the event: https://www.betaboyz.myzen.co.uk/foru...

If you’re interested in reading more about Betas, and other Lancias, and indeed interesting cars in general then I greatly recommend the Driven To Write blog at https://driventowrite.com/category/la.... The views, words and research for this video are my own, but they do rather chime with the world view of Eóin Doyle and Daniel O’Callaghan and I thoroughly recommend a read of their beautifully crafted prose.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:38 The whole range, from A to Beta
03:04 The Lancia Beta story
04:42 What's the Beta like to drive?
06:17 The R-word
08:55 Bad News (at Ten)
11:15 ...is good news for you and me

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Image credits
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All still and moving images are my own and ©GrandThriftAuto except for the following.

News at Ten footage ©ITN and reproduced under ‘fair use’ doctrine

Still images reproduced under Creative Commons licences and attributed as follows:

Lancia 037 Rally
Lfvissimi, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Lancia Rally 037s at the Lancia centenary celebrations in Turin in 2006
Tony Harrison, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
(There’s lots more from Tony Harrison, the king of Lancia Beta photography, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/tonysph... )

Lancia Beta Montecarlo World Sportscar Championship
Brian Snelson from Hockley, Essex, England, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Lancia Fulvia Berlina
Tony Harrison from Farnborough, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Grattacielo Lancia, Turin
Istituto Centrale per gli Archivi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Fiat factory, Lingotto, Turin
The original uploader was Riderbee at French Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b..., via Wikimedia Commons

FSO Polonez
Basilex, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Lancia Delta Integrale
Brian Snelson from Hockley, Essex, England, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

1986 Morgan Plus Four
Jeremy from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Avtovaz factory, Togliatti
RIA Novosti archive, image #878967 / Yuryi Abramochkin / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Rusty cars that aren’t Betas:
BMW E12
Jeremy from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Volkswagen Golf mk1
Bene Riobó, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Ford Cortina estate
Riley from Christchurch, New Zealand, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Citroen 2CV
Rikki Mitterer, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Renault 4 remains
Mark Savage, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons