Lancia 037 Group-B '83 WRC winning car & Beta VX on-road review. Greatest supercharged Lancias ever 

Damn, that smile on Harry's face as he belts it on the 037 says it all! RIP Lancia.

I’m the very, very lucky new owner. My first car was a Beta HPE. It slowly rusted away and then caught fire. I’ve been looking for one ever since. Saw this driving down the road just before lockdown and followed the driver home to interrogate him. He was lovely, but he had bought it fresh from a 1000 hour full nut and bolt restoration and was never going to sell it. He did, and I am incredibly fortunate to be the custodian. The love for Lancia is just immense and I truly feel honoured to own this car. And what a blinding video by Harry 👌🏻

Wow, that's been a very special one indeed. Aurelio Lampredi, the engineer who designed the Fiat twin-cam four, was a great supporter of supercharging, and that's the technology he pushed as head of Abarth, during the late 70s. I've had the pleasure of listening to the story of the 037 directly from his designer, engineer Sergio Limone. He knew the Audi Quattro was the way of the future for rallying but, since Abarth still lacked experience with 4WD and turbocharging, he bet on a lightweight RWD car designed to be easy to repair and set up quickly on the rally stages. The experienced Lancia team, under the great Cesare Fiorio, then did the rest.

Other RU-vidrs: "I'm going to accelerate for 3 seconds in this generic supercar to show off the exhaust" Harry: "I'm going to take this 037 for a blast on my farm tracks"

Lancia. The greatest rally cars of all time. Period. And this has to be the best episode so far.

Lovely video, Harry. Couple of things... The VX compressor is smaller, 1100cc and uses a gear oil reservoir which must be topped up. The 037 uses a 1300cc compressor, which is engine oil fed, and has a drain back to the dry sump system. The only road going car to use that large compressor was the Abarth Volumetrico 131 of 1981-82. They did 90 2 door versions and more of the later series 4 door versions. Your most glaring, and surprising omission is that the Beta Volumex has the standard 2 valve per cylinder engine, whilst the 037 has the 4 valve engine, and an 8 counterweight crankshaft. There are a host of other differences. Those huge "Abarth" cast valve covers with their rows of 6mm bolts are a dead giveaway. Lovely video as always, and thank you for giving us a listen to that incredible Abarth mechanical music! Your best quote ever: "Ah, what a man thing this is!" I was fortunate to have driven an E2 Roncaglia sponsored car, and I was just 30, and it was a job then. Your facial expressions are priceless... Cheers

Enjoyed this video. 037 Stradale in red is a lottery win car for me. This Beta is a stunning car, your a very lucky man. I had the chance of buying a White 'X' reg Beta Hi-Fi off my cousin back in 85' with very low miles, instead I chose a MK2 RS2000. RS was a good car but to this day I regret not buying that Lancia Beta. Great looking cars.

NEVER CLICKED SO FAST!! So 037 is my alltime favorite car!

Back in 1978 I was a trainee on British Rail and remember passing an airfield near Elstree full of new Lancia's, all sitting in a soggy field upto their axles in water!

I felt like I was in the 037 when Harry was hooning it The smile said it all .. pure driving pleasure

The hairs on my arms are standing up and I’ve got goose pimples, love the 037 ,excellent video H .

In 1990 I owned an ex English HPE Volumex which had been imported to Australia. It was a rust bucket which ultimately resulted in some extensive tidying up and a complete repaint, but mechanically it was perfect. Whilst having the same power and torque as that Alfa GTV 6, what made it stand apart in day to day driving was how low the torque cut in. One could literally drop the clutch from a standing start and it would just drive away. It was such an extraordinarily effortless car and only sold once it’s, very different, successor arrived in the form of a BMW E34 M5.

As the proud owner of a VX Coupe, this motivates me to fix the broken bits and get it back on the road for Summer :) Great video, thanks Harry!

Back in 80's a friend of mine sold me a 1974 lancia beta, love that car, I've heard that term fun to drive before, and with this car I understood what that MEANS! It wasn't that fast but it was a blast ,the sound of that little engine, the shifter was smooth like silk, hell if I could find another one I think I would buy it, good times good times

There is not any other vintage sport car channel more genuine and truth than Harry's one. Thank you sir for this review talking about my favourite car brand manufacturer!

Those Lancias look so good, they make you feel you want to own one. The smile on Harry's face driving the 037 says it all.

That O37 was beautiful! I’ve still got mine collecting dust ! I got it in1983 only it’s a 1/10th TAMIYA RC Model - I got it for Christmas because i was obsessed with group B ( Two weeks bloody wages that thing cost me !) the words my mother said many years later” £200 to buy and get it assembled as it came as a kit form,in our house in 1983 £200 was a lot of money especially when your dad only was a joiner working for liverpool city council and my mother working on a hospital and with four mouths to feed plus the wages was crap at the time and apparently still is - anyway that’s the nearest I’ll ever get to a O37 ( around seven foot above my head in the loft of my two bedroom council house) Oh! And thats were it’ll stay due to sentimental reasons, Anyway what a brilliant video of a beautiful old classic loved it! Stay safe everyone and goodbye 👋 From Liverpool

037 wow lucky fella - Nice test - I've a white beta 2000 coupe R reg one with orange seats !! - the engine sounds like two sharp knives being drawn against each other, and the gear change is like putting the front wheel of your bike into a bike stand - lovely !!

as a kid i always loved lancias and still do 'the most Italian car' they used to say.I always liked the beta coupe spider and the monte carlo.

Sound is definitely not compromised. Love listening to you Harry but that sound track in the back ground is just the best! Daniel

Your enthusiasm is priceless Harry! Great stuff

In 1982 I had a P reg HPE, bought it for £700 it had orange interior it was primrose yellow, and rusty, I had the body repaired and sprayed Rover Artic white, it looked stunning. I had a baby seat and push chair fitted in the hatch back, brilliant car. Sold it for £750 couple of years later.

Im sat here with my cigar and cognac with a huge smile on my face. Superb video Harry. Bring back the 80's!

I'm really glad that I had the opportunity in my youth to drive a 2.0 Beta Coupe and ride as a passenger in a 2.0 Beta HPE. Not as exotic as the cars in this video, but still great cars. As I got older and my insurance rating improved, I was able to buy high spec Alfas, but I still missed the Lancias. My understanding is that Lancia were dogged by rust issues which eventually led to them leaving the UK market, but I'm happy to be corrected on that.

Had a couple of HPE volumex's in the early 90s. Loved the looks and the handling but always felt they needed a bit more woomf. I had ideas about fitting an Alfa V6 and gearbox from a 164 in it, but it came to nothing.

Nice feature and thanks for creating that for us! I had an HPE VX and that was quite a car, always felt faster than the quoted 9secs.

7:07 When Mr. Harry said 235 bhp for the Volumex... I was rather surprised! I think it was a slip of the tongue ; D

Had an HPE 1600 hatch and a Gamma Coupe in New Zealand early ' 80's. Loved them both....

In the mid 1980s I had a '78 Beta (silver with red leather). I lived in rural Kansas and bought parts from an enthusiast shop in Topeka, Kansas. I received many questions about the car. One of many cars I wish I still owned.

I have always loved Lancia and was gutted when they disappeared from the roads. Since then I have looked for a decent book that showcased the history of the brand. I do love your car collection sir, I could spend a day in your garage just salivating. Thank you for a great video.

I cut my teeth as a mechanic in the late 80s in a Lancia, Fiat & Alfa specialist, so was lucky(?) enough to get to work and drive many of these cars including the Beta, Delta, Gamma and Monte Carlo, etc. It does bring back memories.

I used to have an 84 Silver VX coupe. A great Car terrific to drive, bags of driveability, even with four up. Had to sell it when I moved to a company car. it a real tragedy that today's cars lack the charisma, class, and variety that you used to get.

Thanks for the memories. In those days, Lancia was a great luxury racing brand, positioned above and with a brand reputation greater then BMW - now its a nose adjustment on a Fiat 500, that's not sold in the UK. Where you think things could have been, it's a story of complete disapointment. Now time for a Stratos video Harry, the only other car I would put in the same pre-4x4 GroupB premier division as the 037. Good Luck!

Harry - that raw footage in the 037 was some of the best I’ve seen, & really glad you gave it some to the car. You really captured the sense of what it would be like for any enthusiast (not fortunate enough to have access to a real WRC example) to drive one for the first time.

Harry thank you so much for this video, my father & I used to watch the rally stage at chatsworth when I was a kid, heaven 👍🏻👍🏻

Just literally rewatched the TopGear bit about the Lancia WRC story this morning :o)

What a beautiful car , I'm sort of liking more the Lancias nowadays. They were truly design cars . Spot on Harry !

OMG Hollybrook Sports Cars want £33,950 for a restored (so not original) 1984 Beta HPE VX and £28,950 for a 1981 Trevi 2000!!!!!! Crazy money for these.

Another inspiring video Harry... cars that delight even today. Lancia were very special manufacturers from the very beginning and were ahead of nearly all the competition. It was a terrible shame when build issues cause terrible rust problems in the 1970’s but as you found, a good Lancia is a very special car...the new owner sounds very pleased indeed. 🙂🙂🙂🙂

The 037 used a variant of the ZF 5DS-25/2 gearbox, which began life as the ‘dash zero’ variant developed by ZF for Ford for use in the GT40. The ‘Dash 1’ version was used in the De Tomaso Mangusta and early Panteras, while the ultimate design iteration, called the ‘dash 2’ although arguably it would make more sense to call it the ‘slash 2’, first appeared in the Pantera starting in 1972. It was also used with different attaching points and different input shafts on a variety of other cars including Bizzarrini P538 and Manta, Maserati Bora, and BMW M1. The version used in the 037 was bespoke to that car. Curiously, a friend of mine in Detroit with a Pantera who is an inveterate tinkerer, wound up getting two oddball ZF gearboxes. He couldn’t figure them out because their input shafts were much longer than the Pantera unit, the shifter setup was missing, and they had some other weird features. ZF had a part number for each of their gearbox variants and with some digging, he was able to determine they were intended for an 037. Apparently there was a guy who had ambitions of building a prototype sports car using 037 bits as a base, and he acquired the gearboxes in period. The project never got off the ground and they have been gathering dust ever since. (I have since found out they may have been sourced by Ford for their GN34 project-Google GN34 for more info). My friend finally sold them successfully on Bring A Trailer last year. They are all but worthless to 99.9% of the population because they can’t easily be adapted to a Pantera or GT40. But to an 037 owner, they were an absolute bargain!

"and we have stopped" but yet harry just calmly carried on! me: "holy hannah and me with only limited insurance coverage" harry metcalfe what a man!!

I'm looking at my NINCO 1/32 scale slotcar (#1 on the door) as we speak! Its still in the box!

Well done again ,Harry. I was surprised at the weight of the VX coupe at 1099 kg ,the earlier ones were about 950-990 without VX and with I.E forms. As far as I know we got the english spec cars here in N.Z.I had 2.0L1977 HPE (ex Norway)without power steer,my that was heavy at slow speed,but had more feel going fast. Followed by another 2.0L HPE with power steer in 1985 (2 years old),both claimed kerb weight at 1060 kg. Interiors were completely different.

I had a 1982 Beta HPE in Azzurro Portofino Metallizzato (light metallic blue).....it was a beautiful car...I loved the shape....unfortunately, it was exactly like that Top Gear feature on Lancia...bits would drop off. Wing mirror, doink! Gear leaver came off in my hand....exhaust started venting into the cabin....sunroof broke, brakes fell apart....oh but I loved that car!

What a wonderful feeling watching that 037 on the road ..love Harry’s garage ,but this was the most intense... hair standing up on the arm Video he’s done.just a delight wow!!!..hearing it feeling it ..watching the hedges fly by 10/10 unforgettable in every way..border line orgasmic...actually it was ,I’m in denial

I owned 2 Beta's. Loved them.

I have owned 7 Lancia's, 5 of which were Thema turbo’s with the fantastic Lampredi engine. Sold the last one (a turbo 16v) last month after 8 years ownership. Will regret that for some time.. I wish my 'new' Vel Satis had that Lampredi engine from the Thema. It's a turbo 16v with similar specs, but nowhere near as smooth, civilised and powerful. A friend of mine once asked me while driving on the highway if the car was electric, because the engine was so silent and the power delivery so smooth.

So great how warmly you speak of Lancia and how unique some of their cars were. I owned both the 2000VX coupe and the 8.32 you high lit. In addition your always kind words of Alfa Romeo, featuring the Spider, the 2000GTV and the GTV6 all three of which I owned as well, and I am well able to relate to all of your explanations and remarks. Well done Harry.

Superb video and OMG the 037, what a car! Love Harry’s videos. Proper petrol heads videos.

love it. Had a 1980 Beta Spyder 2.0 when I was 18 in 1988!

The 037 was highly successful (despite much less power than its rivals and only 2wd) thanks to the supercharger which provided instant acceleration at lower engine speeds - a huge advantage on blind stages.

Oh my, Tears of jealousy and desire.

The content of this channel never ceases to amaze! So far away from "I just bought the cheapest lancia in the UK" :D. At 22:43, there was so much racing sound coming from far away that you'd think you would see the 037 flying in sight in a blink at over 140 mph...but no ! haha

A friend of mine had the Spyder version back in the ‘80s which I drove. Not crazy fast even then but great looks and driving dynamics. There was a also a silver Montecarlo with a red leather interior locally for a number of years then. Of course they were terribly rust prone and not many survived. Shame the brand virtually fizzled out.

Love the fact it has the same columns stalks as my old Fiat 128!

Absolutely glorious. Cheers Harry.

What a beauty of a car. I would love to have one.

LOL you can tell that 037 got Harry’s blood flowing.

Grew up with the 4 door version (Trevi Volumex) as it was my dad's car just as I got my driving license, great time as still no speed traps so a lot of fun seeing how fast it could go around the Rome ringroad. Problem was the early version of a collision safety cut-off, I think it was some kind of mercury switch, used to kill the engine every time you hit at speed a decent size pothole or bump, then you had to wait for ages for the thing to reset...😂

Good times Harry ... Brilliant video 👍👍

Have you noticed the latest O2 little robot advert on itv? There’s a Beta Coupe that features briefly along with a mark 2 Granada. Unusual choices.

That beta is gorgeous, shades of BMW and Bristol from the front, that low front angle shades of Alfa, that rear 3/4 weirdly had shades of skoda rapid coupe, like the rest of us had a look at the restorers website

Great episode, it's almost as if the Lancia just didn't want to blast around a farmers field.

LOL - Harry opening that Clamshell front. Sh*ting it. Juggling it, praying please don't break - the realisation its worth the same as your farm and your "jiggyling it".

Loved Lancias in the early to mid 80s. Always, and still do, hanker for a Gamma Coupe ie.

Amazing video, you're the best out there.

To me the Beta is the best looking "full four seats" coupe of the '70s. I've always considered its overall proportions a little "American" inspired (long hood, short descending trunk, rather high ground clearance...). It resembles some American compact coupe of the same years, but those cars still had a foot in the '60s, while the lines of the Beta are fully Italian, sharp, and already fully 80's (IE compare it's lines with those of the Audi 80 B2 Coupe. They seem contemporary, but the Beta predates the Audi of 7 years).

Love the Boss top and skinny jeans; takes years off you Harry

I had a 2000ie coupe - they weren't called Betas by that stage. Lovely engine - even the non supercharged ones pulled like trains. Autocar timed these at 9.2 seconds to 60. Brilliant handling - you could get the tail to kick out - lovely direct power steering and powerful brakes. Brilliant rear suspension design copied more or less by almost everybody. So why do I own a Porsche 924S as my classic car today - well at 33 years old its bodywork is in vastly superior nick than the Lancia's was at six years old. Reliability issues in the Lancia were largely caused by the rust shorting out earths - injection pump was intermittent. I could go on and on. A pity - it was a lovely drive. But so is the Porsche and even now I could use it as a daily driver if I chose. Italian passion has been replaced by ( a modicum of) German common sense. By the way I would take the original more elegant looks with the classic Beta alloy wheels any day over that body kit and wheels.

I wasn't sure if I should be worried for Harry or the car during the opening and lifting of the lids. 😬

As my dad was always an Audi driver back in these days, my first love in rallying was always going to be the quattro. But these Lancias came a very close second, and seeing Harry's reaction to driving the 037, seems obvious he hated every minute of it.

Lancia was destroyed by Fiat, Saab by General Motors, Rover by BMW.

In a way I'm actually very glad, with all the hints at trouble, that it was 'only' a mysterious system failure and not anything more dramatic! Would've hated to see you bin it or something... but oh-so cool to drive any WRC car on the road, let alone a Martini Lancia. Weirdly the Beta Coupé looks more similar to the Rallye 037 than the Montecarlo that actually served as its initial base. Or maybe it's just that the Beta front face has been swapped onto the 037 design, Sileighty-style.

Great Harry again ❤️🚙❤️

5:00 I would argue that it was the Mini that introduced the idea of a front wheel drive performance car - but it was the Lancia Fulvia and Beta that helped lend credence to the concept as more than a one-off anomaly - and the VW and Pug GTi's that finally cemented the idea in the minds of the buying public.

I always wondered how the VX engine would have “supercharged” Montecarlo sales back in the day. 🤔 It needed and could have handled more power and it certainly would have taken the fight to Porsche 924 and 924S. 🧐 I do still miss my Montecarlo

I always liked the styling of the Lancia Beta Monte Carlo, although I hear they weren’t very well engineered. Would love to see you review & drive one Harry!

037 is just amazing.

Hi Harry, would love to see you do a review of the nice BMW Z3M Coupe that hairpin company have in stock. Loved reading about the EVO long termer back in the day when I was about 15/16. Now lucky enough to own one, I have three Alfas and this one BMW imposter :) This video is superb, I practically started dribbling when I saw the 037!

Takes me back to when I had the red Beta coupe 200 ie , I loved that car until I used a grade of Shell petrol that was supposed to clean the engine. All it did was to damage the valves and it sounded like a sewing machaine when driven hard. I traded it in for a Lancia Deita Martini Turbo which was great fun to drive, very sad when Lancia moved out of the UK. Now on my fourth Audi A3 which I really like.

Lovely car Back in early 80's I had its tamer cousin the Beta Coupe Was a lovely car to drive but typical Lancia of the era was pretty rusty Fantastic mechanicals just let down by bodywork and didn't have the space or time to restore it regrettably

Simply Italian mechanical ART

worked at a Fiat garage in the 80s told to take a Thema 3.2 to the paint shop other side of town OMG what a car! the engine was way ahead of anything Jag BMW Ford whatever then my boss told me what that engine was lol

Absolute dream cars

Fantastic’H’. What about the offering from Bmw during the eighties. Mk1 M5, 635 csi etc.

those recaro seats are very very very rare

Don't think ive ever seen you so animated Harry :D

Great video and brand 🙏🏻

What a beauty, arts on wheels

Awesome video mate..

That wonky sticker would have driven me insane.

What a video!!

It always makes me laugh when I hear people decrying Italian cars of the period for rusting. In the 70s and 80s ALL cars rusted and most of us became super-skilled with filler and rattle cans. The VX, Beta, HPE and Montecarlo didn't rust any worse than anything else, it was the Beta saloon that sounded Lancia's death knell in the UK. The subframe rotted out very quickly and they never got their reputation for engineering excellence back.

I had an HPE VX shortly after leaving University in the 1990s. It fell apart around me over the next few years.

Anybody else get E30 Vibes from the Beta, especially with the bbs style wheels

It was one of the things that was bound to happen.. Group B cars getting hella expensive. I really do hope that people use them and not use them as an investment.

speaking of Saab, a review of the 1989 900 Aero would be nice. :D

Oh, so it was the Monte Carlo that was the starting point of the 037 - I always wondered! (Shame it didn´t want to play in the field... )

For me... the 037 is THE one. Sure, there were more powerful cars, and cars that perhaps changed the direction of rallying forever, but just look at it!

037 just WOW❤️