Rare Rides: The Lancia Beta HPE, a Reliable Shooting Brake Dream From 1977

by Corey Lewis

Published: October 28th, 2019

rare rides the lancia beta hpe a reliable shooting brake dream from 1977

Imagine you desire the sporting characteristics of a coupe, with the practicality of something larger like a sedan. Now imagine you opted for neither of those things, and instead bought an eccentric shooting brake. A fevered dream of polyester malaise and Italian electrics await; it’s the 1977 Lancia Beta HPE.

There were many different versions of Lancia’s Beta, and we’ve featured the coupe (linked above) which the rest of the world called Montecarlo, but North Americans knew as Scorpion. Today’s Beta is perhaps the most unique looking of the Beta range.

The basic Beta entered production in 1972, as an entry-level lineup to replace the Fulvia range (d. 1976) which had grown dated and awkward during its long run. Since it developed its Fulvia offerings, Lancia had fallen under Fiat ownership, as the giant gobbled up the smaller Italian in 1969.

But the takeover was not a pleasant one, and Lancia lost much of its important staff leading up to the change in hands. A new technical director was brought on board, and he pulled together the brand’s best engineers to come up with their new volume model. Instructions were clear: Maintain an image of quality while using as many Fiat parts as possible.

Fiat concentrated on its core sedan models, and didn’t get to the HPE until early in 1975. The name meant High Performance Estate, but that sounded a bit pleb so it was renamed after a while to High Performance Executive. A briefcase and pocket calculator come to mind.HPE used the longer wheelbase from the Berlina five-door, and borrowed doors from the lovely coupe. Saving more money, the HPE was styled internally without any assistance from an ocular specialist.

Lancia fitted the HPE with 1.6- or 1.8-liter engines, but late in the first model year swapped them for new 1.6- and 2-liter versions. Like the rest of the Beta line outside the Montecarlo, the HPE was front-wheel drive. A manual transmission was the only option in the beginning, but an automatic transmission was added to the Beta lineup in 1978. Fuel injection arrived late in 1981, and by that time it was called Lancia HPE. For its final hurrah, an upmarket engine option appeared for 1984 only: a 2-liter supercharged VX.By then the Beta line was 13 years old, and overdue for a replacement. Signifying the direction in which Lancia was headed, the Beta lineup was replaced by a single car ⁠— the Prisma.Today’s Rare Ride is located in Oregon, away from the tin worms. With a 1.6 and a manual transmission, it “deives” great, and asks for $4,500 of your dollars.[Images: seller]

#1970s #1980s #CollectorCars #EU #Fiat #Hpe #Italy #Lancia #LanciaHpe #Liftbacks #UsedCars #MalaiseEra #Sedans #Wagons #NewsBlog #RareRides #ShootingBrakes

Corey Lewis

Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.

More by Corey Lewis

Comments

Join the conversation

4 of 17 comments

Dukeisduke on Oct 28, 2019

I remember seeing the Beta line at the auto show when they were new, and picking up brochures. Will we see a Beta sedan (Berline) featured here? I'm guessing that decent examples are extremely rare.

Like Reply
- Corey Lewis on Oct 28, 2019
  
  Who knows!
  
  Like
ThomasSchiffer on Oct 28, 2019

I have never seen these in Europe. Lancia was never a big seller in my country, but in the late 1970s and early 1980s they had horrific rust issues and the few that were sold probably did not survive long enough to experience their first winter.

Like Reply
- Dukeisduke on Oct 29, 2019
  
  Were they using Soviet steel, like Fiats? I've heard that was part of the "pay" to Fiat by the Soviets, for building the Togliatti (Tolyatti) auto plant.
  
  Like

Recent Comments

MaintenanceCosts Poorly packaged, oddly proportioned small CUV with an unrefined hybrid powertrain and a luxury-market price? Who wouldn't want it?
MaintenanceCosts Who knows whether it rides or handles acceptably or whether it chews up a set of tires in 5000 miles, but we definitely know it has a "mature stance."Sounds like JUST the kind of previous owner you'd want…
28-Cars-Later Nissan will be very fortunate to not be in the Japanese equivalent of Chapter 11 reorganization over the next 36 months, "getting rolling" is a luxury (also, I see what you did there).
MaintenanceCosts RAM! RAM! RAM! ...... the child in the crosswalk that you can't see over the hood of this factory-lifted beast.
3-On-The-Tree Yes all the Older Land Cruiser’s and samurai’s have gone up here as well. I’ve taken both vehicle ps on some pretty rough roads exploring old mine shafts etc. I bought mine right before I deployed back in 08 and got it for $4000 and also bought another that is non running for parts, got a complete engine, drive train. The mice love it unfortunately.