Lancia was never one to follow the crowd when it came to trends. Witness the Beta HPE, which initially stood for High Performance Estate. Two door estate vehicles have never been particularly popular, but Lancia felt the urge to offer a two door Beta with the Berlina’s floorplan to create a long, two door shooting brake. It wasn’t a particularly rare car, with over 71,000 produced, but few worldwide survive to this day. This particular HPE is a very late model example for sale in Germany is a VX, or Volumex variant. This model featured the 2.0 liter twin cam engine with a Rootes type supercharger producing 133 horsepower.

1984 Lancia Beta HPE

The engine is partially revised, superseded the shift linkage. New parts: steering gear, battery, front brake pads, brake hoses, high performance silicone ignition, 40 Weber carburetors, Bilsten shock absorbers, Ansa dual exhaust, lowering kit (30mm) from Hörmann. Aluminum radiator and thermostat and manifold. The HPE is beautiful, fast, hard and loud. Four winter tires on original alloy wheels are available, a further seven hole Lancia alloy wheels are included. It is a non-smoking vehicle. No winters.

With just over 60,000 miles, we’re looking at about $1,000 per 10,000 miles here with this car. Any Beta over $5,000 is a gamble, as they are not terribly favored in the eye of the collector and there is little room for appreciation in the future. The rarity of the HPE/Volumex combination makes this a more desirable Beta than most, but for interested parties in the US, shipping and importation costs come into play. This certainly seems as good as any HPE you’ll find these days and hopefully someone snaps it up that will look after it so future generations of car enthusiasts can have a window into a period of time where Lancia dared to be different.

-Paul