Fast Coupes Of The Eighties And Nineties

[Turbobanana]

Yertis said:

It even has ‘coupe’ written on the bootlid, for the avoidance of doubt

Other manufacturers have also done that:

[Yertis]

[Risonax]

This, thankfully, never existed

[Yertis]

Turbobanana said:

Yertis said:

Here’s mine. It even has ‘coupe’ written on the bootlid, for avoidance of doubt.

You might have washed it first

I’m afraid it’s always covered in muck.

[Risonax]

Not mentioned?

[Dapster]

Risonax said:

This, thankfully, never existed

That's a Photoshop, right?

BL did consider a 5 door fastback version of the Marina replacement, the ADO77 - they had been caught out by Ford upsizing the Cortina. The Marina was too close to the Allegro so ADO77 was built to go slightly bigger with a fastback version like the Lancia Beta Berlina and VW Passat, but as you probably all know the money ran out and the project was a victim of the Ryder report.

Fastback



4 door clay



https://www.aronline.co.uk/concepts-and-prototypes...

[Turbobanana]

Risonax said:

This, thankfully, never existed

Photoshop for sure. Look at how jagged the bright accents above and below the grille are, compared to those around the windscreen. Also, the subtitle uses 2 x "O" characters in "1300".

[Dapster]

Of course. And the Ital had different door handles as well, finally leaving behind those ubiquitous nail breakers! Plus the fact that BL didn’t have a pot to piss in let alone develop a vanity coupe project!

[restoman]

Turbobanana said:

Risonax said:

This, thankfully, never existed

Photoshop for sure. Look at how jagged the bright accents above and below the grille are, compared to those around the windscreen. Also, the subtitle uses 2 x "O" characters in "1300".

There was me thinking that was just the BL build quality . . . .

[Penguinracer]

Risonax said:

This, thankfully, never existed

Is it me or does this and the other late'70's / early '80's BMC products look like something which would have come out of the Soviet Union on a Friday afternoon?

[nismo48]

Regbuser said:

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

Owned 2 versions of the Beta Coupe in the mid 80's.
An early 1.6 from 1975 and a 1979 2.0
Great cars sadly plagued by the dreadful tinworm.

[Composer62]

nismo48 said:

Regbuser said:

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

Owned 2 versions of the Beta Coupe in the mid 80's.
An early 1.6 from 1975 and a 1979 2.0
Great cars sadly plagued by the dreadful tinworm.

I had a black 2 litre Beta coupe in the late 80's\early 90's. It was my first "proper" car and I loved it. Sadly, as you say very prone to rust. I traded it in for a Colt Starion (Narrow body) which wasn't much better in the rust department.

[s m]

DodgyGeezer said:

Regbuser said:

had one of these for a while, being a 1600 not very fast, but nimble, and a lot of fun

I came awfully close to buying a VX coupe - for some reason never did, to this day I'm not sure whether I regret that or not. As has also been mentioned they really weren't as quick as they 'should' have been.

Would an answer be to drop in a Mini R53 lump (sacrilege, i know)

It was hard to believe they put out the quoted 135bhp in the supercharged version
Same friend who had the Beta Coupes had the Delta HF Turbos that supposedly were around the same power - they were so much faster - the horses had certainly been down the gym in those. They used to drift all of a piece in fast bends - very neutral

[gruffgriff]

Risonax said:

Not mentioned?

D457OVW, blue egi coupe, started my relationship with rotaries. Should have bought a much better example but loved the revs, 'box, steering and brakes. Not at all fast without a turbo...remedied by it's replacement.
Merc/Porsche copied 4 wheel steer rear end flattered it's crap driver...as does the RX-8 some decades later...

[gregch]

Puddenchucker said:

I wonder if there are any of these left?

Not many, I suspect! I had one for a while, in the same metallic brown colour, albeit the later S2 version. Absolutely loved it but definitely spent more time off the road than on.

Obviously the head gasket failed and it had a bunch of other issues, mostly serious, plus a cracked headlight for which was impossible to find a replacement even then. In the end it failed the MOT on pretty much every count and I disposed of it to a well-known Gamma enthusiast who was planning to use it a source of spare parts for one he already had.

All worth it for the time I had with it - wouldn't have missed it for the world and still think very fondly of it! Replaced it with an Audi which worked perfectly all the time and was the dullest thing imaginable.

[LuS1fer]

gregch said:

Puddenchucker said:

I wonder if there are any of these left?

Not many, I suspect! I had one for a while, in the same metallic brown colour, albeit the later S2 version. Absolutely loved it but definitely spent more time off the road than on.

Obviously the head gasket failed and it had a bunch of other issues, mostly serious, plus a cracked headlight for which was impossible to find a replacement even then. In the end it failed the MOT on pretty much every count and I disposed of it to a well-known Gamma enthusiast who was planning to use it a source of spare parts for one he already had.

All worth it for the time I had with it - wouldn't have missed it for the world and still think very fondly of it! Replaced it with an Audi which worked perfectly all the time and was the dullest thing imaginable.

George Bishop was a curmudgeonly journalist in the 70s who had one as a staff car. His running reports were tales of total woe and unreliability and I'm sure Lancia must have taken it back after he never had a good word to say about it.

[Yertis]

Have we done the Peugeot 406 Coupe yet?

I liked the look of these in period, but didn't ever get to drive one. They're now in the bargain basement part of the depreciation curve. What are they like? Nimble and nippy in the way Peugeots can be on a good day? Or fragile in every way imaginable with heaps of understeer and wheezy engines?

The examples I just happened to look at on Autotrader looked OK at >100k miles and prices ca. £1k.

[LuS1fer]

Yertis said:

Have we done the Peugeot 406 Coupe yet?

I liked the look of these in period, but didn't ever get to drive one. They're now in the bargain basement part of the depreciation curve. What are they like? Nimble and nippy in the way Peugeots can be on a good day? Or fragile in every way imaginable with heaps of understeer and wheezy engines?

The examples I just happened to look at on Autotrader looked OK at >100k miles and prices ca. £1k.

Coincidentally, I was at a classic car show yesterday and walked down to Big Pit in Blaenavon and in the car park was a very elegant metallic blue 406 Coupe. The Pininfarina lines have stood the test of time.

Strangely, as an aside, there was a battered French registered loaded-up Citroen Xantia in the car park, too, with creaking doors. The French clearly have more faith in their cars.

[Turbobanana]

Yertis said:

Have we done the Peugeot 406 Coupe yet?

I liked the look of these in period, but didn't ever get to drive one. They're now in the bargain basement part of the depreciation curve. What are they like? Nimble and nippy in the way Peugeots can be on a good day? Or fragile in every way imaginable with heaps of understeer and wheezy engines?

The examples I just happened to look at on Autotrader looked OK at >100k miles and prices ca. £1k.

I sold a few, mostly V6s. Interestingly, two buyers revealed that they'd also got a Ferrari in the garage.

If you're accustomed to Germanic ride quality it'll feel boat-like at first, but these are designed to be driven smoothly and will reward you if you do. Ride quality is excellent and yes, it's FWD so there'll be understeer, but Peugeot did a neat rear suspension with a degree of rear wheel steering which helps to quell it and lets the rear move around a bit. I never tried it in a 406, but I've had a 306 in a four-wheel drift in the hills above Cerrigydrudion without any fallout (unlike the Car[?] photo sequence which does the rounds every so often). Perhaps its only dynamic failing was that it didn't handle any better than the very accomplished saloon or estate.

Reliability was as good as anything else out there at the time (how many 406 saloons / estates did you see as taxis?) and build quality was better than anything Peugeot had achieved up to that point.

Unusually, you were given a choice of interior, up to a point. My favourite was Ariane Blue metallic with red leather - that looked spectacular. Diablo Red tended to be the most popular colour though, often with beige leather. Bizarrely, the 3.0 had 1 inch bigger wheels than the 2.0, which made a world of difference to its looks.

[Yertis]

So... quite good then? A Pinifarina coupé with a v6 for just over a grand