Chevy Had It First: ’76 Lancia Beta Scorpion
Fiat had a lot of false starts when they commissioned Pininfarina to design a replacement for their 124 Coupe. Early in development, the Montecarlo was known as the Fiat X1/8 Project. The task for Pininfarina was to build a 3.0 litre V6 mid-engined sports car. The project was referred to internally as X1/8. Sound familiar? Because of the oil crisis, the project was renamed X1/20 and updated or should we say downgraded to 2.0 litre. The project was passed to Lancia, and was constructed by Pininfarina in their Turin facility. In Europe, the sports car was called the Lancia Beta Montecarlo and was the first car to be made completely in-house by Pininfarina. Chevrolet already had the name here in the USA so they called it the Scorpion here. It was an okay car back then with a noisy engine, funky transmission and an unsettling rear suspension. Many of these issues are easily dealt with in the aftermarket where things are routinely improved over the original factory design. Today’s find is in rare condition for a Scorpion. It hasn’t rusted away or been beaten to death. It has 63,000 miles and looks pretty darn good. We like the light blue metallic exterior (Aqua Verde) and the interior is in great shape. This one is significant enough to have been recognized at the Concorso in 2009. The seller wants a whopping $18,500. More than any other Scorpion we’ve seen but then again, there aren’t many like this one. Thanks to Jeff G. for the heads-up. Click here for the listing.