In the mid-1970s, based on a Fiat project that never took off, Abarth and Pininfarina laid the foundations for the creation of the Lancia Beta Montecarlo Coupé and Spider. Mid-engined thoroughbred sports cars defied the oil crisis by landing even in the USA.
In 1974, Abarth – which had flown into the Fiat orbit entirely in 1971 as its racing department – wanted to enter a car in the automotive Giro d'Italia, a race that fused its two specialisms, track and rallying. A decision was therefore made to resume a project that Fiat had started years earlier in collaboration with Pininfarina: a two-seater sports car, similar to the Fiat X 1/9 but more powerful. Over the years, the project had suffered suspensions and postponements, mainly due to the oil crisis. The prototype, assembled by Abarth with the contribution of Pininfarina, was entered in the race under the name Abarth Pininfarina SE 030. Unexpectedly, in October 1974, the car ended the gruelling race on the second step of the podium behind an unbeatable Lancia Stratos.
A few months after that podium placing, at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1975, the Lancia Beta Montecarlo made its debut. The car's sporty features, harking back to the Fiat-Pininfarina project that resulted in the winning racing car, were closer to Lancia's history and philosophy than to Fiat tradition. This was the opinion of the managers who – also driven by the quality of the car on show in the automotive Giro d'Italia automotive – finally decided to breathe life into the project and thus to change the brand. To reinforce the Lancia tradition, a brand of prestige and elegance but also sportiness, the name recalled the glorious victories obtained by the Fulvia HF and Stratos in the most prestigious rally ever.
In common with the Beta family, the new car also had a twin-cam engine, the “Lampredi”, with an increase in displacement from 1.8 to 2 litres to deliver 120 hp; even the McPherson-type suspension were in part derived from the Beta. The five-speed gearbox in a block with the differential flanked the engine in a transverse position behind the passenger compartment, separated from the vertical tank. The brand-new load-bearing body, for the first time not derived from other series productions, was entirely designed, produced and assembled by Pininfarina in the Grugliasco atelier, on the outskirts of Turin. The Lancia Beta Montecarlo was offered in two bodies known as the Coupé and Spider, actually a two-seater berlinetta and the “Targa” version with a removable roof.
Production of the first series of 3,385 units, of which 2,078 were Coupés and 1,757 were Spiders plus two prototypes, ended in 1978. At the same time, between 1976 and 1977 Pininfarina also produced the Lancia Scorpionfor export to the States. It made its debut at the 1976 Geneva Motor Show: energy-absorbing bumpers, engine detuned to comply with stringent emission standards and some changes to the headlights to adapt the height and, finally, the addition of clearance lights. That left Grugliasco with 1,801 models, all with a sunroof body.
Production resumed in 1980 with the launch, again at the Geneva Motor Show, of the second series, leaving behind the name “Beta” to become the Lancia Montecarlo. The revamp was a success: a new grille aligned with peer Lancias at the time for an authentic “family feeling”, original glazing in the rear “fins” flanking the bonnet, 14” alloy wheels to accommodate larger brake discs. The engine also evolved with the adoption of electronic ignition. Production ended in 1981 after 1,940 units: 1,123 Coupés and 817 with a removable hard top, although the Montecarlo remained on the Lancia price list until 1984.
A sports winner even before its creation, the Lancia Beta Montecarlo became the car to be advertised with sporting successes. Hence the creation of two cars derived in turn from the Montecarlo, both of which would also prove to be winners: the Lancia Beta Turbo Montecarlo that dominated the World Championships for Makes, and the Lancia Rally/037 that won the World Constructors' Championship.
The sporting vocation of the Lancia Beta Montecarlo came to be even before the car itself. The runner-up position it took at the 1974 Giro d'Italia preceded a flourishing career. At that time, the eclectic Giorgio Pianta – then an Abarth test driver who later became a track manager for the Alfa Romeo brand – and the Belgian driver Christine Beckers, after 2,000 gruelling kilometres, eight races on the track and four special stages at the wheel of the Abarth Pininfarina SE 030 prototype, managed to rise up onto the second step of the podium.
To relaunch the sporty image of the brand and the new two-seater sports car, in 1978 the Lancia Beta Turbo Montecarlo Group 5 was created, as a car in the Silhouette category made to take part in the World Championship for Makes.
From the production car, apart from the name, the Group 5 version retains only the central cell, the position of the engine and some of the external stylistic features taken to a very extreme level by the original sinuous livery with the Lancia badge in the middle of the bonnet, but also by the large aerodynamic appendages.
All the leading names who made the Lancia Stratos unbeatable took part in the creation of the car: from the engine engineer Gianni Tonti to the mechanic and test driver Claudio Maglioli, supported by the growing experience of Gianpaolo Dallara who used composite materials to construct the chassis. Formula 1 driver Riccardo Patrese was entrusted with the task of testing and fine-tuning the car. Three different displacements, 1,425.9, 1,429.4 and 1,773 cm3 made it possible to create cars that raced, and won, in different classes. Their output came close to 500 hp.
Plus. and perhaps even more so, the victories in the 1979 2-litre class and the World Championships for Makes in 1980 and 1981, Italians at the time were extremely enthusiastic about the double victory of the Lancia Beta Turbo Montecarlo at the 1980 Giro d'Italia, the last edition of this original race. The victory was won by the crew formed by Riccardo Patrese, at the wheel on the circuits alternating with the winning pair of rally drivers made up of Alén and Kivimäki. They came before the twin driven on the track by the Formula 1 driver Michele Alboreto, and by the rally drivers Bettega and Bernacchini.
Immediately after, in 1982, the Lancia miracle saw the light of day in the world of rallying. Again based on the mid-engine scheme and the stylistic features of the Beta Montecarlo, the Lancia Rally road car was created, once again with the contribution of Pininfarina who supported the Lancia Racing Department in taking up the baton previously passed from the Lancia Stratos to the Fiat 131 Abarth, then back in its rightful place at Lancia. The 200 units needed for type-approval in a Group B that went down in history, with the code name Lancia 037, for having won the Constructors' World Championship with an effective and robust car with rear-wheel drive only, despite it then being the era of all-wheel drive cars.