The Lockdown series continues with me and my 2 driving buddies, Alfred & David, also sharing our experiences, comments and reflections of the different cars we have owned.
David’s second car he owned was what I considered to be his car of “redemption”. It was a backlash of all the things the “Holden Sunbird” wasn’t. It was a statement of credibility when you consider the cars he had been lucky enough to have previously driven through his dad car yard. Highlights included a genuine Falcon GTHO phase 2, Maserati Merak SS, Corvette Stingray, HQ and HJ Monaros, Fiats – 850 coupe, 130 coupe, 1965 Millecento, 128, Alfas – 105 GTV, spider, Alfetta 2.0 sedan, original Giulietta, Sprint, Alfasud, BMW – 2002ti, 3.0 csl, 635, first 528, various 7 series, Mercedes 450 SLC etc etc
If this reminds you of a special car you have owned please share your experience or just name it or just “like” ours.
David (2nd car)
1978 Lancia Beta HPE 2000
2 litre twin cam – 90kW 172Nm
0-100km/h in 10.4 seconds
My Dad was a used car salesman, so for 3 years at Melbourne Uni I was lucky enough to just borrow whatever was around the house. When I started my clinical training at the Austin Hospital, I needed a car to drive in every day. For 2 years I had exclusive use of beautiful blue Lancia HPE. My father would never concede that it was my car but he made no effort to sell it at the time so I’m claiming it as mine. Maybe he was making up for the horror he inflicted on me with the Sunbird. I felt very sophisticated as a young man driving the HPE and it taught me a lot about how a sports car can handle.
Richard Comment:
Loved that longer wheel base Lancia car. There was always something classy and sophisticated about it in its design. Alfa Romeo was pure and sporty but Lancia to me like a thinking man’s sports car. Plus, the colours were cool. Interestingly, the power output was almost identical for the 2.0L input 1978 Saab EMS. It’s like 85-90kws was the frontier of power at the time you could get out of a fuel injected 2L. I do recall, however, that Lancia Beta Series 1, built between 1972-75 had serious rust problems that went to the subframes. Alfa and Lancia had more in common than I thought. Maybe something in the water, they used???
