Lancia Beta Monte Carlo - the ultimate baby supercar?

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It’s not fast enough and it will scare the bejesus out of you with front-wheel brake lock-up

But I still really want a Lancia Beta Monte Carlo. This Pininfarina-designed, mid-engined 1975 sports car looked good then and still looks terrific today, what with its flying buttresses, abruptly cut front-end and refreshingly modernist bumpers.
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Humble beginnings

The Monte Carlo was a larger-scale follow-up to the baby Fiat X1/9, and was originally to have been called X1/20 and badged a Fiat too. But it was born a Lancia and joined the troubled Beta range, which gained a reputation for rusting so spectacularly that cars had be recalled and crushed. The Monte Carlo was a ruster too, but not on quite the same scale.
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Supercar proportions

The proportions and unusual detailing of this car – the side-hinged engine cover is wonderful - gave it something of the glamour of Italian supercars, and the eventual part-glassing of the buttresses, a mod that made the Monte usefully more reversible, did little to damage its look.

The Monte came either as a hardtop coupe or a Spider, whose neat fabric roof furled rearwards for extra sun and wind-noise. The roar of rushing air competed with the twin cam thrashing gamely behind you, a soundtrack that had you thinking your advance was as swift as a mid-engine sports car ought to be. But it wasn’t.
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Questionable performance

The baby supercar image was undermined instead by its 2.0 litre twin cam motor, which might have been revvy but was only good for 120bhp. Still, the Lancia’s cabin was glamorous, especially if finished in leather - the unusual and sumptuous dashboard architecture, decidedly funky instruments and some bold trim colours made it a good place to be.

That the Beta wasn’t terribly fast was just as well given its brakes, whose over-zealous servo could freeze the front wheels with frightening ease. Ditching the servo for Series 2 cars helped, and those stuck with the brakes of Series 1 could limit the fear-factor, it was said, by permanently clamping a pair of Mole grips to the brake servo vacuum pipe, reducing the pedal’s over-sensitivity. But that may be an urban myth.
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Price

The Montes remaining - that’ll be cars that have avoided screeching smashes into roadside furniture and rusting disintegration - are hard to find despite a hardcore enthusiast following.

With Lancia seemingly on its last legs today, we could do worse than celebrate the car, warts and all. If you want one, their rarity has ensured rising values - think a minimum of £15,000, and a fair bit more for Spyders in good condition.
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And finally...

Reasons to want one: It’s pretty, pretty unusual and pretty good fun.

Reasons to run a mile: It’s not fast, even with self-lightened bodywork.